Climate and Vegetation of Russia

Climate and Vegetation of Russia

What is Russia

Steppe

Humid Continental

• A small area between the Black and Caspian Sea and ,a thin band along Russia's border with Kazakhstan makes up the Russian steppe.
• Steppe: grassland areas that have dry summers and long, cold, dry winters.
• The chernozem soil in steppe areas are rich in organic material.
• Sunflower, mint and beans flourish in the steppes.

• Most of Russia North European plains and a small part of southern Siberia have Humid Continental climate.
• Moscow, which is in the humid continent ranges form 9 to 21F in January. While in July it ranges from 56 to 75 F.
• In the humid continental areas the soil are more fertile then those from the taiga.
• Soon the area mixed into a temperate grassland. This helped produces more crops, especially grans like wheat and barley.

Climateand Vegetation

Tundra

War in winter

• Russia's cold climate played an important role during World War II. When the german troops invaded the soviet union on June 22, 1941, German commanders thought they would win a quick victory. But because of the cold weather they had a disadvantage.
• The temperatures was low as -40 F, which was the coldest temperate in decades.Many of the German solders were still wearing summer cloths and suffered form frost bite.
• It also paralyzed the German tanks, mechanized vehicles, artillery, and aircraft.
• Because of the cold weather the Germans retreated.

Sources

Subarctic

The text book

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

• Subarctic is Russia's dominant climate region.
• Is located south of the tundra but still has some the coldest temperatures.
• 120 to 250 days snow covers the ground
• It also supports the taiga
• Taiga: a forest belt that covers 2/5 of European Russia and extends into much of Siberia.
• Russia taiga is the worlds largest coniferous forest, and has about 1/2 of the worlds softwood timber.

• Tundra :Vast, treeless plain. Most of the climate lies north of the Arctic Circle. It takes about 10% of Russia. Only mosses, lichen, algae, and dwarf shrubs thrive in the tundra because of, short growing season and thin acid soil lying above the permafrost.
• Russian Arctic stretches for close to 7,000 kilometers west to east.
• There is about 11 percent of Russia that is Tundra. Wikipedia says, that " The tundra is Russia's northernmost zone, stretching from the Finnish border in the west to the Bering Strait in the east, then running south along the Pacific coast to the northern Kamchatka Peninsula. The zone is known for its herds of wild reindeer, for so-called white nights (dusk at midnight, dawn shortly thereafter) in summer, and for days of total darkness in winter. The long, harsh winters and lack of sunshine allow only mosses, lichens, and dwarf willows and shrubs to sprout low above the barren permafrost. "

• Climate Russia is very harsh. The coldest winter is in eastern Siberia. A city named Verkhoyansk. The enormous size of the country and the remoteness of many areas from the sea result in the dominance of the continental climate, which is prevalent in European and Asian Russia except for the tundra and the extreme southeast. The countries climate is characterized by temperature extremes.
• Climate regions in Russia, include Dry (Steppe), Mid-latitude (Humid Continental), High Latitude (Subarctic, and Tundra).
• Vegetation in Russia includes Deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forest, Temperate grassland, Coniferous forest, Temperate grassland, Tundra.

• Russia is 8th in economic ranks. Ranked 6th largest in purchasing power parity. Russia is the largest country in world, covering almost one-eighth the of earths inhabitant land area.
• Also , Russia is the worlds ninth most populous nation. With over 143 million people as of 2012