Most people have their own idea of Siberia. However, everyone agrees that this inhospitable region is a unique land where you can find wild corners of nature where no one has been for many years.
Foreigners are sure that these are endless snow-covered territories where you will not find any beast, bird or man. What is it really, and what is the nature of Siberia?
Territory
Sources indicate a different area of Siberia. On average, this is from 10 to 12 million square kilometers of land. The difference of as much as 2 million is explained by the difference in the views of scientists: some believe that the Far East is part of Siberia, while others distinguish the Far East as a separate region. For this reason, it is rather difficult to determine the boundaries of the Siberian Federal District: from the west it is definitely the Ural Mountains, from the north the territory is framed by the Arctic Ocean, from the south the border of our country stretches, while the eastern borders cause a lot of controversy - some scientists tend to consider the ridges of the Pacific watershed as the border. In a word, this region is located in high and middle latitudes. The climate of the main part of the largest region of our countrysurly, sharply continental and really harsh.
Nature
The nature of Siberia is extremely diverse, to a large extent due to the incredible extent of the land. The largest areas of this part of the country are the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, the mountains of the Northeast and the mountains of South Siberia.
The wild nature of Siberia changes mainly from the south towards the north. One can trace a clear division of natural zones into forest-steppes, tundras, etc. In the forest-tundra and tundra, moss, lichens, and perennial grasses are most common. The taiga is the most typical for Siberian lands. Coniferous forests stretch over an area of up to 2 thousand kilometers without signs of habitation. The dark coniferous taiga is formed mainly from firs and spruces. You can also often find Siberian cedar. Taiga with light needles is more typical for places to the east of the Yenisei. This taiga mainly consists of Daurian larch. An incredible natural monument is a linden island located in Altai.
To the south of the taiga, the nature of Western Siberia is represented by steppes and forest-steppes. Actually, this is exactly the area where the wild nature ends. It is these territories that have been most changed by the presence of man and the consequences of his economic activity. The former steppes have now turned into arable lands, beautiful swampy meadows into hayfields. Some unique animals today are remembered only by rare centenarians. The nature of Siberia has lost many animal species forever, some of them can still be seen in localsanctuaries.
Flora
The flora of the mountainous regions is very diverse, this is especially clearly seen in the conditions of altitudinal zonality. Thus, the foothills represent the vegetation of the steppes, the slopes represent mountain taiga massifs, the high ridges represent treeless landscapes rich in herbs, tundra and stone placers.
Such a rich nature of Siberia has quite a long list of rare plants. Only in Siberia there is a large-flowered slipper, high lure, Baikal anemone and many other plants inscribed on the pages of the Red Book.
