Unique Biosphere Reserve "Black Earth" -the only Russian reserve in which the natural landscapes characteristic of the desert, semi-desert and steppe zones are studied. In addition, he is trying to preserve Kalmyk saigas, increasing their numbers. On 03.12.93, the preserve established in 1990 was granted the status of a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.
Reserve location
The reserve spread across the South European landsRussia. In the same place where the Black Earths reserve is located, the Republic of Kalmykia is located. The national park consists of two sections, the climatic conditions of which differ sharply.
Steppe territory covers northwestCaspian lowlands. It stretches along the lower reaches of the Volga and Kuma rivers, and the lands occupied by the Yashkul and Black Earth regions. The ornithological territory extends around the Manych-Gudilo lake. It is located in the Kuma-Manych depression, or rather, in its center. Her possessions stretched across Yashaltinsky and Priyutnensky districts.
Природный парк соседствует с поселками Komsomolsk, Hultukha, Priyutnoye village. The Black Lands Biosphere Reserve is a place where two major world ecosystems docked. It is dominated by a temperate zone with grassy communities and a continental belt with deserts and semi-deserts dominated by icy winters.
Geographical features
Stretched across a low undulating lowland plainformed by vast arrays of ridge-hilly sands, the Black Lands National Park. The reserve is located on lands covered with sediments formed during the onset of the Caspian Sea on land. Therefore, its sandy lands are highly saline.
Junction Priazovskaya and CaspianThe lowlands — an ancient strait 500 kilometers long — transformed into the Manych depression. About the once-existing strait is now reminded only of the Manych-Gudilo lake, which is located in the hollow.
Initially the lake waters were excessivemineralized. In a drought, the pond almost completely dried out. From it remained a chain of tiny lakes with salt water, connected by scanty ducts or completely separated. Artificial watering reduced the salinity of the lake, but it helps to keep its width in the range from 1.5 to 10 kilometers, and the depth in the center of the maximum lowering of the relief - to 5-8 meters.
Sharply continental climate prevails onthe territory of the reserve "Black Earth". The reserve is dominated by dry, hot summers and snowless, harsh winters. Hence the name of the park: the land not covered with snow is black. Summer temperatures range from +24 to +42 0C, winter is kept from –6 to –35 0FROM.
Reserve animals
Typical steppe and semi-desert animalsinhabit the Black Lands Biosphere Park. The reserve has sheltered many reptiles. The background reptiles were attributed fast and multi-colored foot and mouth disease, round-eared and upturned. Sand lurers and yellow moths keep up with them. Lizard snakes and steppe vipers crawl out to bask in the sun.
Ideal for brown hares and long-eared hedgehogs,ground squirrels and jerboas reserve "Black Earth". Animals belonging to the predators, determined the territory of their hunting. In the open spaces of the park, foxes and wolves, light hori and bandages are hunted. Occasionally, steppe myshovki, himranchik and downy jerboas come across. Saiga antagonists are common. The protected saiga population, which almost disappeared in the 1980s, has now grown to 150,000 individuals.
On the twelve islands of the lake Manych-Gudilonest the community of waterbirds. Against the background of the usual species of birds, colonies of rare lake birds stand out. Common gulls, spoonbills and cormorants become neighbors of a few pink and curly pelicans. Flocks of Anseriformes migrating from long winters arrange a breather on the lake. During migrations, red-breasted geese, white-fronted and gray geese are encountered.
Vegetation of the reserve
На территории парка сошлись две зоны – пустынная and dry steppe. The color palette of the desert and steppe varies depending on the season. In spring, the colors of ephemera in the Black Lands National Park run wild. The reserve is filled with colorful inflorescences of irises and tulips, interspersed with green herbs and growing wormwood with foliage of gray-green tones.
With the arrival of the summer days among those who gained strengthlilac-brown thickets of bonfire and bluegrass campfires shine silvery-whitish islands of feather-like feather grass. At the end of summer, brown-yellow shades dominate, with which alfalfa, tonkonogi, harvests and wormwood blaze. In the autumn, on a grayish-brown background formed by black wormwood and fading grains, there are inclusions of dark green solyanka communities gradually turning into blood-red spots.
