East Siberian taiga


The East Siberian taiga ecoregion, in the Taiga and boreal forests biome, is a very large biogeographic region in eastern Russia.

Setting

This vast ecoregion is located in the heart of Siberia, stretching over 20° of latitude and 50° of longitude. The climate in the East Siberian taiga is subarctic and displays high continentality, with extremes ranging from to. Winters are long and very cold, but dry, with little snowfall due to the effects of the Siberian anticyclone. Summers are short, but can be quite warm for the northerly location.
Precipitation is low, ranging from, decreasing from east to west. The topography of this ecoregion is varied, consisting of wide, flat plains and areas of karst topography. In contrast to the neighbouring West Siberian taiga, large bogs and wetlands are conspicuously absent. Some trees also shed their leaves annually, a characteristic of deciduous forests.

Flora

Vegetation consists mainly of vast, dense forests of Dahurian larch, with Siberian larch and hybrids between the Dahurian and Siberian larches occurring as one moves to the west. Cranberry and bilberry bushes dominate the understory.
Throughout the ecoregion, smaller areas dominated by Siberian pine, Scots pine, Siberian spruce and Siberian fir can be found. Pine forests and deciduous forests composed of birch and poplar species become more common as one moves south, and at the headwaters of the Lena River and the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, as well as in the Angara River basin, steppe and shrub-steppe communities can be found along with areas of forest-steppe.

Fauna

This region contains the highest number of brown bears, Eurasian wolf, moose and wild reindeer in Russia. Further south mammals in the East Siberian taiga include Siberian musk deer, Altai wapiti also known as Asian elk and wild boar. Birds of this ecoregion include the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, osprey, hazel grouse, Siberian grouse, black grouse, western capercaillie, black-billed capercaillie, willow ptarmigan, rock ptarmigan, black stork, hooded crane, carrion crow, the Siberian blue and rufous-tailed robins, the thrush nightingale, Pallas's rosefinch, Pacific swift, common goldeneye, smew, king eider, spectacled eider and Baikal teal.

Conservation status, threats and protected areas

Although little of this ecoregion is protected, its conservation status is listed as "Relatively Stable/Intact". Protected areas in this ecoregion include:
All are "Zapovedniks",. The main threats to this ecoregion's integrity are poaching and clear-cut logging in the southern and central portions of the region.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, came a new threat. There is little forest in China, and Chinese entrepreneurs, began to show interest in obtaining the woods from RF. High levels of corruption and some other reasons allowed them to achieve their goal. A new law adopted was Federal law 473-FZ, which protects the rights of foreign companies in RF, and Chinese lumberjacks began to destroy all the trees on the leased land. There have been numerous attempts of deforestation in the protected floodplain of the rivers. Because of the large environmental damage, their activities caused protests by local residents and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The actions of the Chinese companies pose a threat to the native population of Siberia and the Far East, depriving them of their habitat and traditional ways of life. Total deforestation by Chinese companies creates an additional threat to rare and endangered species such as the Siberian tiger, Amur leopard, East Siberian brown bear et al..