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Extrazonal Steppe Phenomena in the Mountains of Southern Siberia: Features of Spatial Organization and Centers of the Latest Speciation and Cenogenesis

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Abstract

Steppes play an essential role in the vegetation of mountains of Southern Siberia (SS). However, they significantly differ in mountains of different climatic facies; these features are particularly pronounced in the spatial and phytocenotic structure of extrazonal steppe phenomena, namely, in ecotones of adjacent altitudinal belts. These steppe manifestations in landscapes are termed uburs in the geography of Inner Asia. The exposure combinations of forest and steppe communities in the vegetation of the mountain forest-steppe belt are most complex; the structure of this transitional belt is differentiated into two categories of subbelts: peristeppe and periforest ones, which, in turn, are differentiated into lower and upper variants. The role of steppes in the structure of vegetation of the exposure forest steppe in the mountains of a semihumid climatic facies is not limited by the boundaries of the peristeppe and periforest subbelts; steppe communities as extrazonal phenomena penetrate deep into the forest belt in the form of steppe and stepoid mosaics along ubur steps. The proportion of steppes is very low in the forest belt (from 20 to 5% or less). They include both developed steppe communities and stepoids with the inclusion of forest–shrub, subalpine, and mountain–tundra species. The imposition of the altitudinal and exposure gradients is expressed in the species and cenotic diversity of steppes, as well as in their spatial organization. Processes of speciation, often combined with populations of relict plant species, are intensively manifested in these original ecotones of mountain steppes.

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Correspondence to B. B. Namzalov.

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Translated by D. Zabolotny

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Namzalov, B.B. Extrazonal Steppe Phenomena in the Mountains of Southern Siberia: Features of Spatial Organization and Centers of the Latest Speciation and Cenogenesis. Contemp. Probl. Ecol. 13, 495–504 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542552005008X

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542552005008X

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