M.

Figure 1

KRASNOYARSK Translation, REDCLIFFS

LOCAL BIOME

Figure One

Figure One: The local biome I am investigating is roughly 10KM from the city centre, it is an area apart of a place called Academic Village, it is a satellite
suburb of the City Krasnoyarsk and City Council October as in October Revolution.

Pylon

M. Figure 2

M. Figure 3

B1

B3

B2

Plantation Pine

Grassland

Taiga Birch dominant

M. Figure 5

The area is made of a few major biomes, taiga, pine plantation and grassland.
Naturally the whole park should be taiga made up of silver birch, birch, scotts pine,
poplar, fir and various other trees and shrubs, since the park is not virgin forest this
is not the case. Where humans have not cut trees down or destroyed forest it is
100% taiga, although because of human interaction it is mostly silver birch
whereas pure virgin forest has an even distribution of trees. In the pine areas it is
all plantation planted by scientists in the 70s. The grassland is natural because that
is where water runs away and gets trapped, slowly though this grassland is being
populated by trees, naturally though of course. Throughout the park humans
impacts can be seen, there are many dirt paths, some torn up by dirt bikes and
others just muddy, there is one caf in the middle of the pine plantation, around
that area there are many camp fires and squirrels, these squirrels are very tame and
will eat out of your hand. In M. Figure 2 you can view the distribution of forest
and in M. Figure 3 the main features of the park.

P1

There is but one establishment in this

park area, it is called the forest caf, it is
mainly busy during the summer and is a
part of the biosphere since it is made
from wood but also metal so also
lithosphere.

P2

This is a gravel path which is a part

of the lithosphere, this is a good
path because of the gravel, it means
that it is not muddy and slippery
during spring and autumn.

P3

This Pylon is a big one, it sits

a top the Pancake mountain
and has a lightnig conductor
on the top since it is the
closest thing to the sky in
the area. I think it is a part of
the lithosphere since it is
made of metal.

P4

P5

P6

P7
P4-5: This is the carpark, it is closed for
now, it is made of dirt and rocks and is
currently very muddy and slippery, it is a
part of the lithosphere.
P7: Bitumen path, these paths arent very
common in the forest, this is a nice path
with many squirrels on the side the you
can feed. It is a part of the lithosphere.

This is a part of the

hydrosphere but not at the
moment, it is a sort of pond,
when there is heavy rain it
fills up with water but is
usually empty.

Fl1 - Raspberries

Fl2 - Mushrooms

Fl3 - Ferns

Fl4 Mil thistle

Fl5 - Native Wild Marijuana

Fl6 - Dandelion

Fa1 Red and Grey Squirrels

Fa2 Rats

Fa3 mice

Fa4 - Chipmunk

Fa5 Groundhog

Fa6 Wild Dogs

Fa7 Snowy Owl

Fa10 Great Spotted Woodpecker

Fa8 Golden Eagle

Fa9 Crow

Fa11 Hill Dove

Fa12 European
Hamster

2a

2b

The silver birch tree is the most numerous tree in

the forest and the oldest too, it is native to all
areas and is a part of the taiga biome, this tree
takes the longest to grow out of all the others and
is very hardy, in autumn its leaves turn yellow, a
fully grown tree has the height of around 25m
and a width of roughly 50cm. These trees are
constatly faling over and regrowing. We marked
a metre on the tree.
Height: 11metres

Girth: 30cm

Biome: Taiga

2c

2d

2e
Metre Marker

Scots pine is the up and coming most

numerous tree to the forest, there are a
few plantations that have 40 yr old trees
but the natural ones are 100+ yrs old and
look much different to these plantation
ones. Scots pine is a very dry pin with a
thin canopy, it has a large squirrel
population and undergrowth finds it hard
to survive in the acidic soil. Scots pine is
definitely a dominator, fully grown,
natural pines reach a height of around 15
m and a width of 90cm.
Note: these pics are of plantation pine not
natural.
Height: 25m
Width: 50cm

Biome: Plantation/Taiga

2f

2g

2h

Poplar is one of the more rare trees in the

park, in the natural forest next to the park
there is a lot but here in the park it doesnt
grow so well in competition with silver
birch. The poplat in the forest is very
different to that of Australian driveway
ones, this is more of a hardy sort, it looks
like a grey birch from below but is poplar.
When poplar are young they look stringy
and bent but straighten out. This particular
poplar was too big and in the brush to get a
goo photo of. A fully grown poplar can
reach heights of 50
m and widths of
120cm
Height: ~20m
Width: 22cm

Biome: Taiga

2i

The crab apple tree is a rare tree and is

quite shrubby, it is common to see them
with broken branches and trampled on.
Most have small fruits that taste starchy
and sweet and sour. This tree though is
important for grafting as its root system
is well adapted for the cold climate
even though its fruit is only good for
birds.

Height: 3m

2k

Biome: Taiga

Width: 9cm
2j

2m

2l

POPLAR TREE

M. Figure 4

I would simply say that the forest that is the park is a modified forest, the
answer though is more complicated than this, there is modified forest but
there is also human impacted forest. The pin plantations are obviously
modified forest, at some point the natural taiga was chopped down and the
pines were planted. The taiga forest though is natural but human impacted,
in the taiga in the park you can easily see it is dominated by silver birch,
this is not natural, I know this because I have seen virgin taiga right next to
the park, the virgin taiga has much larger trees, more pines, more poplars
and a mix of birches and ferns whereas the human impacted taiga hasnt
got many ferns and is mainly Silverbirch. The modified forests and taiga
are riddled with paths and this is an obvious forest modification. The
grassland is natural and is naturally regrowing its forest but at some point
in the past the forest was chopped down there, this was probably when a
house was built there and a skii hil opened.

I1-2

I1-1

The first issue is common

throughout the whole park, it is
muddy boggy tracks. This
problem causes the landscape to
change in shape, because of the
muddy tracks people walk off the
track trampling on shrubs and
sapplings causing forest regrowth
to slow. At the moment nobody is
addressing this problem, some
parts of the forest have bitumen
paths and others gravel but for the
most part they are just mud. On
M. Figure 2 you can see the main
path and carpark where the major
problems are.

I2-1

I2-2

This is the Southern slope of Pancake Mountain just below the pylon in M. Figure 2. The problem here is that
in the past the dirt on the hill has washed down onto the road below, this was because there was nothing
stopping it, the local council have now put gravel on the hill (i2-1) and planted (i2-2) trees , this was a very
good solution to the problem, there is now no problem and the issue is fixed. I can see in the future the full
recovery of this part of the landscape. Planting more trees is always a good idea to fixing a problem.

"Google ." Google . N.p., n.d. Web. 09

Sept. 2014.
"Poplar (tree)." Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., n.d.
Web. 09 Sept. 2014.
"What Are the Four Spheres of the Earth?" About.
N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.