Soviet Union Physical Geography Temps, Precip., Vegetation, Land Use Natural regions Effects on...
-
date post
21-Dec-2015 -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
2
Transcript of Soviet Union Physical Geography Temps, Precip., Vegetation, Land Use Natural regions Effects on...
Soviet Union Physical Geography
•Temps, Precip., Vegetation, Land Use•Natural regions•Effects on human settlement
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
Precipitation
•Mainly from Atlantic, favors west
•Rains in mid-Summer
•Lack of snow cover
•Interior drought-vulnerable
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
Mixed forest zone
•West of Urals
•Grey-brown soils ideal for agriculture
•Slavic, Baltic states (including Russian heartland)
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
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)
Minerals
•Exhausted in earlier-conquered western regions
•Plentiful in Interior, Siberia, Central Asia
•Opposite of agriculture
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