Eastern Mountain Range, Kamchatka, Russia Photograph by FARREX   Eastern Asia: Eastern Russia Boreal Forests/Taiga   5,900 square miles (15,200 square kilometers) -- about the size of Hawaii Relatively Stable/Intact

· Location and General Description
· Biodiversity Features
· Current Status
· Threats
· Ecoregion Justification
· References
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Kamchatka is comprised of boreal forests at mid-elevations at the valley of Kamchatka river on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Called "Conifer Island" by Russians, it is the only significant coniferous forest on the Peninsula and represents the easternmost example of Siberian taiga forest. Biodiversity is lower here than on mainland Russia as the treeless depression of Parapolskii Dol functions as a biological barrier between the Kamchatka peninsula and the mainland taiga.

Location and General Description

Biodiversity Features

Current Status

Types and Severity of Threats

Justification of Ecoregion Delineation

Ecoregion boundaries correspond to the southern taiga in the Kamchatka-Kurile province in Kurnaev’s (1990) forest map of the USSR. Taiga forests of Yeddo spruce and Kajander larch grow primarily in the Kamchatka River Valley (Knystautas 1987) between 1000-1200 meters. However, the ecoregion’s elevation tends to decrease in the south and west and increase in the north and east (Isachenko & Shliapnikov 1989).

References

Afanasjeva, T. V., V. I. Vasilenko, T. V. Tereshina, and B. V. Sheremet. 1979. Pochvy SSSR. [Soils of the USSR]. Moskva, Mysl’. (In Russian).

Atlas SSSR. 1985. Moskva, Glavnoje Upravlenije Kartografii. [Atlas of the USSR] (In Russian).

Isachenko, A. G. 1985. Landshafty SSSR. [Landscapes of the USSR] Leningrad. Izd-vo Leningradskogo Universiteta. (In Russian).

Isachenko, A. G., and A. G. Shliapnikov. 1989. Landschafts. Mysl’, Moscow.

Kabanov, N. E. editor. 1963. Lesa Kamchatki i ich lesochoziaistvennoje znachenije. [Forests of Kamchatka and their forestry importance]. Moskva, Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR. (In Russian).

Kharkevich, S. S., and S. K. Cherepanov. editors. 1981. Opredelitel’ sosudistych rastenii Kamchatskoi oblasti. [Key for the vascular plants of Kamchatka region]. "Nauka" Publishing, Moskva. (In Russian)

Kondratjuk, V. I. 1974. Klimat Kamchatki. [The climate of Kamchatka]. Moskva. Gidrometeoizdat. (In Russian).

Knystautas, A. 1987. The natural history of the USSR. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.

Kurnaev, S. 1990. Forest regionalization of the USSR (1:16,000,000). Department of Geodesy and Cartography, Moscow.

Lazarev, G. A. 2000a. Preserving Kamchatka’s forests. Russian Conservation News 23:33-34.

Lazarev, G. A. 2000b. Podchody k probleme sochranenija lesov na Kamchatke. [The problem of the preservation of the Kamchatka forests]. Materialy nauchnoi konferencii "Sochranenije bioraznoobrazija kamchatki i prilegajuschich morei". Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, April, 2000. (In Russian).

Letunov, P. A. editor. 1962. Pochvenno-geograficheskoje raionirovanie SSSR. [Soil geographical subdivision of the USSR]. Moskva, Izd-vo Akademii Nauk SSSR. (In Russian).

Liubimova, E. L. 1961 Kamchatka. Fiziko-geograficheskii ocherk. [Kamchatka. The essay of physical geography]. Moskva. Gosud. Izd-vo geograph. Literatury. (In Russian).

Man’ko, Y. I., and V. P. Voroshilov. 1978. Elovyje lesa Kamchatki. [ Spruce forests of Kamchatka]. "Nauka" Publishing Moskva. (In Russian).

Lobkov, E. G. 1986. Gnezdiaschiesja ptitsy Kamchatki. (The breeding birds of Kamchatka). Vladivostok, Izd-vo Dalnevost. Nauchnogo Centra Akademii Nauk SSSR. (In Russian).

Nalivkin, D. V. 1960. The geology of the U.S.S.R. A short outline. Pergamon Press,Oxford.

Naumenko, A. T., E. G. Lobkov, and A. P. Nikanorov. 1986. Kronotskii zapovednik. (The Kronotsky State reserve). Moskva, Agropromizdat. (In Russian).

Newell, J. 2000. The Russian Far East. Friends of the Earth Japan. www.sirius.com/~meganf/yakutia.html).

Sokolov, I. A. 1973. Vulkanizm i pochvoobrazovanije (Na primere Kamchatki). [Volcanism and soil formation at the example of Kamchatka)]. "Nauka" Publishing, Moscow. (In Russian).

Sokolov, V. E. and E. E. Syroechkovskii. Editors. 1985. Zapovedniki Dalnego Vostoka SSSR [Nature reserves of the Russian Far East]. Moskva: Mysl’.. (In Russian).

Taiga Rescue Network (www.snf.se/TRN/).

Tolmachev, A. I. 1974. Vvedenije v geografiju rasteniy. [The introduction to plant geography) Leningrad, Izd-vo Leningr. Universiteta. (In Russian).

For more general information on this ecoregion, go to the WildWorld version of this description.