Russian Altai Research Articles

Spatiotemporal model for the evolution of a mega-yardang system in the foreland of the Russian Altai

Spatiotemporal model for the evolution of a mega-yardang system in the foreland of the Russian Altai

Active Sulfate-Reducing Bacterial Community in the Camel Gut

The diversity and activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in the camel gut remains largely unexplored. An abundant SRB community has been previously revealed in the feces of Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus). This study aims to combine the 16S rRNA gene profiling, sulfate reduction rate (SRR) measurement with a radioactive tracer, and targeted cultivation to shed light on SRB activity in the camel gut. Fresh feces of 55 domestic Bactrian camels grazing freely on semi-arid mountain pastures in the Kosh-Agach district of the Russian Altai area were analyzed. Feces were sampled in early winter at an ambient temperature of -15 °C, which prevented possible contamination. SRR values measured with a radioactive tracer in feces were relatively high and ranged from 0.018 to 0.168 nmol S cm-3 day-1. The 16S rRNA gene profiles revealed the presence of Gram-negative Desulfovibrionaceae and spore-forming Desulfotomaculaceae. Targeted isolation allowed us to obtain four pure culture isolates belonging to Desulfovibrio and Desulforamulus. An active SRB community may affect the iron and copper availability in the camel intestine due to metal ions precipitation in the form of sparingly soluble sulfides. The copper-iron sulfide, chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), was detected by X-ray diffraction in 36 out of 55 analyzed camel feces. In semi-arid areas, gypsum, like other evaporite sulfates, can be used as a solid-phase electron acceptor for sulfate reduction in the camel gastrointestinal tract.

Landscape Reading for Alpine Rivers: A Case Study from the river Biya

Anthropogenic stressors have altered the hydromorphological characteristics of rivers worldwide. Environmental guiding principles are essential for planning sustainable river restoration measures. The alpine river Biya, located in the Russian Altai mountains, originates from Lake Teletskoye and joins the Katun near Biysk, forming the Ob. The Biya represents a hydromorphological reference system in anthropogenically ‘least-disturbed’ condition. The presented study aimed to assess the river’s undisturbed morphology in relationship with the geological history of three different river stretches based on an adapted landscape reading approach using remote sensing information (ASTER GDEM v3). The established widths of the active channel, active floodplain and morphological floodplain as well as the longitudinal section were used to explain the differences between upper, middle, and lower Biya. The results confirm differences in the geological origins between the upper Biya, which has previously been described as the least developed and narrowest, and the other two stretches based on the analyses of morphological parameters. Morphological floodplain width could best explain the differences between upper (0-86 km), middle (86-196 km), and lower Biya (196-301 km). The study further showed a clear relationship between the variations in river patterns and adjacent topographic structures (valley confinements, tributary interactions), highlighting that any assessment of river morphology must consider the wider surroundings of a river stretch. The presented morphological observations and analyses of the Biya show that easily obtainable parameters can detect differences in the morphological history of river stretches within the same catchment, supporting process understanding.

Two new species of the genus Klimeschiopsis Povolny, 1967 from southern Siberia discovered as a result of study cryptic diversity in K. discontinuella (Rebel, 1899) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

Klimeschiopsis varia Sumpich & Bidzilya, sp. n. and Klimeschiopsis confusella Sumpich & Bidzilya, sp. n. are described as new species for science based on differences from congeners in external appearance, genitalia of both sexes and genetic data. Klimeschiopsis varia is most similar to Klimeschiopsis discontinuella (Rebel, 1899) and Klimeschiopsis maritimaealpina Nel & Varenne, 2011 but can be distinguished by the genitalia characters. Klimeschiopsis confusella resembles Klimeschiopsis kiningerella (Duponchel, [1843]) and Klimeschiopsis terroris (Hartig, 1938) by absence of yellowish suffusion on forewings, but the coloration of new species is not so much contrasting, and the species is unmistakable according to the genitalia. Both new species occur sympatricaly in Russian Altai Mountains, Tuva and Buryatia.

Megacraspedus (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) of the Altai Mountains with description of a new species belonging to the M. majorella group

The paper summarises the records of Megacraspedus Zeller, 1839 (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) species collected during the author’s four trips to the Russian Altai in 2014–2019. A total of four species belonging to this genus were recorded here, of which one was found to be undescribed and two other species, namely Megacraspedus dolosellus (Zeller, 1839) and Megacraspedus podolicus (Toll, 1942), were new species for the area at the time. Megacraspedus bidzilyai sp. nov. is described here as a new species for science and is assigned to the Megacraspedus majorella species group. Its adults and genitalia of both sexes are figured in detail. Megacraspedus latiuncus Huemer & Karsholt, 2018 belonging to the same species group is recorded from Kyrgyzstan for the first time. Barcode data of all Altaic Megacraspedus species and Megacraspedus latiuncus are given.

To the Issue of the Age of the Terrace Complexes of the Chuya and Katun Rivers, Russian Altai: Should the Sartan Cryochron Be Excluded from the Epochs of Ice-Dammed Lakes and Cataclysmic Outburst Floods?

To the Issue of the Age of the Terrace Complexes of the Chuya and Katun Rivers, Russian Altai: Should the Sartan Cryochron Be Excluded from the Epochs of Ice-Dammed Lakes and Cataclysmic Outburst Floods?

Composition and structure of macroinvertebrate communities of lakes in different altitudinal zones of Russian Altai

Composition and structure of macroinvertebrate communities of lakes in different altitudinal zones of Russian Altai

MIDDLE HOLOCENE GLACIER ACTIVITY IN THE RUSSIAN ALTAI: EVIDENCE FROM RADIOCARBON AND PALEOTREE DATA IN THE AKKOL VALLEY

ABSTRACTThe available paleosol and paleowood data from the head of the Akkol trough valley, South Chuya range, indicates a climatically driven glacier dynamic in the Russian Altai. Radiocarbon dating of paleosols and paleotree fragments help determine the beginning of the Neoglacial in this high mountain region in the middle of the Holocene. New data limit the advance of the Sofiysky glacier at that time by the front of the Historical moraine. Less so than during the Historical stage (2.3–1.7 cal kBP), glacial activity 5–4 cal kBP is also supported by rapid reforestation. The Akkem moraine in trough valleys of the Russian Altai accumulated prior to the Holocene. The limitations and difficulties of radiocarbon dating of paleosols should be considered when interpreting the dating results.

Dating of megaflood deposits in the Russian Altai using rock surface luminescence

Catastrophic drainage of ice-dammed lakes in the Altai Mountains has been inferred from geomorphological evidence in the Katun Valley (Russia), and is presumed to have occurred during the Pleistocene. The sedimentary features have been difficult to date directly, due to the absence of organic carbon, and the improbability that luminescence signals in sand grains would be reset during transport. However, the development of rock-surface luminescence dating provides a new opportunity to date the features: clasts have a different transport history to sand grains, and their luminescence depth profiles can be inspected for evidence of bleaching before burial. Here we investigate two sites in the Altai Mountains, and use rock-surface luminescence burial dating to constrain the age of the megaflood deposits. In the Katun Valley, we sampled granite cobbles from a frozen sediment clast emplaced as a dropstone within a massive megaflood gravel terrace. Burial ages for the clasts range from 16.7 to 21.4 ka, with a mean age of 19.8 ± 1.5 ka. This represents the depositional age of the fluvial sediments that preceded the lake outburst flood, (and hence places a maximum age on the catastrophic flood). Clasts sampled from mega-ripples in the Kurai Basin are shown to have a mid-to-late Holocene burial age, which is not consistent with the possible origin of these features during a catastrophic drainage of a glacier-dammed lake. Instead, the burial age of the Kurai Basin sediments may reflect local-scale periglacial or seismic processes along the Kurai Fault Zone.

Environmental Monitoring of the Autotrophic Section of Terrestrial Ecosystems in the Severo-Chuisky Glaciation Center (Central Russian Altai Mountains)

Environmental Monitoring of the Autotrophic Section of Terrestrial Ecosystems in the Severo-Chuisky Glaciation Center (Central Russian Altai Mountains)

The Ulandryk and related iron oxide-Cu-REE(-Au-U) prospects in the Russian Altai: A large emerging IOCG-type system in a Phanerozoic continental setting

The Ulandryk and related prospects in the Altaid orogenic belt (near the Russian-Mongolian border) comprise intense iron oxide (hematite), Cu, REE, and locally U mineralization and are estimated to contain in excess of 240 Mt iron oxide ores and 3.7 Mt copper. These prospects bear many signatures of the “classic” IOCG (-REE, U) deposits typical of Precambrian terranes but, in contrast, are situated in a Phanerozoic (Paleozoic) setting. They are related to the Early Devonian subvolcanic potassic granite stocks with transitional shoshonitic to A-type granite signatures suggesting a post-orogenic (post-collisional) setting, with some anorogenic (intracontinental to within-plate) affinity. The stocks have been intruded into a coeval local volcanic structure (a volcanic dome complicated by the central caldera) composed of Devonian trachyandesite, trachydacite, quartz latite, rhyolite, rhyolite-dacite, and dominant trachyrhyolite lavas, tuffs and subovolcanic porphyry intrusions.The granitic stocks are accompanied by magmatic and multi-staged hydrothermal breccias, zones of sodic (albite-quartz), potassic (quartz-K-feldspar), propylitic (quartz-albite-chlorite-amphibole) and dominant phyllic to carbonate-phyllic (quartz-sericite to quartz-sericite-carbonate) to possibly argillic (quartz-kaolinite) alteration, with intense development of hematite. Fluorite is also ubiquitous and locally abundant. The mineralization occurs in several wide (typically 60–100 m, up to 200 m) and extended (1.4–6 km) linear to arc-like paralleling steeply dipping zones of breccias surrounding the granite stocks, with the host rock and quartz fragments cemented by fine-grained quartz-hematite and coarser hematite (specularite) material. Copper-gold, REE, and locally U mineralization overprints hematite-rich zones. Wider quartz-sulfide stockworks with Cu-Au mineralization zones containing minor to trace hematite are also present. Quartz is generally abundant forming quartz-hematite veins, stockworks, and breccias (locally with crustiform texture), and zones of quartzite-like pervasive silicification (typically with sericite and clay minerals).Fluid inclusions in quartz contain daughter halite crystals and homogenize by halite dissolution after vapor bubble disappearance indicating a homogenous, high-salinity (35–45 wt%), Na-Ca-K-chloride, aqueous mineralizing fluid. The relatively low homogenization temperatures (∼200–260 °C) and generally subvolcanic-level pressure (∼0.2–0.5 kbar) conditions suggest a shallow level of mineralization possibly corresponding to an upper (to the uppermost) part of a vertically extended magmatic-hydrothermal system.

The Soundscapes of the Lower Chuya River Area, Russian Altai: Ethnographic Sources, Indigenous Ontologies and the Archaeoacoustics of Rock Art Sites

The acoustics of the Lower Chuya River area rock art landscape are analyzed through both the exploration of its acoustic properties and the ethnographic information gathered about the region. The results obtained in the acoustics tests undertaken in the area, in particular at the rock art sites of Kalbak-Tash I, Kalbak-Tash II, and Adyr-Kan, are examined. They indicate that the perceived loudness resulting from a natural amplification of sound (strength parameter) and music and speech clarity may have been some of the reasons behind the selection of these locations for rock art production. The ethnographic sources related to the Altai and other Siberian areas are then reviewed as a way of providing an ontological framework for the study of Altaian sonic concepts and behaviors in nature. As the sources indicate, at least for the historical period and presumably earlier, in the prehistoric period, all existing beings are entangled by sound, and they mimic each other in endless ways. We argue that these sites were selected in a non-linear relational ontological framework. It is suggested that the multidisciplinary perspective combining archaeology, physical acoustics, and ethnography has considerable potential for providing a new, richer understanding of rock art landscapes.

A new species of the genus Eremochorus Zaslavskij, 1962 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from South-eastern Altai (Russia)

A new species, Eremochorus (Eremochorus) kuraicus Legalov, sp. nov. from Kosh-Agach District, South-eastern Russian Altai of Western Siberia is described and illustrated. This species is similar to E. mikhailovi Legalov, 2007 from Central Altai but differs from it in the longer rostrum with distinct middle carina, longer elytra and the aedeagus. A distribution map for E. kuraicus Legalov, sp. nov. and E. mikhailovi is given.

ЧУЙСКИЙ ТРАКТ В ТРУДАХ ПУТЕШЕСТВЕННИКОВ XIX В

The article analyzes the works of Russian scientists and travelers of the 19th century, containing descriptions of the Chuisky tract as the most important transport artery connecting the south of Western Siberia with China and Mongolia. Geologists, geographers, botanists, linguists, ethnographers, glaciologists have left valuable observations and materials about the Chuisky tract. Now their works are indispensable sources for studying the historical and cultural heritage of Altai. A comparative analysis of the descriptions of the history of this trade route and the condition of the road at various stages allows us to trace the movement of the frontier and the imagological estimates accompanying this movement: the development of the tract makes the territory annexed to the empire the Russian Altai.

Ландшафты Тигирекского заповедника: прошлое, настоящее, будущее

Strict nature reserves are the grounds where the basis of landscape mapping was developed. The paper presents a number of markable features of landscape structure of Tigirek State Nature Reserve (Russian Altai) and the map at the level of species of landscapes. The map includes a detailed legend. Many landscape boundaries are caused by tectonics. Altitudinal zonation is the main regularity of landscape differentiation. The reserve contains a variety of rocks that create contrasting conditions for biota and soil formation. The warm and humid climate of the Northwestern Altai, combined with the flat relief of the valleys, is favorable for the accumulation of peat. Despite the high-diversity landscape of the Tigirek Reserve, the area occupied by it which is clearly insufficient for mountain conditions, so that it could fully perform the functions of preserving biota. Expansion of the reserve is necessary for greater coverage of the highlands and the upper part of the forest belt with the protection regime. The landscape-cartographic analysis based on the structuralgenetic principle can be of key importance for environmental monitoring and evaluating cultural, regulation and maintenance ecosystem services in nature reserves. The landscapes of the Tigirek Reserve are of great scientific interest in the context of their response to global climatic changes and anthropogenic impacts that took place in the past.

Ландшафтно-климатические изменения в высокогорье Русского Алтая в контексте его освоения человеком за последние 20 тысяч лет

Multidisciplinary studies of various natural archives indicate contrasting changes in the human habitat in the high-mountainous southeastern part of the Russian Altai during the last 20,000 years. This period includes the final stage of the last glaciation and its degradation, the formation of the last giant ice-dammed lakes in the intermountain basins and their cataclysmic draining, considerable transformation of glacial landscapes to modern diverse and mosaic structure. Warmer and more humid climate in the first half of the Holocene was followed by cooling and repeated advances of mountain glaciers. The general trend to cooling and aridization in the second half of the Holocene is the most pronounced during the last two millennia. Deglaciation and final drying of intermountain basins boosted a renovation of the local ecosystems and established an environmental baseline of human occupation in the region. The arid climate, widespread permafrost and low population density determined a good preservation of archaeological heritage in the region, which is located at the crossroad between East and West, North and South. This paper presents the analysis of previously published and new data including newly obtained 14C and OSL dates, which allow to correlate climatically driven landscape transformations with habitat of ancient communities and cultures shifting in the region during the last 20, 000 years, as well as to assess the anthropogenic impact on the environment.

Temperature regime of mountain permafrost in the Russian Altai Mountains

Temperature regime of mountain permafrost in the Russian Altai Mountains

A new species of the genus Otiorhynchus Germar, 1822 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from South-eastern Altai

A new species, Otiorhynchus (Mongolorrhynchus) altaipilosus Legalov, sp. nov. from South-eastern Russian Altai of Western Siberia is described and illustrated. This species is similar to O. populiger Arnoldi, 1975 from Bayankhongor Province but differs from it in small teeth on the femora, the length of the rostrum is subequal to its width at the base, wider elytra, and the rugose-punctate pronotum. A distribution map for O. altaipilosus Legalov, sp. nov. and O. populiger is given.

Climatically Driven Holocene Glacier Advances in the Russian Altai Based on Radiocarbon and OSL Dating and Tree Ring Analysis

Analysis of new chronological data, including 55 radiocarbon, 1 OSL, and 8 dendrochronological dates, obtained in the upper reaches of trough valleys within the Katun, North Chuya, South Chuya, and Chikhachev ranges, together with the 55 previously published ones, specifies climatically driven glacier dynamic in the Russian Altai. Available data refute the traditional concept of the Russian Altai Holocene glaciations as a consecutive retreat of the Late Pleistocene glaciation. Considerable and prolonged warming in the Early Holocene started no later than 11.3–11.4 cal kBP. It caused significant shrinking or even complete degradation of alpine glaciers and regeneration of forest vegetation 300–400 m above the modern upper timber limit. Stadial advances occurred in the middle of the Holocene (4.9–4.2 cal kBP), during the Historical (2.3–1.7 cal kBP), and the Aktru (LIA thirteenth–nineteenth century) stages. New radiocarbon ages of fossil soils limited glaciers expansion in the Middle Holocene by the size of the Historical moraine. Lesser glacial activity between 5 and 4 cal kBP is also supported by rapid reforestation in the heads of trough valleys. Glaciers advance within the Russian Altai, accompanied by accumulation of the Akkem moraine, could have occurred at the end of the Late Pleistocene.

Challenges of assessment and mapping of ecosystem services in Bulgarian (Rhodope) and Russian (Altai) mountain protected areas in the context of post-socialist transformations and new conservation paradigms

The overarching goal of this survey was to identify the challenges of ecosystem services assessment and mapping in Russian and Bulgarian mountain protected areas in the context of post-socialist transformations, new conservation paradigms and climate change. The Altai Mountains in Russia and the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria were selected as key mountain territories for comparison due to their similar characteristics: agriculture, forest exploitation, tourism activities, etc. Both in Bulgaria and in Russia, perceptions of the protected areas functioning have been changing, facilitated by global shifts. Thus, the concept of ecosystem services has now been actively introduced in nature and biodiversity conservation policies. Based on WDPA data the emergence of different types of protected areas in Russia and Bulgaria was determined. Key problems of assessment and mapping of ecosystem services in Russian and Bulgarian mountain protected areas were recognised, mainly related to the shortage and quality of baseline data. At the same time, there were also some specifics for the two countries due to their size and national legislation. Like many other mountainous regions in the world, the Rhodopes in Bulgaria and the Altai Mountains in Russia are flagships in the improvement of nature conservation strategies. These regions often participate in a variety of international conservation programmes and are constantly expanding the range of protected areas. It is generally accepted that the Altai Mountains and the Rhodopes are not only centres of biodiversity richness in their countries, but also hotspots of a variety of ecosystem services.