Soviet Union Physical Geography

•Temps, Precip., Vegetation, Land Use•Natural regions•Effects on human settlement

Temperatures

High summer-winter contrast

Russia

Russia

Why Russia is cold

•Northern location(Moscow N of Edmonton)

•Moderating oceans far away (“continentality”)

•Low relief open to Arctic cold winds

•Ranges block warm air

Why Russia is cold

Precipitation

•Mainly from Atlantic, favors west

•Rains in mid-Summer

•Lack of snow cover

•Interior drought-vulnerable

Russia

OilRussia In east-west bands, affecting settlement

Russia

Russia

RussiaLess productive to east

Russia

Land Use

Russia

85% of Sovietpopulation lived on

25% of land

Nonagricultural land

Agricultural land

Population onnonagricultural lands

Population onagricultural lands

Agricultural landsmore densely populated

( >10 persons km2 )

POPULATION

LAND

“Triangle” of settlementin agricultural zones

Ethnic Russian expansion

Trans-Siberian railroadsin eastern Russia

Omsk

Russia

Mixed forest zone

•West of Urals

•Grey-brown soils ideal for agriculture

•Slavic, Baltic states (including Russian heartland)

Russia

Steppe/Forest-steppe

•Grasslands or mixed (former nomad regions)

•Rich black earth good for farming

•Drought-vulnerable

•Ukraine/S. Russia bands, SW Siberia, N. Kazakstan

Semi-arid/Desert

•S. Kazakstan, rest of Central Asia

•Alkaline poor soils

•Fertile river valleys, oases, mountain flanks

•Slavs extracted resources

Russia

Mediterranean type

•Semi-arid but arable

•Parts of Caucasus, Crimea

•Drought-vulnerable

•Can grow some subtropical crops

(Georgian wines, etc.)

Taiga/Boreal forest

•North Russia/Siberia

•Acidic podzol soils poor for farming

•Conifers

•Half of Former USSR (all in Russia)

Tundra (treeless) zone

•Permafrost (frozen subsoil)

•Indigenous herders

•Slavs extract resources

Russia

Russia

Minerals

•Exhausted in earlier-conquered western regions

•Plentiful in Interior, Siberia, Central Asia

•Opposite of agriculture

Coal, Metals

Oil

Rivers•Caspian Sea•Aral Sea•Lake Balqash

South

Ranges•Caucasus•Tien Shan•Pamirs

•Ural•Amu•Syr

Lakes

Ranges•Carpathians•Dinaric Alps (Ex-Yugoslavia)

•Transylvanian Alps

West

Rivers•Volga•Don•Dniester•Dnieper•Danube•Elbe•Vistula

Seas•Baltic•Black•Adriatic (Ex-Yugoslavia)

Seas

•White Japan•Barents Bering•Kara Okhotsk•E. Siberian Laptev

East/North

Ranges

Rivers•Ob’-Irtysh•Yenisei-Angara•Lena-Aldan•Amur-Ussuri•Kolyma•Lake Baikal

•Kolyma•Aldan•Syan•Altai•Yablonovy

National Parks and Zapovednik (Reserves)From Russian Conservation News

www.russianconservation.org

Tour of “Wild Russia” Bioregions

Arctic

Kola/KareliaEasternEuropeanForest

EasternEuropeanSteppe/Forest-steppe

UralMountains

CaucasusMountains

Western Siberian Forest

WesternSiberian Steppe/Forest-steppe

CentralSiberia

Altai-Sayansky

LakeBaikal

Zabaikal(Transbaikal)

Yano-Kolymsky

Amur River-Sakhalin Island

KamchatkaPeninsula-Okhotsk Sea