Tundras, Forests and Steppes

Show the natural zones of Asia.
Which of these are found in Europe and which are not?
The natural zones of Asia vary with the climate and relief. There are cold northern tundras and gloomy taiga forests, grass-covered steppes and dry deserts, savannahs and lush tropical forests.

Fig. 89. The tundra. This vast region contains nothing but scrub, mosses and lichens.

N. M. Przhevalsky wrote: "In Asia nature is grand indeed: the boundless forests and tundras of Siberia, the waterless deserts of

Gobi, the huge mountain ranges in the interior, the thousand-mile rivers flowing in all directions. What variety!"
The Tundra. The tundra extends from the Ural Mountains to the Bering Sea along the northern coastline of Asia. The Arctic Ocean islands are also tundra territory, the only exceptions being the is­lands of Severnaya Zemlya (Northern Land), which lie in almost the same latitude as Franz Josef Land and belong to the glacial zone.
The southern boundary of the West Siberian tundra coincides approximately with the Arctic Circle. In Eastern Siberia, where sum­mers are warmer, it bends north. In the extreme north-east, where the cold seas are closer, it bends south, finally reaching the Kam­chatka Peninsula.
As in Europe, the Asian tundra is mainly a marshy plain covered with a browny-green carpet of moss and sprinkled with large, light-coloured patches of lichen in the drier places. There is not a single tree, only thickets of dwarf birch and polar willow amidst the moss and lichen.

The Siberian tundra, as that of Europe, is thinly populated. Deer-breeding and hunting are the chief occupations. In Soviet times, however, new villages and towns have sprung up, mineral deposits have been discovered and mining is being developed. The population is gradually increasing.
Tree life first occurs in the southern part of the tundra. The larch penetrates farthest north. Then come the others, sparsely scattered and undersized at first, but gradually increasing in number. Woods alternate with patches of tundra. This is the beginning of the forest-tundra belt, which further south merges into the taiga.
The Forest Belt. The taiga covers vast areas of Northern Asia. In no other part of the world is there such a huge forest-covered

territory. Aeroplanes fly for hours on end from the Urals across Siberia with nothing underneath but green seas of forests, interrupted occasionally by river valleys and marshes.
The trees of the Siberian taiga differ from those of the European taiga. Silver fir, Siberian or cembra pine (called 'kedr' in Russia) and larch grow side by side with the common pine and fir so typical of Europe. Coniferous trees grow together with such deciduous trees as birch and aspen. Vast areas in the West Siberian Lowland ate covered with marshes.

Fig. 91. A mixed forest of the Far East.
The cembra pine is the largest tree in the Siberian taiga. Its cones contain small, tasty nuts. Nut-picking is a favourite occupation with the population.
The larch is predominant in Eastern Siberia. It has soft, bright-green leaves that drop in winter. Its timber is highly prized, as it is practically immune to rot.
There are a great number of animals in the Siberian taiga, many of which are seldom to be found in Europe. Bears, lynx, elk, and such birds as wood-grouse and hazel-grouse are common. After a winter spent in the taiga, Siberian hunters return with many valuable pelts of squirrel, fox and sable. The barbarous methods of hunting in tza-rist Russia led to the extinction of highly prized animals such as beaver and sable, very few of which are left. The Soviet governinenl has set up national reserves where hunting is prohibited. Terms are fixed when hunting rare and highly prized animals is strictly forbidden anywhere within Soviet territory.
Lumbering is becoming an important branch of industry in Sibe­ria. But a few years ago the enormous timber resources of Siberia remained unutilized. Old trees rotted standing and fell, littering the forests and preventing the growth of young trees. Today the trees are cut and the logs floated down the rivers to sawmills. Timber is transported to various construction sites inside the country and exported overseas by way of the Northern Shipping Route.
On the clearances crops are cultivated and cattle grazed.
The mixed and broad-leaved forests along the middle course of the Amur and near the Sea of Japan are of a peculiar type. Here the coniferous tree of the taiga mixes with the deciduous tree of the south.
Here is N. M. Przhevalsky's description of these forests: "It is somehow strange to see such a mixture of northern and southern species in plant and animal life. How striking to see a fir entwined by a vine or cork-tree and walnut growing side by side with cembra pine and silver fir. The hound is running down a bear or sable, but you are just as likely to come across a tiger."
Formerly a variety of broad-leaved forests covered the northern parts of the Great China Plain. Today there are fields in their places.

put to plough. At the call of the Soviet Government and the Commu­nist Party of the Soviet Union, thousands of people settled here. New state farms were set up, furnished with up-to-date machinery. More and more virgin land is being cultivated from year to year, and the new fields are yielding rich crops of wheat, maize and other agricultural produce.

In Eastern Siberia the steppe is not a continuous belt. Stretches of steppe lie like islands among the southern taiga vegetation.
Steppe vegetation covers the vast river valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains. At higher altitudes it gives way to forests.
There are vast areas of arid steppe in Central Asia. The vegeta­tion there is scanty and hardy, consisting mainly of feather-grass, salt-grass, needle-grass and shrubs.
Questions and Assignments.

• Trace the boundaries of the tundra, forest belt and steppes
  of Asia on the outline map (do not mark the Alpine regions).
• Compare the Siberian and European taigas.  What are their
  common features and points of   difference?
• Use your maps to describe the natural features of Kamchatka.