Polar Deserts of the Taimyr Peninsula (Poliarnye Pustyni Poluostrova Taimyr)

• Main Authors: Matveyeva,N V, Chernov,Yu I
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER N H
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1977
• Subjects: Ecology; Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *DESERTS; *PLANTS(BOTANY); USSR; MAMMALS; TERRAIN; SOILS; TRANSLATIONS; VEGETATION; BIRDS; GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION; ARCTIC REGIONS; SIBERIA; BIOGEOGRAPHY; LICHENS; PENINSULAS; TUNDRA; Taimyr Peninsula; Arctic; Chelyuskin; Ice; permafrost; polar desert; Taimyr; Tundra; Siberia
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA039152; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA039152

This article characterizes the natural conditions, the floral and faunal composition, and the vertical and horizontal structure of the communities in the Northernmost point of Eurasia-Chelyuskin Cape. In comparison with the tundra zone, there is a sharp impoverishment of flora and fauna in all groups, especially flowers, birds and mammals, and also a change of dominance in growth cover and in animal population. The basic features of the communities are a very rarified cover, the fractionation and isolation of plants growing in the turf, slowness of the decomposition process, absence of peat accumulation, concentration of life in the narrow band near the surface of the ground, a tendency towards reduction in size of the species of animals and plants, the replacement of large forms by smaller forms, the formation of cushioned forms in plants, especially in mosses and lichens. A characteristics feature is also the absence of intrazonal grouping, especially mixed grass and grassy meadows. On the basis of the data obtained, the Chelyuskin region belongs to the polar desert zone, the southern boundary of which apparently runs through Taimyr at 77 deg N latitude. Draft trans. of Botanical Jnl. (USSR) v61 n3 p297-312 1976, by Rosetta Stone.