What is altitude zonality? Altitudinal Zonality of Eurasia

Few people remember from the school program what a high-altitude zone is. This concept describes the change in the upward movement of weather characteristics, the processes of formation of relief, stony composition of soils, as well as flora and fauna. But due to a number of reasons, such as inaccurate information about each individual component, the altitudinal zonality of the landscape is characterized by the most accurately measured parameters: climatic and geomorphological.

Vegetation and other components that form high-altitude zonation

Although vegetation (for all its dynamical constancy and division by habitat) does not in all cases show the state of the modern total barrier for a large number of factors, it is not necessary to belittle its importance in shaping the notion of what is altitudinal zonality.

For this reason, the conditional union of habitats of vegetation along different elevations of the relief is considered permissible and regular. According to the characteristics of components - vegetation, soil composition, climate, the animal world, ecosystems in general, the landscape can be divided into zones of high altitude zones. For different mountain systems, they are quite different. In particular, the altitudinal zonality of the Ural Mountains will differ from the high altitude of Tibet. In order to correctly and reliably divide the landscape into zones, it is necessary to identify a common variable to be changed.

Causes of high altitude zonation

In comparison with the plains, in the mountainous terrain the variety of species is much higher - 2-5 times. But what is the reason for the "high-rise" of natural areas in the highlands?

The main factors are the height of the mountains and their geographical location. The natural zones vary in much the same way as when traveling through the plain from south to north. However, when moving up the mountainous terrain, this change is palpable and occurs at relatively low altitudes.

High-altitude belts in the largest number are present in tropical latitudes. In the belt of the polar circle, the mountains of the same height have the least number of such zones.

The climate in the mountains

Altitudinal zonality in the mountains is inextricably linked with the climate. All the high-altitude belts cover the mountains on each side, however the tiers on opposite slopes are not at all the same. At the foot of the mountains, the climate is more like the weather regime of the adjacent plains. Above there are tiers with a more moderate, and then rather severe weather. At the top is a zone of permafrost and snow. And, like, the closer to the Sun - the one, in theory, is warmer, but in reality it is not so.

Although exceptions also occur. This proves that the zone of high-altitude zonation is not an isolated phenomenon, and it depends on many factors. In Siberia there are places where the climates are more severe at the foots than on the slopes of the mountains. This is due to the lack of air circulation in the basins between the mountains.

What characterizes the high-altitude zonality of Eurasia?

The closer the mountains to the south, the greater the number and variety of high-altitude belts. Ural is one of the most representative mountain systems.

In the southern part, the altitude zonality of the Ural Mountains has more layers than in the northern, despite the fact that the southern mountains are lower. In the northern part there is only a mountain tundra belt.

The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the Amuro-Sakhalin region

Even more pronounced is the contrast of the belts on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. In just one hour of the road by car, one can move from the subtropical coast of Sochi to the subalpine climate of the Western Caucasus.

In the Amuro-Sakhalin region, all provinces have the same feature - the structure of landscape strips. They are divided into:

• Mountain-tundra;
• Podgoltsovuyu - overgrown with cedar pine, rare forests of Ayan spruce, as well as in varying degrees of concentration of stone birch.

In the South Sikhote-Alin there are all the characteristics typical of the Amur high altitude zone.

Among the tiers are the following: low-mountain strip (forests of cedars with broad leaves, as well as the soils and climate formed by them), middle belt (forests of dark coniferous trees and the corresponding underlying surface), subgol zone (a mixture of dark coniferous forests, thick cedar pine beds, groves Stone birch), the goltsovaya strip itself, which is tundra in its pure form.

If the climate becomes more continental, then deciduous forests are added to this scheme. In the western mountains of the Southern Sikhote-Alin there is a belt of mountain tundra, a strip of podgoltsev shrubs (or creeping mountain forests), a strip of stone-birch forest, a belt of fir-spruce forests (spruce forests), a belt of broadleaf cedar forests (cedar forests), a belt of broadleaf forests and a belt of forest steppe .

Dependence of the forest boundary and the height of the mountain

To date, a considerable amount of data has accumulated on how high is the upper boundary of the forest strip in the Southern Sikhote-Alin. The amplitude of the heights created by the upper boundary of the forest at certain peaks and slopes of the same ridge, assumes sufficiently large values and reaches more than 300 meters along the vertical.

The general tendency is well marked: with an increase in the height of the top, the upper boundary of the forest also shifts upwards (the effect of the height of the array). However, although the mountain massifs are located at a distance from 15 to 105 kilometers away from the sea, the proportion between the height of the upper boundary of the forest and the summit is almost the same for each slope. Such a result is not very logical and we expect, and, therefore, needs an explanation.

The illogicality manifests itself in the fact that this proportion refutes the assertion of the great influence of the sea on the position of the upper boundary of the forest. To be more precise, within the boundaries of the Southern Sikhote-Alin, the influence of the sea is felt on the upper belts with approximately equal force. That is, the high-altitude zonality of Eurasia is not so much dependent on the presence of the seas.

Otherwise, such proportions for mountain tops in coastal latitudes (Hualaza-Litovka, Pidan-Livadia, Tavaysa-Brusnichnaya) should not be so large. It affects the effect on the position of the upper boundary of the forest height of the mountain range itself. In accordance with this characteristic, only the cloudy Cloud is distinguished, the highest peak of the Southern Sikhote-Alin.

There are two ways of explaining this phenomenon: either the array in this place is so high that the temperature threshold, which determines the upper boundary of the forest, has reached a maximum in the region, or the vegetation derived from the state of equilibrium with the climate has not yet adapted to it. The components of high-altitude zonation, inherent in the mountain of Brusnichnaya, are also characteristic of the tops of the coastal part of the Southern and Middle Sikhote-Alin, which is noticeable in the forests of high-mountain oak forests.

Altitudinal zonality is a unique phenomenon

In order to answer the question, what is altitudinal zonality, it is necessary to understand that this is a very peculiar phenomenon that does not yield to universal laws. There are many individual factors that lead to the development of a particular climate, a species of vegetation and animals. Knowledge in this area is due to numerous methodological studies. The change in geographical latitude affects the rate of change of day and night, as well as seasonal weather patterns. All the above information, however, does not quite clearly explain what a high-altitude zonality is. In a nutshell, this is a change in climatic zones with an increase in the height of the mountains.