- December, 21st 2005

It is the landscapes - steppes, forests, mountains, meadows and "mountain meadow steppe" - that make Crimea a great place for those who like to explore and learn about the unknown. You can wander through the forests with a camera, dive somewhere on Tarkhankut or in Balaklava, go in for paragliding or study the history of the estates of the Russian nobility on the South Shore. For those who are interested in plants, for whom names like “Steveniella satyrioideus” or “Bieberstein's shank” sound like music, Crimea is what you need. The flora of Crimea is very diverse, everyone knows this.

You don't have to be a professional botanist to admire a blooming magnolia or a pine tree that miraculously rests on a rock. 1450 species of algae live in the Black Sea. More than 2,700 plant species grow on the peninsula. This is more than half of the flora of Ukraine and almost twice as much as in Poland. The Crimean flora is inferior in diversity to the Italian and Greek ones. Let's catch up and overtake Sicily and Pelloponnese!

90% of plants are found in the mountainous Crimea. Interesting feature Crimean landscapes is that ordinary Central European plants here coexist with typical Mediterraneans and people from Western Asia. The peninsula is a special area where some relics have been preserved - plants of the pre-glacial period (small-fruited, tall strawberry, the rarest orchid Comperia Compera). But the beauty that vacationers on the South Coast observe - palm trees, laurels and cypresses - were brought to Crimea much later. For researchers, “native” Crimean plants and rarities are more interesting, which are enough in Crimea: 142 plant species are nowhere but Crimean peninsula do not meet. These are endemics of the Crimea.

All the most interesting, as a rule, is found in the mountains. Of course, steppe plants are also diverse, but amazing things can be seen in mountain forests. Traveling is good in spring, summer and autumn. True, by July, many plants are already finishing blooming and burning out, but others are blooming. There is always something to see.

For example, the Pontic needle. What can a needle be compared to? Probably with the famous Christmas holly (as they paint on postcards). Tough dark green leaves and red berries, even in winter. It's good that they don't try to put needles in vases or decorate doorposts with it at Christmas. This exotic Mediterranean species exists on a narrow strip South Shore its range is quite small. The fact that the butcher's needle looks like leaves is not leaves at all, but special flat twigs. Real leaves are located in the center of these plates and are almost invisible.

The needle is the needle because it is prickly. Sometimes the "pillows" of needles somewhere under the trees resemble a special kind of wire, on which someone specially strung orange and red balls. It looks very unusual and beautiful. See for yourself!

The darkest, mysterious forests -. These are not even forests, but halls with colonnades of gray trunks, and only somewhere up there, if you look up, you can see how green light breaks through the leaves. You need to be a very shade-loving plant to grow under the canopy of a beech forest. Even if there is water here (some mountain river or stream), there is still not enough light: beech leaves create an almost impenetrable "roof". The ground in the beech forest is completely covered with fallen leaves, from which, like fountains, lush ferns make their way. After school stories about the Carboniferous period, ferns, horsetails and club mosses evoke a strong association: a prehistoric forest. Strangely curved feathery twigs, along which a special, prehistoric life flows ... And now, with a growing rumble, maneuvering between the trunks, you are overtaken by a giant dragonfly meganerva, and there is no escape from it. And what? Somewhere in the beech thicket, sometimes you come across such places that take your breath away. It seems that there is no man, and there was no one in the world, so crystal clear water that beats right out of the ground, among boulders and green, unnaturally bright green, saturated with moisture moss. These are the hidden folds of nature, and only when you see them, you understand exactly how the forest lives when no one disturbs it.

Anyone who has been to the Nikitsky Botanical Garden will surely remember the ancient knotted tree that curved like a giant snake over the very path along which the sightseers are led. This tree seemed to come out of the "Divine Comedy", from the gloomy depths, where on the bank of the stream there was a forest of people turned into trees. Strawberry - this is the name of this plant, instead of bark, as if dressed in suede. Looking at it, you can study anatomy: its flesh-colored branches are strangely similar to a system of vessels or veins, and they are soft to the touch like skin. An interesting impression is produced by some inscription deeply cut into this warm pinkish bark. It must be a special, not accessible to everyone pleasure of a sadist - to carve his name in such a living surface, which in color and appearance resembles human flesh. Small-fruited strawberry, or coral tree, is the only evergreen deciduous tree in the flora of Crimea. Even when snow falls on the South Shore, the leathery strawberry leaves endure this inconvenience. A young strawberry tree may not be noticed, but in the Crimea there are giant strawberries that are more than one hundred years old.

In addition to wild plants, in various places in the Crimea, you can see wild apple trees or pear trees among low sunny thickets. They say that in ancient times, even before the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, the Tatars used special irrigation systems known to them alone. People who lived in the Crimea valued water very much, they literally extracted it drop by drop and carried it through clay pipes to their gardens. There were many fountains in the cities (of course, not like those at VDNKh, but still fountains!) Water was pumped from underground, and in cave cities they collected rainwater and directed it through special gutters. But turbulent historical events forced to forget about ingenious irrigation systems, and many gardens became wild.

And some inconspicuous plant can be very interesting! . There is such a landscape (especially on the coast, where there is nothing but thousand-year-old stones, cicadas and ancient columns against the background of a piercing blue sky), that it is not clear what century you are in and whether you are in Crimea at all. Or is it already Hellas? Low stone labyrinths- the remains of the city excavated by archaeologists. These yellow ruins on the seashore in themselves evoke a strange feeling, as if they lie on the edge of the world and there is nothing beyond it but waves. And here, in the dilapidated stone halls, I began to come across some bouquets with berries that grew right out of the walls. Sometimes they looked like a very beautiful forester's beard, in which raspberries grew, but they always made their way on bare stones. Nothing else grew on the walls; I had to find out what kind of herb it was. Good thing the tour guide knew. "It's ephedra," he said. Later it turned out that ephedra is so unlike any other plant that it is the only one in our flora that forms a separate Ephedra family. Ephedra has no leaves, only twigs that resemble a beard. Chersonese and ephedra - together they look amazing!

Unfortunately, I have never seen orchids in Crimea. And they are, all reference books and the Red Book of Ukraine speak about it. 47 orchid species, about 20 are found in Laspi Bay. Of course, these are not the orchids of the tropics and not those that are sold in flower shops. Crimean orchids are like precious stones: small, but they have no price. The rarest of them is Comper's company. Once a lover of botany, the Frenchman Comper, who had an estate in Laspi, discovered this species. Comperia flowers are pinkish-brown, and each flower seems to thin out, ending in thin threads. This flower is not found anywhere else, except for the Crimea and some regions of Asia Minor. Other Crimean orchids interesting names: orchis, lyubka, dremlik; ophris, whose flowers look like bumblebees. If you are lucky to see small but very beautiful Crimean orchids, share your photos?

In Crimea, the most valuable thing is the variety of landscapes. Some plants can be seen somewhere in the steppe, near Sivash, and completely different - on Demerdzhi. And if you climb Ai-Petri, Chatyrdag, in general, to any mountain - there is your own world, with its own air, colors and way of life. The flat, treeless peaks of the Crimean Mountains are called yayls (from the Turkic "dzheylyau" - mountain pasture). They have long loved to graze cattle there and they grazed it so much that the cattle trampled (or ate) many valuable plant species. Now the yayly are protected areas, but still, cattle enter there from time to time, justifying the Turkic name. The Crimean mountains do not rise into the sky with peaks, we do not have the Himalayas. Their surface is flat. You will climb such a mountain, get lost in the fields and completely forget that you are at the top of the mountain, 1000-odd meters above sea level.

Underfoot - limestone; it absorbs water very well, and the water erodes and “cuts” the surface of the yayla: karst funnels and entire “carr fields” are formed: a lunar landscape. There, in the depths of the mountains, there are halls and corridors washed with water, the thinnest passages through which no one and nothing penetrates, except for water drops. Yayla, like a huge pumice stone, always absorbs and redistributes water, passes moisture through itself and gives birth to springs and rivers down there. And here, on the surface, a unique landscape appears - the so-called. mountain meadow steppe. It's hard to describe her. If you climb Chatyrdag, you will understand everything yourself. At first it seems that this is still a steppe. Then it seems that these are meadows, even, as if trimmed. But why, then, suddenly, in the middle of a flat green surface, there are some depressions, small ravines, where strange trees grow, flat as tents or flying saucers? Sometimes it looks like an endless park high above the world, which is finely thought out and belongs to a great but invisible master. It's not even a meadow, it's a myriad of herbs and flowers, on top of which lie completely flat prickly juniper clumps. They are so reminiscent of skillfully grown ikebana that it is impossible to believe that they grow here by themselves.

The air smells of hundreds of fragrant herbs, and this mixture is as indescribable as the general impression of the yayla. It breaks off, and at the very feet, in the blue bowl of the sun, air and sea, a small dot is sometimes visible - a soaring black vulture. This strange park is full of names, signs and trails. Dark green indicates where a mine might be: there, in a gully, more moisture collects, and trees can grow. Paths, like a net, cover the entire yayla: tourists tirelessly run along it in search of adventure. But Chatyrdag is so big that it accepts everyone. There is a wild pear on which the pears are very small and sweet. But there can be no sources here, so it is better to take water with you. In the spring on Chatyrdag you can see the Crimean backache (sleep-grass). These lilac fluffy flowers grow near the ground. They often appear in guidebooks, but not everyone has seen them, just like the fine-leaved peony. Small Mediterranean shrubs give a special flavor to yaila. Due to the fact that the yayla plants are mostly stunted (the tall ones will not withstand the mountain wind and will not get enough water), the whole yayla springs when you walk on it. The most complex interweaving of twigs, roots and leaves. A full fragrant carpet.

Another landscape is on the Demerdzhi plateau. On the plateau there Amazing places, where, among the reddish grass, thin birch trees, bent by mountain winds, stand in separate curtains. Their branches all face the same direction. How they got here is unknown. A very unusual landscape. On a gray rainy day, it seems that these deserted places are on another planet.

It's interesting that Crimean landscapes can be seen not only in the Crimea. Due to the fact that there are many plants of the Mediterranean and even more decorative, "imported" plants, Crimean corners come across in Greece, Italy, Cote d'Azur France, even England. Yes, yes, sometimes the Alps are somewhat similar to Ai-Petri (this was noticed by one Swiss who, back in Soviet times, had a rest in the Glade of Fairy Tales campsite). If you are in Switzerland, check it out. And welcome to Crimea at any time. Any time, as they say.

Crimea is distinguished by a wide variety of soil and vegetation cover, which is directly dependent on the characteristics geological structure, diversity of parent rocks, topography and climate. A characteristic feature of the distribution of the soil and vegetation cover of the Crimea is a combination of latitudinal and vertical zonality.

Most of the Steppe Crimea is covered southern low humus and carbonate(Priazovsky type) chernozems, which are constantly changing chestnut soils. Near the Sivash and the Karkinitsky Gulf, salt licks And salt marshes.

In the central part of the Crimean plains and in the northeastern part of the Kerch Peninsula, heavy loamy and clayey southern chernozems are widespread. These soils were formed on loess-like rocks under sparse grass vegetation and contain little humus (3-4%). Due to the peculiarities of their mechanical composition, the southern chernozems float during rain, and when dried, they become covered with a crust, however, despite this, they are still the best soils of the Crimean plains. With proper agricultural technology, southern chernozems can provide good yields of grain and industrial crops, grapes. The southern part of the flat Crimea adjacent to the mountains and partly the northeastern region of the Kerch Peninsula.

The belt of southern chernozems to the north is gradually replaced by a belt of heavy loamy dark chestnut and chestnut solonetsous soils, formed under conditions of a high standing of saline groundwater on loess-like rocks. The content of humus in these soils is only 2.5-3%. Soils of the chestnut type are also characteristic of the southwestern region of the Kerch Peninsula, where they were formed on saline Maikop clays. With proper agricultural practices, chestnut soils can provide fairly high yields of various crops.

On the low-lying coast of the Sivash and the Karkinit Bay, where groundwater occurs very close to the surface and is highly saline, solonetzes and solonchaks are developed. Similar soils are also found in the southwestern region of the Kerch Peninsula.

The natural vegetation cover of the flat Crimea was a typical steppe. In the herbage, the main background was turf grasses: various feathery feather grasses, hairy feather grass (tyrsa), fescue (or steppe fescue), thin-legged, steppe keleria (or kipets), wheatgrass. The forbs were represented by sage (drooping and Ethiopian), kermek (Tatar and Sarepta), yellow alfalfa, spring adonis, steppe katran, yarrow, etc. A characteristic element was plants of a short spring vegetation period - ephemera (annual species of fires, hare and mouse barley and etc.) and ephemeroids (tulips, steppe irises, etc.). Significant areas were occupied by the so-called desert steppe on chestnut-type soils. Along with the predominant cereals (fescue, wheatgrass, tyrsa, etc.), Crimean wormwood was very common there as a result of increased grazing. Ephemera and ephemeroids were also quite characteristic.

On the stony-gravelly slopes of ridges and hills of the Tapkhankut and Kerch peninsulas, a petrophytic (stony) steppe is located. Here, along with grasses (feather grass, fescue, wheatgrass, etc.), xerophytic semi-shrubs (wormwood, dubrovnik, thyme) are common. There are shrub thickets of wild rose, hawthorn, blackthorn, etc.

On the saline soils of the coast of the Karkinitsky Gulf, Sivash and the southwestern part of the Kerch Peninsula, solonchak vegetation (sarsazan, soleros, sveda) is common. On drier and less saline soils, cereals grow there (volosnets, beskilnitsa, coastal).

At present, the Crimean steppe has lost its natural appearance. It is almost completely plowed and occupied by fields of wheat, corn, various vegetables, as well as vineyards and orchards. Recently, rice has become more and more widespread in the Crimea. A characteristic element of the cultural landscape of the Crimean plains are field-protective forest strips of white locust, birch bark, ash maple, ash and apricot.

The spaces of the Steppe Crimea with chernozem and chestnut soils are almost completely plowed up, the steppe vegetation is preserved only in small spots on the slopes of the hills and near the roads. Dry feather grass-fescue-sagebrush and fescue-sagebrush steppes dominate in the northern and northeastern, near the Sivash, parts, in some places turning into sagebrush and saltwort semi-desert. The most typical Crimean wormwood. The association of Crimean wormwood with bulbous bluegrass ephemera in the Sivash region, according to the botanist M.S. Shalyt, is secondary. This is evidenced by the protected virgin areas of the steppe with a predominance of cereals (wheat grass, feather grass, fescue) and an admixture of wormwood. With increased grazing, cereals disappear.

Hilly-steppe landscapes are presented on the Kerch and Tarkhankut peninsulas.

Dry-steppe landscapes with fragments of semi-deserts are common in the Sivash part of Crimea. The presence of fragments of a semi-desert in the Sivash region is obviously not associated with zonal climatic conditions, but with purely local natural features, with the influence of the Sivash on the salinity of groundwater and soils. The lowland areas of the Sivash coast are characterized by soleros - an annual saltwort, the thickets of which stand out with red spots, and sarsazan, growing in the form of green squat pillows.

The bad smell of Sivash is associated with hydrogen sulfide, which is formed during the rotting of seaweed thrown ashore by water - threads. At present, the landscapes of the Steppe Crimea have been developed for agriculture.

The steppe Crimea is inhabited mainly by the same fauna as the steppes of the Russian Plain.

Mountain Crimea. In the Crimean mountains, landscape altitudinal zoning is clearly manifested. On the southern slope of Yayla, the southern coast of Crimea corresponds to the lower altitudinal zone. According to climatic conditions, it can be attributed to the region of the northeastern outskirts of the Mediterranean climate.

On the southern coast of Crimea, developed red-brown(transitional from mountain forest brown to red earth) and brown soils.

Often the soil is skeletal - its main mass is small weathered gravel of slate. There are vineyards on such "slate" soils. There are areas of relic red earth soils.

The flora of the southern coast of Crimea is distinguished by a large species richness. Almost 1,500 species of plants grow in a small area of ​​the South Bank and the southern slope of Yayla, out of 3,500 species known throughout the entire area of ​​the European part of Russia. The vegetation of the southern coast is close to the Mediterranean.

Up to a height of about 300 m, a xerophytic oak-juniper low-stem forest rises with an undergrowth of evergreen and deciduous shrubs, with a rich and varied grass cover. The main forest-forming species are tree-like juniper, fluffy oak, turpentine tree, or wild pistachio, in the second tier and undergrowth are evergreens: strawberry tree, cistus, needle, ivy from vines, a lot of deciduous vines - clematis. In some places there is a pine close to Pitsunda.

Oak-juniper forests are interspersed with shrubby thickets of the shilyak type, formed by shrubbery of downy oak, hornbeam, and hold-tree.

Vineyards, tobacco plantations, horticultural and park vegetation have replaced natural vegetation on the South Shore in large areas. Many Mediterranean, East Asian, American and other foreign plants have perfectly taken root here: cypress, laurel, cherry laurel, magnolia, fan palm, Lankaran acacia (incorrectly called "mimosa"), holly, boxwood, eucalyptus.

A particularly rich collection of plants various countries The world is represented by the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, located on the slope of the Nikitskaya Yayla between Yalta and Gurzuf.

To the east of Alushta, due to the increase in the dryness of the climate, the nature of natural vegetation changes: evergreens disappear, the species composition of the forest becomes poorer, and the forest is gradually replaced by shrub thickets such as shilyak. On the dry shale slopes, there are widespread sparse thickets of dry-loving grasses and shrubs, mostly hard, prickly or pubescent, reminiscent of the Eastern Mediterranean frigana in their appearance. Further to the east, the vegetation acquires a steppe character.

Fauna the southern, mountainous part of the Crimean peninsula, according to I. I. Puzanov, belongs to the Mediterranean subregion and is its northeastern outpost. At the same time, it bears the features of the island fauna, expressed in the presence of endemics and in the incompleteness of many groups of animals. On the South Coast, among the lizards, the endemic Crimean gecko is known. The fauna of invertebrates of the southern Mediterranean type is richly represented; cicadas, praying mantises, skolopendra, Crimean scorpion, phalanx are common, mosquitoes are typical of small Diptera.

As you move from the South Bank up the slope of Yayla, the climate gradually becomes cooler, the amount of precipitation increases, the soils acquire the features of typical mountain forest brown, oak-juniper forests of the lower zone are replaced by broad-leaved forests with a predominance of downy oak, sessile oak on limestones and forests of Crimean pine; both grow approximately within 300-900 m.

The upper part of the Yaila slope is occupied by a belt of beech forests. Crimean pine and mainly hooked pine, hornbeam, maple are mixed with beech. Usually, beech forests rise to the very edge of the slope (more than 1000 m) and abruptly break off at the edge of the summit plateau, where they are found only in separate areas.

The vegetation of the top surface of Yayla belongs to the uppermost landscape belt - stony mountain meadows, meadow steppes and juniper elfin on the karst surface of limestones.

Soils on the treeless summit surface of Yayla mountain meadow chernozem, in the east passing into mountain black soils. The nature of the soils refutes the widespread opinion about the secondary treelessness of the Yaylin plateaus. Obviously, forests, parts of which have survived to this day, were previously more widespread, but significant areas of the Yayla karst plateau should be considered treeless since ancient times.

On the treeless expanses of the Yaylin plateaus, the grass vegetation includes fescue, thin-legged, bonfire, feather grass-hairy, steppe sedge, creeping clover are widespread, from herbs there are bedstraw, cuff, Crimean "edelweiss" - an endemic species from the clove family). There are alpine plants - fluffy prolomnik, krupka, alpine violet. At the same time, in the driest areas, meadow-steppe associations. In the highest areas, there is no tree and shrub vegetation, but below (at an altitude of up to 1200 m) trees and shrubs are found under the protection of rocks and in the recesses of karst funnels and wells, and sometimes form small forests on the plateau itself. Such vegetation can be called forest-meadow-steppe.

The grassy vegetation of the eastern karst plateaus is steppe, stronger than that of the western ones. In open treeless spaces dominate here steppe meadows And meadow steppes, which at lower altitudes become mountain steppe. Some researchers consider the vegetation of the eastern plateaus to be mountain forest-steppe.

The northern slope of Yayla, like the southern one, is covered with forests with mountain forest brown soils. In the upper part of the slope, the forests are dominated by beech, hornbeam, in some places oak (on the slopes of the southern exposure), hook pine. Below 700-600 m, they are replaced mainly by oak forests. Mountain forest brown soils here gradually turn into brown. Even lower, on the spurs of the Yayla and in the cuesta strip, a short, fluffy oak begins to dominate. Further to the north and northwest, there is a transition to the southern forest-steppe, where thickets of low-growing oaks, hornbeam, hold-tree and other tree and shrub species alternate with areas of steppe vegetation.

mountain forest fauna Crimea is richest on the northern slope of the Yayla, especially in the dense forests of the Crimean Reserve (at the headwaters of the Kacha and Alma). The Crimean deer (endemic subspecies), roe deer, badger, marten, fox, water shrew, forest mouse, bats are characteristic; birds - black-headed jay, woodpeckers, tits, blackbird, wild pigeons, black vultures, eagles, owls.

As can be seen from the description of the landscape features of the northern slope of the Crimean Mountains, there are no Mediterranean landscapes here. In the lower altitudinal zone, the southern forest-steppe is developed, and in the middle zone there are no forests of the Crimean pine characteristic of the southern slope. Greater similarity is observed, as is usually the case in the mountains, in the landscapes of the upper parts of the slopes. Nevertheless, in general, one can speak of a different structure of the altitudinal zonality of the landscapes of the northern and southern slopes of the Crimean Mountains. The existing differences are due to the climatic barrier role of Yayla.

LANDSCAPE TYPES (option 2)

Brown and partly brown forest soils are developed on the southern coast. Brown soils are common under dry sparse forests and shrubs and are formed on clayey shales of the Taurian series and red-colored limestone weathering products, brown forest soils are typical for less dry places.

Special landscapes of the Crimea are the south coast - Mediterranean and cultivated (with vineyards and tobacco plantations, gardens, parks, resorts).

In this part of the Crimea, Mediterranean features are most clearly manifested in the soil and vegetation cover. Altitudinal zoning is well developed on the slopes of the Crimean Mountains. Subtropical plants are numerous here (up to 50% of the species composition), which makes it possible to attribute the plant formations of the region to the sub-Mediterranean type, similar to the vegetation of the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The southern regions of the Crimean Mountains are characterized by exceptionally high biodiversity - in this small area there are almost 1,500 plant species, including endemic (Crimean edelweiss) and relic (Stankevich's pine).

At the southern foot of the Crimean Yayla, low-stemmed oak-juniper forests grow with an undergrowth of deciduous and evergreen shrubs - strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne), cistus (Cistus tauricus), needles (Ruscus ponticus), intertwined with ivy and clematis. To the east, the forests are replaced by shrub thickets such as shibleak made of fluffy oak, hornbeam and hold-tree (Paliurus spina christi), which in the driest areas are replaced by thickets of xerophytic grasses and semi-shrubs. Massifs of relic pine have been preserved in the vicinity of Sudak and in the extreme west of the coast. The soil cover is represented by red-brown and brown soils of the subtropics; there are areas of relic red earth soils. In large areas, the natural vegetation of the coast has been replaced by vineyards, plantations of tobacco and fruit crops. Numerous resort areas have garden and park vegetation, which includes many introduced species: laurel, cypress, magnolia, fan palm, boxwood, holly, etc. A huge collection of plants from all over the world is collected in the unique Nikitsky Botanical Garden, located not far from Yalta on the slopes of Nikitskaya Yayla. Typical forest and shrub communities are protected in the reserves of Yalta and Cape Martyan.

On the southern slopes, oak-juniper forests are replaced by broad-leaved (mainly oak) and pine forests from Crimean pine on mountain-forest brown soils. Above 900 m, beech forests appear, in which, in addition to beech, there are pines, hornbeam, and maple. The summit surfaces of the Yayla are occupied by stony mountain meadows, meadow steppes and thickets of juniper elfin, mainly on mountain meadow chernozem-like soils. The northern slopes of Yayla and the adjacent cuesta ridges are covered mainly with oak forests. In the middle part of the slopes, sessile oak predominates in their composition, below dominance passes to a more xerophilic downy oak. Shibliak thickets are widespread in the foothills.

The vegetation of the South Shore is distinguished by its xerophytic character, saturation with Mediterranean forms and many alien cultural forms. The most common are forest formations, shrub thickets and thickets of dry-loving grasses and semi-shrubs. The forests are undersized and are formed by fluffy oak, juniper tree, wild pistachio, Crimean pine, hornbeam, and strawberry. Shrub thickets, which are an analogue of the Eastern Mediterranean shibleyak, consist of shrubby forms of fluffy oak, hornbeam, hold-tree, skumpia, sumac, shaggy pear, dogwood, iris, cistus, etc. Open, dry and stony areas are covered with dry-loving herbs and shrubs - Crimean analogue of the Eastern Mediterranean frigana. Cypresses, cedars, spruces, pines, sequoias, firs, laurels, magnolias, palm trees, cork oaks, plane trees, Lankaran acacias grow in the parks. Vineyards, orchards and tobacco plantations are also characteristic elements of the landscape of the South Coast.

Orographic and climatic differences in individual parts of the Main Ridge determine the diversity of their soil and vegetation cover. The western part of the ridge is characterized by brown mountain forest soils, mountain brown soils of dry forests and shrubs, and alluvial meadow soils of river valleys and gullies. Due to the low-mountain relief and its large fragmentation, the vertical zonality of the soil and vegetation cover is weakly expressed here. Forests consisting of downy oak, arborescent juniper, wild pistachio (kev tree) with an undergrowth of hornbeam, dogwood, hold-tree and blackthorn predominate. On stony soils and rocky areas, low-growing juniper forests grow. Higher up the slopes grow taller mixed deciduous forests of beech, oak, hornbeam, and ash. Lots of wild grapes and ivy. The valleys and depressions are characterized by herbaceous meadow-steppe vegetation. To a greater extent, the hollows have been developed for fields, vineyards, orchards, and tobacco plantations.

The slopes of the middle part of the Main Ridge are occupied by brown mountain forest soils and their podzolized varieties. The vertical vegetation zonality is quite well expressed here.

The lower part of the northern slope of the Main Ridge is occupied by a low-stemmed coppice oak forest, which is very sparse. The forest is formed mainly by downy and sessile oak and partly by pedunculate oak. Dogwood and hornbeam in the undergrowth. Occasionally there are small patches of pine, oak-pine and juniper forests. The open areas of the slope are occupied by forest and partly steppe herbaceous vegetation (siler, kupena, bluegrass, woodruff, feather grass, fescue, wheatgrass, etc.). Higher up the slope (up to 600 m), a tall oak forest grows with an admixture of ash, field maple, aspen, large-fruited mountain ash. In the undergrowth there are hornbeam, dogwood, hazel, buckthorn, hawthorn, skumpia. Even higher (from 600 to 1000 m), a tall beech forest dominates with an admixture of hornbeam, there are rare areas of Crimean pine, and on the slopes of the southern exposure there are groves of juniper trees and single yews. At altitudes above 1000 m, an already undersized beech forest grows with rare patches of Scots pine.

On the southern slope of the Main Ridge, above the dry forests and shrubs of the Southern Birch, at an altitude of 400 to 800-1000 m, there is a forest of Crimean pine. As an admixture, there are fluffy oak and tree-like and shrubby juniper. To the east of Gurzuf, the distribution of the Crimean pine is already of an island character, and to the east of Alushta, only individual specimens of this tree are found. Pine forests are replaced here by forests of fluffy oak, hornbeam, tree juniper, wild pistachio and dogwood. Above 1000 m, a forest of beech, Scotch pine and partly Crimean pine, oak, maple, linden, and hornbeam grows.

Yayla, as a rule, are treeless and covered with grassy meadow-steppe vegetation on mountain chernozems and mountain-meadow chernozem-like soils. The eastern part of the Main Ridge is characterized by low-stemmed woodlands of oak, beech, ash, hornbeam and shrub thickets of dogwood, hawthorn, hold-tree, skumpia on brown mountain forest soils and steppe varieties of mountain brown soils.

The foothills are occupied by forest-steppe with a mosaic alternation of treeless (steppe) and forest areas. The soils are calcareous chernozems, gravelly sod-calcareous and brown. Woodless areas are characterized by herbaceous cereal-forb vegetation: feather grass, fescue, wheatgrass, wheatgrass, saffron, adonis or spring adonis, sage, peon, yarrow, immortelle, etc. They are mostly plowed and developed for fields, vineyards, tobacco plantations and plantations of ether. - oilseed plants. Orchards and vineyards are common in the river valleys. Forest areas consist of low-growing trees, forest shrubs (fluffy oak, sessile and pedunculate oak, field maple, ash, elm, hazel and dogwood). Of the shrubs, skumpia, hawthorn, blackthorn, wild rose, buckthorn, etc. are common.

Crimea is not only the sea coast, mountains and ancient parks with exotic plants. Few people know that about two-thirds of the peninsula is occupied by the steppe. And this part of Crimea is also beautiful, unique and charming in its own way. In this article we will focus on the Steppe Crimea. What is this region? Where are its boundaries? And what is its nature?

Features of the geography of Crimea

From the point of view of geomorphology and landscape zoning, the territory of the Crimean Peninsula is divided into several zones:

• Plain or steppe (number I on the map).
• Mountain (number II).
• South Coast or abbreviated - South Coast (III).
• Kerch ridge-hilly (IV).

If you look at physical map peninsula, you can see that about 70% of its territory is occupied by the flat (or steppe) Crimea. In the south it is directly adjacent to the Outer Ridge of the Crimean Mountains, in the north and east it is limited by the shallow Sivash Bay, the shores of which are distinguished by the richest avifauna. We will tell you more about this natural region below.

Steppe Crimea on the administrative map of the peninsula

Square this region is about 17 thousand square kilometers. However, only a quarter of the entire population of Crimea lives in this territory - no more than 650 thousand people.

12 districts are wholly or partly located within the Steppe Crimea:

• Pervomaisky.
• Razdolnensky.
• Krasnoperekopsky.
• Dzhankoysky.
• Krasnogvardeisky.
• Nizhnegorsky.
• Black Sea.
• Saksky.
• Soviet.
• Kirovsky (partially).
• Belogorsky (partially).
• Simferopol (partially).

The unspoken "capital" of the Crimean steppes can be called the city of Dzhankoy. Other large settlements in the region are Armyansk, Krasnoperekopsk, Evpatoria, Saki, Nikolaevka, Nizhnegorsky, Sovetsky, Oktyabrskoye. Practically in each of them there are enterprises that process one or another type of local agricultural raw materials. The cities of Armyansk and Krasnoperekopsk are the most important centers of the chemical industry. Soda and sulfuric acid are produced here.

Geology and relief

The region is based on the epihercynian Scythian plate, composed of deposits of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. The relief of the Steppe Crimea is quite diverse. In the northern and northeastern parts, it is represented by several lowlands (Prisivash, North Crimean, Indol and others) with absolute heights not exceeding 30 meters above sea level.

In the west of the peninsula, the Tarkhankut upland stands out sharply in the relief. However, its elevation can only be called a stretch. After all, the maximum point of Tarkankut is only 178 meters. Nevertheless, due to the coastal position, the elevation changes here are quite impressive. Some cliffs rise above sea ​​waters at 40-50 meters.

The relief of the region is conducive to residential construction, laying of automobile and railways, active agricultural land development.

Climate and inland waters

The climate of the region is temperate continental, quite arid. Winters here are mild and snowy, with frequent thaws. Summer is hot, with minimal precipitation. The average air temperature in July is +24…27 degrees. The weather of the Steppe Crimea is changeable, especially during the transitional seasons of the year.

Back in the 19th century, Academician G.P. Gelmersen suggested that it was the climate of the northern part of the Crimean Peninsula that would become main reason poverty in this region. During the year, no more than 400 mm of precipitation falls here, which approximately corresponds to the level of moisture in the semi-desert zone. The North Crimean Canal plays an important role in supplying the peninsula with fresh water. The only relatively major river Steppe Crimea - Salgir. In summer, many of its tributaries dry up completely or partially.

Flora and fauna

In summer, the steppes resemble a lifeless desert with grass burnt out from the hot sun. But in spring, the region comes alive with a colorful carpet of flowering plants. The main representatives of the flora of the Crimean steppes are feather grass, fescue, bluegrass, wormwood, wheatgrass and other cereals. In spring, irises, tulips, poppies and various ephemeroids are actively blooming here.

The fauna of the Steppe Crimea is rather poor. It is dominated by small mammals living in burrows - ground squirrels, jerboas, ferrets, hamsters, voles. Hares and various birds are quite common - larks, partridges, cranes, quails, eagles and harriers.

Unfortunately, significant areas of the Steppe Crimea are now plowed up. Virgin, untouched areas of natural landscapes can be found today only in reserves and on the slopes of the beams.

Main attractions

A sophisticated tourist, along and across the outgoing mountain paths of the Crimean Mountains, can be advised to go to the north of the peninsula. After all, there are also many interesting and beautiful objects. We have chosen ten sights of the Steppe Crimea, which are worth visiting in the first place. This:

• Landscape park "Kalinovskiy".
• Peninsula Tyup-Tarkhan ("bird paradise" of the Crimea).
• national park"Magic Harbor" on Tarkhankut.
• Manor "Nizhnegorye" with a park.
• Juma-Jami Mosque and Karaite kenas in Evpatoria.
• Ancient Perekop rampart.
• Neo-Gothic church "Heart of Jesus" in Aleksandrovka.
• Tulip fields in the village of Yantarnoye.
• Abuzlar tract with mysterious petroglyphs.

Rest in the Crimean steppes can be no less interesting and meaningful than in the mountains or on the South Coast. In the eastern part of the Steppe Crimea there are a number of excellent sea ​​resorts. Among them are Evpatoria, Saki, Chernomorskoe, Nikolaevka, Olenevka, Mezhvodnoe and others.

Crimea is characterized by great landscape diversity, which, according to leading experts, is a prerequisite for great biodiversity.

Landscape diversity is a consequence of the unique border location of the peninsula:

- on the border of the temperate and subtropical zones;

- at the junction of the platform and the geosynclinal zone;

- on the border of the ranges of many floras and faunas.

Many features of the landscape structure are associated with its peninsular position - Crimea is almost an island (and in certain geological epochs it was a real island) within the Azov-Black Sea basin, and the latter is a kind of island within Eurasia. The insular position determines some features of the climate, contributed to the emergence of a significant proportion of endemics, and, for some classes of animals, to the depletion of the species composition.

In Crimea, the interaction of mountains and plains plays an important role. Mountainous Crimea is a megaanticlinorium, consisting of two structural floors and a number of large structures. The foothills consist of cuesta ridges located on the raised edge of the Scythian platform. The latter is located at the base of the Plain Crimea. The geological history of the Crimea has more than 200 million years. During this period, various geological structures, loose deposits and landforms were formed. Among the genetic types of relief, erosion-denudation, erosion-accumulative, accumulative (subdivided into marine, lake and river), abrasion, karst, landslide, and in many cases structural landforms are well expressed. The contrast of heights in the Crimea reaches one and a half kilometers, and in the Ai-Petri-Koreiz region, the height difference is 1.2 km at a distance of 3 km.

Morphological relief types are represented by low (undrained and drained) and elevated plains (with subtypes of ridges, wavy, hilly, remnant, plateau-like), foothills, low mountains, and middle mountains. At a lower level, ravine, hollow, beam, valley, basin-like, saddle-shaped are distinguished. The types of slopes are varied: from gentle to steep; open and closed; convex, concave, stepped, straight.

More than two thousand years of economic development of the peninsula has led, along with the destruction of many natural landscapes, to the emergence of various natural and anthropogenic landscapes: agricultural landscapes, residential, recreational, mining and industrial landscapes, as well as natural and technical systems - irrigation, urban, transport and communication, etc.

The soil cover has a variegated spatial pattern, reflecting lithological, orographic, and microclimatic differentiation. Over 400 types of soils and several thousand varieties have been identified in the Crimea.

Habitats of communities of organisms are formed on the basis of landscape systems. Preserving the landscape also means preserving biodiversity. Landscapes located in hard-to-reach areas have been preserved to the greatest extent, due to the conditions of the relief, poor transport accessibility, in areas unfavorable for the development of certain types of activities (infertile soils, unfavorable conditions for the population, etc.). Crimea is characterized by areas that occupy small areas, but concentrate within their boundaries a wide variety of habitat conditions, species of organisms and communities. We are talking about contact zones of various geosystems, river valleys, gullies, ravines, steep areas, ecotones, banks of water bodies, places where groundwater exits, prerequisites are created for increasing diversity:

1) ecotone zones, where species diversity increases;

2) hard-to-reach areas where economic activity and tourism have not been widely developed;

3) areas where the conditions for the existence of organisms are improved due to the presence of water sources, additional nutrition, or for other similar reasons.

When describing the landscape structure of the Crimea, experts used the allocation of physical and geographical regions of different levels. The most widespread and recognized system of units: physical-geographical country - landscape zone - physical-geographical province - physical-geographical region - physical-geographical district - physical-geographical region.

Crimea is located within two physical and geographical countries - Eastern European and Crimean-Caucasian. The northern flat part of the Crimea is the Crimean steppe province, which belongs to the dry steppe subzone of the steppe zone. Within its boundaries, four physical and geographical regions are distinguished: the North Crimean lowland steppe, the Tarkhankutskaya elevated plain, the Central Crimean plain steppe and the Kerch hilly-ridged steppe. Within their limits, physiographic regions are distinguished - a total of 12. The mountainous Crimea forms a physiographic province within the Crimean-Caucasian country. It is divided into three physical and geographical regions: the Foothill forest-steppe, the Main mountain-meadow-forest ridge and the South Coast Sub-Mediterranean. Within these regions, 9 physical-geographical regions are distinguished.

The landscape structure of the Crimea is most fully disclosed on the landscape-typological maps of the Crimea (M 1:200,000) and Mountain Crimea (M 1:100,000), compiled by G.E. Grishankov as a result of detailed field work in 1965-1975. and generalizations of extensive empirical material. He used the following mapping units: landscape levels, zones, belts, tiers, groups of localities. Landscape levels are zonal systems formed on a geomorphological basis, relatively uniform in relief and soil moisture, with a planetary distribution. The zonal systems of the Crimea are formed within the hydromorphic, upland, foothill and mid-mountain landscape levels.

The hydromorphic level of Crimea is represented by coastal lowlands - the North Crimean, Sasyk-Sakskaya and fragments on the Kerch Peninsula. The lowlands have a relative height of 0 to 40 m above sea level, are distinguished by exceptional flatness and are represented by one zone - the zone of semi-desert poor forb steppes.

Upland plains stretched from the Tarkhankut Peninsula, through the plains of the Central Crimea and to the watershed plains of the Kerch Peninsula. Their height ranges from 40 to 150 m. They are characterized by a dissected valley-beam and denudation-remnant relief. One zone is expressed - typical poor forb steppes.

The foothill landscape level of Crimea occupies both the northern foothill plains and uplands, and the low mountains of the southern coast of Crimea. The height reaches 600 m, the dissection and mosaicity of the relief and landscape increase. Two natural zones are expressed - foothill forest-steppe and pistachio-oak and oak-juniper forests of the southern coast of Crimea. Features of the climate, soils and vegetation of these zones are determined by the change in the position of individual territories in relation to the mountains and incoming air masses. Differences in soils and vegetation reach the latitudinal-zonal level.

The mid-mountain landscape level in Crimea is represented by the Main Ridge of the Crimean Mountains, which stretches from Balaklava to Stary Krym at an altitude of 400 to 1500 m. Medium-steep and steep slopes predominate in the relief, and on flat tops there are fragments of plains with numerous karst forms. The differentiation of the mid-mountain landscape level into natural zones is based on a change in the position and height of the relief. There are three zones at this level. The most significant differences are observed between the zone of the mountain forest-steppe yail, on the one hand, and the forest zones of the slopes, on the other. The differences between the zones of the middle mountains barely reach the latitudinal-subzonal level.

Specially protected territories have been formed in each region of the peninsula. At the zonal-belt level of the structural organization of biodiversity, the number of protected areas varies depending on the area of ​​the zone and its biocenotic structure, but does not reach international criteria. In general, calculations show that the minimum number of protected areas within the zones of the Plain Crimea should reach 14-26%, foothill - 14-30%, mountain - up to 60%, which is consistent with a number of expert estimates. The natural zones of Crimea are distinguished by patterns of intra-regional organization, which change during the transition from one landscape level to another. On hydromorphic plains, the leading factor of organization is the depth of groundwater. Taking it into account, hydromorphic zonality is formed, associated with a change in saline groundwater from 0 to 6-8 m. The landscape structure of these plains is determined by a combination of three main hydromorphic belts: undrained, poorly drained and relatively drained belt of plains. In the belt of undrained plains, groundwater (saline sulfate-chloride water) is located at a depth of 0.2-0.5 m, solonchaks and halophytic meadows are widespread here. In the belt of poorly drained plains, the groundwater level (saline chloride-sulfate) ranges from 0.2-0.5 m to 2.5-3.0 m, the vegetation cover is dominated by sagebrush-fescue steppes in combination with halophytic meadows. In the belt of relatively drained plains, groundwater descends to a depth of 3-8 m from the surface, sulfate salinity, the vegetation cover was dominated by depleted variants of feather-grass-fescue real steppes characteristic of upland plains, however, the soil profile retains the features of former hydromorphism. On the upland plains, the leading factors of landscape organization are the relative height, lithology, and the degree and nature of the dissection of the relief. In accordance with the vertical differences in landscapes associated with changes in geomorphological conditions (degree and nature of dissection, lithology of rocks, speed and direction of geomorphological processes, etc.), landscape layering is formed. Landscape tiering occurs where a slight fluctuation in altitude above sea level does not affect climate change and, consequently, the structure of the landscape.

In Crimea, three-tiered plains of the Tarkhankut Upland and two-tiered central plains of Crimea are distinguished. The upper tier of the Tarkhankut Upland is represented by structural weakly dissected plains with poorly developed soils of the chernozem type and soddy-grass poor forb steppes. The second tier is located on lower eluvial-denudation plains. It is characterized by thicker soils of the chernozem type and forb steppes. The lower tier of the Tarkhankut Upland is formed by denudation-accumulative hollow-beam plains. These plains are characterized by a relatively variegated soil and vegetation cover, which varies from petrophytic steppes on steep slopes to meadow steppes on gullies.

The landscapes of the Central Crimean plains are represented by a two-tiered structure in the form of real rich herb steppes in combination with savannoid steppes on loess poorly dissected plains and real poor herb steppes in combination with rich herb meadow steppes on accumulative-denudation hollow-beam plains.

Within the piedmont landscape level, the main factors of landscape organization are the position of the piedmont plains in relation to the mountains and the direction of the prevailing winds and the height above sea level, and in some cases the depth of groundwater. Due to the change in relative height, slope microzoning is formed. In Crimea, slope microzoning is well manifested on the plains, in the foothills, and on the southern coast of Crimea. For example, two genetically isolated groups of microzones are well distinguished on the southern coast of Crimea under conditions of low-mountain relief. The lower group includes the bottom of the gullies and the slopes near the gullies, where brown clay-cartilaginous soils are common on the deluvium and proluvium of clay shales and sandstones. The vegetation cover is dominated by shilyakovo-forest complexes.

During historical time, there has been a significant reduction in natural landscapes and a wide development of derivatives formed as a result of the interaction of newly created (constructive) and poorly transformed landscapes. Natural, poorly transformed, landscapes occupy only 2.5% of the territory. These are, first of all, mountain broad-leaved forests, mountain forest-steppe on yayla, solonchaks and halophyte meadows of the Sivash region and the Kerch Peninsula.

Most of the Crimean territory (62%) has been developed for constructive landscapes: arable lands, gardens, cities, roads, etc. They require constant addition of additional energy according to a certain plan to maintain their new structure and functioning. This is the widest type, including residential, water management, recreational and beach, road transport, industrial and municipal, mining and industrial classes. This includes park classes of land, which include the following types: orchards, vineyards, arable land and plantations of tobacco and essential oil plants, nurseries, greenhouses, greenhouses, warehouses, shelterbelts, livestock complexes. Terraced complexes stand out in particular.

The rest of the territory (35.5%) is represented by derived landscapes. Derived complexes are natural complexes reflecting different stages of digression or one of the stages of their denaturalization. They were formed during the spontaneous use of forest landscapes for pastures and during unsystematic felling and fires. This type includes classes of digressive (from polydominant shilyaks to erosional badland) and renaturalized lands (from phryganoid petrophytic steppe to restored forest). At present, in most of the territory of the South Coast, natural forests have been replaced by shrub thickets of the shilyak type, in which shrub forms of downy oak, hornbeam, skumpia, hold-tree, sumac and wild rose dominate.

Destructive lands are negative territorial by-products of human activity. They are the last stage of landscape degradation.

Terrestrial and amphibious landscapes are distinguished in Crimea. The latter include landscapes of rivers, lakes, and coastal areas of the sea, where the functioning of bottom complexes is directly related to surface water layers and sunlight. Zonal-belt conditions (position in the temperate zone on the border with the subtropical zone with insufficient precipitation) determine the dominance of subboreal semiarid landscapes in Crimea. The Crimean mountains disturb the structure of zonal circulation processes: altitude and barrier effects lead to a change in the thermal and water regime within the mountains. Along with subboreal conditions, boreal conditions are formed, in addition to semiarid conditions, semi-humid and humid ones appear.

In Crimea, one zonal type of landscape is found - semiarid steppe, occupying the flat part of the peninsula. Arid (semiarid) conditions are observed in this part of the peninsula: with an evaporation rate of 850-900 mm/year, 400-450 mm/year of precipitation falls. In the Sivash region, the amount of precipitation decreases to 350 mm / year, and the moisture coefficient - to 0.35-0.40. This brings the conditions in this area closer to subboreal arid semi-desert. But the land cover here is more influenced by other factors: the proximity of groundwater and the residual salinity of soils. They lead to the formation here of complexes of wormwood-fescue steppes, halophyte meadows and solonchaks.

In the foothill and mountainous parts of the peninsula, other types of landscapes are formed, which is associated with the superposition of the zonal background of exposure circulation differentiation (precipitation pre-ascension, an increase in precipitation on the windward slopes and a decrease on the leeward slopes), height above sea level (decrease in temperature with height), meridional sector, positions in relation to the sea. Geographically, these factors are manifested within tens of kilometers. The mountains disturb the structure of meteorological fields, as a result of which the amount of precipitation increases by 1.5-3 times, and spatial differentiation of the thermal regime occurs. Therefore, in different parts of the mountains and foothills, the conditions of heat supply and moisture supply were formed, close to subboreal-semi-humid forest-steppe (central and eastern parts of the Foothills), subboreal humid forest (Northern macroslope of the Main Range and the upper part of the Southern macroslope - up to about 800 m), subboreal southern humid forest (the lower forest part of the Southern macroslope of the Main Ridge - at an altitude of 400-800 m), subboreal "southern semi-humid forest-steppe (southwestern foothills - the region of Sevastopol, Bakhchisaray, the Baidar valley and the southeastern part of the south coast, with the exception! The most arid coastal part - see below), subboreal southern semiarid steppe (region of Meganom, "Koktebel, Ordzhonikidze). In the extreme south-west of the peninsula in the coastal zone; (up to a height of about 300 m) heat supply conditions approach subtropical (Miskhor: sum of temperatures above 10 degrees is about 4000, the temperature of the coldest month reaches 4.5 degrees). From west to east, the amount of precipitation decreases, and their maximum shifts to summer, which reduces their effectiveness and brings conditions closer to semi-arid ones (east of Alushta to Sudak and Karadag).

Humid boreal and boreal-subboreal conditions prevail at altitudes of 900-1000 m and more. According to the conditions of heat supply, three groups, or series, of landscapes were distinguished: boreal, boreal-subboreal and subboreal. Subboreal can be divided into subgroups - typical and southern. Within the subboreal southern forest-steppe group, a sub-Mediterranean variety is distinguished. According to the moisture conditions, semiarid, semihumid and humid series are distinguished.

Thus, based on the analysis of the position on the scales of heat supply (the sum of temperatures is more than 10 degrees) and moisture supply (the Vysotsky-Ivanov humidification coefficient), it was revealed that in Crimea there are prerequisites for distinguishing 8 zonal (levels 1 and 2) types of landscapes: boreal, boreal- subboreal, three subboreal, three subboreal southern.

Within the typical steppe landscapes in the Plain Crimea, in the Sivash region, semi-desert steppes and halophyte meadows are common. Their appearance is associated not so much with the deterioration of moisture conditions (which goes in a northeasterly direction), but with the influence of saline soils and groundwater, that is, with factors of an edaphic and hydrogeological nature.

On the Yailas, the climatic conditions correspond to boreal (taiga) and boreal-subboreal (subtaiga) landscapes, however, hydrological-lithological and geomorphological conditions lead to a sharp decrease in the amount of moisture that can be used by plants, resulting in the formation of meadow steppe and forest steppe. The growth of tree species is also hindered by severe microclimatic conditions: high wind speeds in winter with high air humidity. Landscapes are also affected by evolutionary factors related to the laws of self-development of landscape components. After the removal of the anthropogenic pressure, succession shifts begin, ending with the formation of communities in one way or another close to the original ones. Since anthropogenic impacts have been manifested over the past millennia (and especially centuries), a patchwork system of plant communities has emerged on the territory of the peninsula from different stages of successional rows of vegetation types.

Many factors differentiate landscapes within local territories. River erosion leads to the formation of valleys, meso- and microscale slopes of different steepness and exposure. The formation of slopes is influenced by many other factors. Slope differentiation contributes to the uneven influx of solar radiation due to different steepness and exposure, redistribution of solid (snow) and liquid precipitation that fell on the surface. There are effects of shielding solar radiation by ridges, reducing the flow of radiation to the bottoms of river valleys. All this creates a significant territorial differentiation of moisture in landscape complexes at a very short distance, often within hundreds or even tens of meters, there is a sharp change in temperature conditions, soil moisture. This causes a change in the nature of soil-forming processes, the formation of loose surface deposits, the migration of chemical elements and the formation of the geochemical environment as a whole.

Particularly noticeable territorial changes occurred within the foothills, since here the steppe complexes are replaced by forest ones (that is, the landscape system has the character of an ecotone), and any differentiation of conditions within the ecotone causes a rather sharp change in complexes. Change of landscape complexes often occurs within short distances.

According to hypsometric properties, classes and subclasses of landscapes are distinguished. There are three classes of landscapes in the Crimea: plains, foothills and mountains. They are divided into subclasses. Plain landscapes are divided into low-lying (Sivash) and elevated (Tarkhankut Peninsula, Central Crimean Plain, Kerch Peninsula). The class of foothill landscapes is divided into cuesto monoclinal and inter-ridge. The class of mountain landscapes in the Crimea is represented by two subclasses - low-mountain (the main part of the mountains) and medium-mountain (yayly and the highest ridges). Within the low-mountain subclass, a mountain-seaside variety (south-coastal regions) can be distinguished.

By positional properties, groups, subgroups, families, subfamilies, categories and varieties of landscapes are distinguished.

A semi-desert variety of semiarid steppe landscapes occupies the Sivash region. This is a low-lying plain, gradually rising from the coast of Sivash and the Karkinitsky Gulf of the Black Sea to 40 meters. It is composed of eolian-deluvial loams and clays. The valleys of rivers and beams are filled with alluvial loams and sandy loams, firth sands and clays. Within the territory, climatic and geomorphological differences are weakly expressed, the main role in the differentiation of landscape conditions is the depth of groundwater. Directly at the coastline, in the lower reaches of the rivers, groundwater is located a few tens of centimeters from the surface. Therefore, solonchaks and halophyte meadows predominate here. Along the coast, wetlands with thickets of reeds and other hydrophytes have formed, serving as a habitat for numerous birds. The higher areas are dominated by sagebrush-fescue steppes. Even higher they are replaced by feather grass-fescue steppes.

Vegetation and animal world of these landscape areas have been preserved in small areas, since 50-70% are arable land and 20-30% are pastures with a strong manifestation of pasture digression. Here you can observe the processes of desertification. At the same time, the widespread development of irrigation (about 30% of the area of ​​the Svash region) led over the last few decades of the 20th century to the formation of landscape complexes of the humid type. During the irrigation process, many areas were flooded. Most of the territory is occupied by agro-ecosystems. Of greatest interest from the point of view of biodiversity conservation are sites in the central part of the Sivash region, which serve as a temporary habitat for migratory birds. For wetlands formed as a result of desalination of the Sivash with waste water, local bird species are also characteristic.

The greatest problems for the biological and landscape diversity of this zone are the change in the hydrological and hydrogeological regime under irrigation, the deterioration in the quality of surface and underground water due to the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Until the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century, the area of ​​natural biocenoses was decreasing due to an increase in the area of ​​arable land, however, in recent years, the reverse process of abandoning agricultural land has begun, accompanied by the formation of ruderal and segetal vegetation and weed biocenoses on them. Chemical pollution is largely associated with rice cultivation. There is a task of gradually replacing rice cultivation with other types of land use. However, it would be wrong to simply stop rice cultivation by abandoning these areas. In this case, weedy phytocenoses will inevitably form on these lands and the process of strong secondary salinization will begin.

Subboreal steppe typical landscapes are the only zonal first-level landscape type in Crimea, which occupies approximately 60% of the peninsula, stretching from the Tarkhankutsky to the Kerch Peninsula and occupying the entire flat part of Crimea, with the exception of the Sivash region. The natural vegetation of these landscapes has been preserved in small areas. It has been replaced by fields, orchards, vineyards, pastures and is characterized by a very depleted species composition. This territory is more dissected compared to the Sivash region - elevated plains dominate here. Irrigation of fields led to the formation of complexes that differ significantly from zonal ones.

Within this zone, experts distinguish three landscape areas, characterized by a different set of landscape areas and tracts:

1. 1. Tarkhankutskaya elevated plain, composed of limestones, red-brown clays, loess-like loams. Ridge uplands are combined on the peninsula with deeply incised valleys (dry rivers). The area is characterized by hot, dry summers and relatively warm winter without a clearly defined period with negative air temperatures. Humidification is insufficient - evaporation is approximately twice the amount of precipitation. The territory corresponds to the subboreal semiarid steppe type landscape. Almost no original vegetation has been preserved. Arable land covers approximately 50% of the territory. Cereals predominate among agricultural crops. Quite a significant area (about a third of the territory) is occupied by pastures represented by poor-forb steppes, often their petrophytic variants.
2. 2. The Central Crimean territory is composed of brown continental clays and loess-like loams, covered in many places with layers of anthropogenic proluvial-deluvial deposits. The wavy-hollow relief prevails with elevations from 50 to 120 m. The climate differs from the Tarkhankut Upland by a slightly higher amount of precipitation: up to 500-550 mm per year and somewhat more severe winters. The territory is dominated by flat-hollow, valley-beam, flat-plain, valley-dry river and coastal-halogen areas. This is the most plowed area - 75% (the predominance of grain crops, part of the land is occupied by vineyards and orchards, industrial crops). Natural steppe areas have been preserved in small patches.

The largest number of habitats is observed in the river valleys. Here are the most contrasting conditions in terms of moisture, geomorphology, and lithology. At the same time, most of the settlements are confined to the river valleys, that is, in the valleys there is a peculiar neighborhood of small natural and contrasting landscape complexes and settlements.

3. The Kerch zone occupies the Kerch Peninsula. There are two main parts of the peninsula: the southwestern part, made of heavy salted Maikop clays, and the northeastern part, composed of clays, sands, marls and limestones. Arable land occupies 35% of the peninsula. The southwestern part is dominated by desert steppes, halophytic meadows, and typical poor forb-grass steppes. The northeastern part is dominated by petrophytic shrub-forb-cereal steppes in the remnant-watershed areas, feather-grass-fescue steppes on sloping plains, fescue-wormwood-desert steppes in basins. These territories are mostly used for pastures and are in different stages of pasture digression.

Special ecotopes are formed in the coastal parts of the zone of typical steppe landscapes. Here, in many areas, abrasion processes have led to the formation of dissected steep banks treated with water erosion. The large dissection determined the poor suitability of the sites for economic use, which contributed to the conservation of plant and animal species and biocenoses here. The contrast of the relief, and thus the microclimatic conditions, favors the survival of animals in conditions of fluctuating weather and changing seasons. In many parts of the coast of the peninsula, high biodiversity has been preserved (the extreme western part of the coast of the Tarkhankut Peninsula - the areas of Dzhangul, Atlesh; sections of the Azov and Black Sea coasts of the Kerch Peninsula - areas of Karalar, Osovina, Opuk).

Subboreal forest-steppe typical landscapes are zonal landscapes of the second level; they occupy the Foothills. Here there is a change of flat landscapes by mountainous ones. The territory is crossed by the Outer and Inner cuesta ridges, separated by an inter-ridge depression. The ridges are composed of limestones, marls and clays, the depression between the ridges is composed of marls. The climate of the territory becomes more humid and cool compared to the steppe part: the amount of precipitation here increases to 550-650 mm/year, and the moisture coefficient - up to 0.55. It is distinguished by a more significant territorial differentiation of landscapes, since a dissected relief is observed here, a sharp change in meteorological fields occurs due to the transition from a flat part to a mountainous one.

Large differences develop between the northern and southern slopes of the cuestas due to the different amounts of incoming solar radiation. But in many cases, it is the southern steep slopes of the cuestas that are wooded, while the northern gentle slopes are usually plowed up. This is due to the practical impossibility of using the steep southern slopes for agricultural activities. The treeless slopes were previously used for grazing, while the forested slopes have retained a relatively natural appearance. In the 1960s and 1980s, terracing and planting of pines were carried out on many treeless southern slopes of the cuestas, which had very different consequences for landscape and biological diversity in different areas. The steep slopes of the cuestas have the greatest number of location types and habitats. This area has changed significantly. This is the most urbanized part of the peninsula with many transport arteries. There are quite a few quarries for the development of building materials.

Subboreal typical forest zonal landscapes of the second level occupy the main part of the Northern macroslope of the Crimean Mountains. Forest landscapes in this area have received the most vivid manifestation and are best preserved. The following factors are of primary importance for the formation of the diversity of ecotopes here:

Altitude above sea level (height difference is 500-600 m). Here, the altitudinal zonality is quite well (better than in other parts of the peninsula) manifested: fluffy oak forests-rock oak forests-hornbeam-beech forests;

Exposure differences: between the slopes of the northern and southern exposures, there are very significant differences in the amount of solar radiation (up to 50-60%);

Effects of closed slopes.

This is the most forested part of the peninsula. Along with relatively favorable climatic conditions, this was favored by the poor accessibility of many areas for humans (for example, the Central Crimean Basin). Settlements and agricultural lands occupy only narrow bands of the bottoms of river valleys.

Yayly - according to the background climatic conditions, they correspond to boreal and boreal-subboreal: precipitation is 600-1500 mm / year, the temperature of the coldest month is from -2 to -5 ° C, the temperature of the warmest month is from 12-13 to 16-17 °C. Evaporation varies within 500-700 mm/year, background climatic humidification is normal or excessive. Yayla landscapes have a pronounced azonal character associated with lithological and geomorphological conditions. Falling atmospheric precipitation falls through cracks and moves through underground cavities to the flysch aquiclude, unloading on the slopes of the yail. Differentiation of ecotopes is associated with lithological differences (limestones have different degrees of fracture and susceptibility to karst manifestations), the existence a large number sinkholes. The steppe and forest-steppe landscapes of the Yail form a kind of island among the surrounding forest landscapes, which determines their well-known isolation and contributes to the formation of endemic species of organisms.

The woodlands on the southern steep slopes of the yayles are azonal communities. The latter are associated with lithomorphic and geomorphological factors. Falling atmospheric precipitation is poorly retained in place due to the high steepness of the surface, slope processes are strongly manifested: rockfalls, screes, washout of soil and loose deposits. These are very unstable landscapes. No anthropogenic loading is recommended here.

Subboreal forest southern landscapes occupy the lower part of the Southern macroslope of mountains - from 800 m to 400 m. pine forests. Within this zone, a rather high percentage is occupied by sloping and steep slopes, which determines the intensification of erosion processes, a significant manifestation of rockfalls, screes. On gentle slopes, more favorable forest conditions are formed. The area is located in close proximity to settlements South coast, to recreational complexes. It is pierced by numerous hiking trails, despite the conservation regime of many sites. Therefore, it is subject to a rather significant anthropogenic impact. Especially dangerous for these fires associated with tourists. Subboreal forest-steppe southern landscapes occupy the southwestern Foothills (the region of Sevastopol, the lower part of the basins of the Belbek and Kacha rivers), the entire southeastern part of the South Coast (from Alushty to Karadag, with the exception of Meganom and Kiik-Atlama. This zone is characterized by large territorial contrasts associated with a variety of relief, rocks.Mild winter is of great importance - the temperature during the cold period does not fall below 20 ° C here, and the average January temperature is 2-3.5 ° C. Due to the mild winter, the proportion of winter-green plants in these areas increases .

The Mediterranean variant of subboreal typical southern forest-steppe landscapes roughly corresponds to the sub-Mediterranean type of landscape.

The landscapes of the region of the western part of the South Coast are already of the forest-steppe type - the subboreal southern forest-steppe, but they have a more pronounced heat supply (the sum of temperatures is above 10 °), a well-defined winter maximum of precipitation, evaporation 900-950 mm / year, annual precipitation 450-650 mm . The coefficient of moisture is 0.5-0.7, which corresponds to the forest-steppe. The heat supply does not reach the sum of temperatures of 4600, which is characteristic of the lower boundary of the subtropical climate. Therefore, this region is a special variant of the subboreal southern forest-steppe landscapes. These landscapes are characterized by the presence of a relatively large number of evergreen species. This area has undergone a major transformation. There are quite a lot of parks with introducers, part of the territory is occupied by vineyards. On the other part, natural communities have been preserved, but they have been greatly transformed. The dissection of the relief is very large, which determines the presence of a large number of habitat types associated with the bottoms of river valleys (with steeply dipping channels), slopes of different steepness and exposure. Transformations are associated with the construction of roads, cities, water pipelines. Landslides became more active, groundwater flows were restructured, which led to large changes in soil moisture, to the formation of new plant communities. The latter adapt to large recreational loads, which is reflected in the species composition.

Subboreal semiarid southern landscapes are distributed in small areas in the area of ​​Meganom, Kiik-Atlamy in the southeastern Crimea. They are characterized by increased evaporation rates - up to 1000 mm/year and more, a decrease in the annual amount of precipitation to 350 mm. The landscape complexes of the seaside strip of the mountainous part of the Crimea are formed in connection with the salt effect of the sea and the special nature of the microclimate, the great role of abrasion processes. The greatest contrast of landscape conditions here is manifested within a narrow coastal zone.

The landscapes of the river valleys of the mountainous part are a specific type of landscape that is formed in the eternal valleys. Its specificity is related to the following factors:

1) location below other landscape complexes, which leads to the transfer of additional water here; the formation here of accumulative deposits - alluvial, proluvial;

2) watercourses reshape the bottoms and slopes of valleys, which leads to constant restructuring of landscapes;

3) in the Crimea, where moisture is the main limiting environmental factor, river valleys have more favorable conditions for plant growth;

4) landscape complexes of valleys have a very small width and a large length, the small width of the complexes determines the territorial proximity of landscape complexes, the ability for animals to migrate from one landscape to another, depending on the need.

Ecotones are boundary systems, which are transitional zones between neighboring landscape systems, characterized as stress bands with maximum gradients of changes in the parameters of landscape systems. When analyzing biodiversity, it turns out that it is in ecotones that its value is most often the largest. In addition, ecotone landscape systems are characterized by specific properties, a more complex and diverse territorial structure, which creates conditions for the formation of more diverse and favorable habitats for biota than in neighboring landscape systems. Ecotones are more dynamic always more unstable in space-time. It is ecotone systems that are the first to react to changes in external conditions and therefore are indicators of changes in the ecological state of bordering landscape systems. They act as a kind of buffers on the way of natural and economic impacts. Ecotones often play the role of refugia.

Crimea can be considered as a complex ecotone. The peninsula is located at the junction of the temperate and subtropical zones and is a climatic ecotone. The proximity of land and sea for kilometers led to the formation of a variety of aquatic-territorial landscape zones of the coast.

There are four aquatic-territorial landscape macroecotones: South Coast (from Cape Aya in the south to Cape Ilya in the northeast); Kalamitsko-Karkinitsky (from Sevastopol to Karkinitsky Bay); Kerch (covers the coast of the Kerch Peninsula); Sivashsky. Similar in origin (at the contact of contrasting land-water media), they are very different in terms of landscape.

The landscape diversity of the South Coast ecotone is the greatest (up to a height of 350-400 m above sea level), in which 9 types of landscape areas are distinguished. The Sivash ecotone is interesting in that several factors are involved in its formation at once: the influence of the sea, a change in the degree of halohydromorphism, and the climatic factor. Moreover, the action and superposition of factors occurs as if in one direction, which affects the formation of a significant width of the ecotone (from 10 km in the area of ​​the Arabat Spit to 30 km). The landscape diversity of the ecotone is quite large, although less than that of the South Coast. It distinguishes 7 types of landscape areas. The Kalamitsko-Karkinitsky landscape ecotone is a coastal strip 4-6 km wide, including a system of shallow salt lakes. It is characterized by the least landscape diversity. Within this ecotone, 5 types of landscape areas are distinguished. The Kerch ecotone is formed by the interaction of different tectonic structures of the Crimean Mountains and the Crimean plains, which formed the macroecotone of the foothills. The entire Mountainous Crimea is a phytoecotone that formed on the border between the Circumboreal and Mediterranean floristic regions and concentrated most of the Crimean phytodiversity - 92.7%. These ecotones are associated with the boundaries of the physical-geographic regions of the Crimea, landscape levels and belts. Under anthropogenic influence, divergent ecotones are formed, in which the abundance of species and individuals decreases compared to the bordering natural community.

A special situation is developing in the Plain Crimea. Here, the degree of anthropogenic transformation of the landscape structure is the highest, and the territory is almost a continuous agricultural landscape. Suffice it to say that the percentage of plowing of land exceeds 80%, and there are practically no forests and protected areas. In such conditions, areas with preserved natural vegetation (as well as forest belts) themselves become ecotones between different types of land use.

Literature

1. 1. Biological and landscape diversity of the Crimea: problems and prospects. Simferopol: Sonat, 1999. - 180 p.
2. 2. Podgorodetsky P.D. Crimea: Nature. - Simferopol: Tavria, 1988.

The Crimean mountains belong to the folded structures of the Alpine geosynclinal belt. They represent a large and complex anticline uplift - the anticlinorium, the southern part of which is lowered and flooded by the waters of the Black Sea.

The Crimean Mountains consist of the main ridge, called Yaila, and two advanced cuesta ridges to the north of it, clearly expressed in the western and middle parts of the Crimean Mountains. The Yayla corresponds to the axial zone of the Crimean anticlinorium, the cuestas are the monoclines of its northern flank.

The western part of Yaila is an integral mountain range with a plateau-like surface, while the eastern part breaks up into more or less isolated plateau-like massifs (Chatyrdag, Karabiyaila, etc.). The most high peak Yaily rises in the east of the western part - Mount Roman-Kosh on Babuganyayle (1545 m).

The flat summit surfaces of the Yayla are composed mainly of hard Upper Jurassic limestones, which form steep, often sheer slopes of the plateau (especially along the southern coast of Crimea) and steep sides of the canyons that divide their edges.

A characteristic landscape feature of Yaila is given by karst landforms. The Yayla karst is very fully expressed and is a classic example of bare karst of the Mediterranean type.

Crimea. Yayla from the northwest side. In the background on the left is Chatyrdag, on the right is Babuganyayla. Rice.
N. A. Gvozdetsky

The relief of the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula is mainly ridge-erosion, in many places complicated by accumulations of limestone blocks that have fallen off the cliffs of the Yayla, slipped along the Taurian shales (Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic) lying at the base of the Yayla, large limestone massifs and landslides in the Taurian shales themselves. Landslides damage resort buildings, orchards and vineyards.

In the Crimean mountains, the altitudinal zonality of landscapes is clearly manifested. On the southern slope of Yayla, the southern coast of Crimea corresponds to the lower altitudinal zone, which, according to climatic conditions, can be attributed to the northeastern outskirts of the Mediterranean subtropical climate. On the South Coast, protected from the winds from the continent by a mountain barrier, the softening influence of the sea largely affects.

The climate of the Crimean mountains

Precipitation (the annual amount in Yalta is about 600 mm) falls most of all in winter. At this time, Mediterranean cyclones penetrate here. In spring, with the weakening of cyclonic activity in the area mediterranean sea rainfall is decreasing. Least of all they fall in April - May and August. With high insolation in summer, there is a lack of moisture, so you have to resort to watering fruit trees, young plantings of tobacco. Due to uneven precipitation, the rivers of the South Bank are characterized by a Mediterranean regime with winter and spring floods and a stable summer-autumn low water period.

Protected from the north by the Yaila barrier, the South Coast is warmer than other regions of Crimea. About 150 days a year the average daily temperature is above 15°. The winter is mild (the average temperature in January is about 4°), the plants do not stop growing. The snow that sometimes falls melts quickly, but more often it rains in winter. Summer and autumn are sunny, warm, the average temperature in July and August is about 24°. The eastern part of the southern coast of Crimea is drier, with an annual rainfall of 500-600 mm or less.

The climate of the summit surface of Yaila is characterized by cool summers (at an altitude of about 1200 m, the average July temperature is 4-15.7 °), not very severe winters (the average January temperature at the same altitude is about -4 °, lower in the east), a significant amount of precipitation ( in the western part up to 1000-1200 mm per year), strong winds.

In the west, the seasonal distribution of precipitation is the same as on the South Coast, with a maximum in winter. Summer maximum in the east. In the summer of three days, one, and in the winter two are on the Yayla with precipitation. In winter, precipitation falls in the form of snow.

Landscapes of the Crimean mountains

In a small space of the Crimean Mountains, various landscapes are pronounced (see diagram). Particularly characteristic is the karst landscape of the summit surface of Yayla (1) with karrs, funnels and other forms of bare karst, with natural mines, which often serve as ways of penetrating into the mysterious underworld. The flat surface, corroded by karst, absorbs rain and melted snow water, therefore there are no surface watercourses, and pools of stagnant water form only in funnels with a silted bottom.

Landscapes:
1 - karst top surface of Yayla; 2 - mountain-forest slopes of Yaila; 3 - forest-shrub and forest-steppe (southern type) cuest ridges; 4 - Mediterranean forest and cultivated; 5 - Mediterranean xerophytic-shrub-steppe

Carr fields characteristic of bare karst are combined on high massifs with stony mountain meadows and meadow steppes, on lower ones - with mountain forest-meadow-steppe and forest-steppe vegetation. The karst landscape is widespread in all parts of the plateau of the western monolithic part of Yayla and in the disjointed plateau-like massifs of its eastern part, but is especially pronounced on Ai-Petri, Chatyrdag and Karabiyail. Here, only at the bottom of karst funnels and hollows meadow grasses turn green, while in the lower areas, the tops of trees and bushes stick out from funnels and mouths of natural mines. This diversifies the landscape of bare rocky spaces, gives them a spotty look.

The lower tiers of the Yayla plateau used to be more forested. The clearing of forests and the eating of tree shoots by livestock, which interfered with the regeneration of the forest, as well as the overgrazing of herbaceous vegetation by excessive grazing, caused a greater spread of bare limestone surfaces and the development of bare karst and a deterioration in the regime of springs under the limestone cliffs framing the plateau. Strict implementation of the introduced ban on livestock grazing and carrying out forest-meadow restoration measures will help improve the water regime of Yayla and its karst sources.

The mountain-forest landscapes of the slopes of Yayla (2) with beech and oak forests and mountain burozems are similar to Caucasian and Carpathian ones, while the forests of Crimean pine on the southern slope are characteristic of the Crimea and are repeated only in the northern part. Black Sea coast Caucasus. The Crimean mountain forests play an exceptionally large anti-erosion and water protection role. Their protection and restoration are necessary, especially in mudflow-prone basins. Animals inhabiting these forests need protection.

The Mediterranean landscape of the South Coast (4) is unique with slate slopes, chaos of stone blocks, landslides, limestone cliffs, laccoliths. Oak-juniper forests with evergreen undergrowth, with red-brown and brown soils, have been preserved here. However, much of this landscape has given way to a cultivated one with vineyards and tobacco plantations, gardens, parks, beautiful resort buildings and well-equipped beaches. Climatic conditions and the soils of the southern coast of Crimea are favorable not only for viticulture (good table and wine varieties are grown) and tobacco growing, but also for subtropical fruit growing. The fight against landslides, erosion and mudflows is important for the protection of the cultivated landscape of the South Bank. The measures recommended for landscapes (1) and (2) should lead to the improvement of its water regime.

East of Alushta, a strip of Mediterranean xerophyte-shrub landscape stretches along the coast (5). It is characterized by vegetation typical of the Eastern Mediterranean - shiblyak, frigana, in the east in combination with the steppes. Brown skeletal soils are developed on weathered slate rubble. The typical erosive relief of the strip of distribution of this landscape in the Taurian shales is distinguished by an intense dissection of the surface by valleys of the first, second, and third orders and is in sharp contrast to the karst surfaces of the neighboring Yayla, which are almost unaffected by erosion. For this landscape, it is especially necessary to combat mudflows that develop in the zone of Taurian shales and sandstones. There is a need for complex anti-mudflow protection (hydraulic structures, phytomelioration on the slopes of mudflow catchment areas, etc.).

On the northern side of the Yayla, there are peculiar forest-shrub landscapes (with dominance of downy oak) and southern forest-steppe landscapes of cuesta ridges (3) with brown and humus-calcareous soils. The steep slope of the inner cuesta crowned with a cliff and the sharp steep sides of the canyons dissecting it create landscapes in which bare limestone walls, marl slopes with scree, and slopes overgrown with trees and bushes stand out in contrast.

The spectrum of altitudinal zonality of the southern slope of the Yayla combines the zones of the Mediterranean landscape of the southern coast, mountain-forest zones with belts of oak, pine and beech forests, and the karst landscape of the summit surface. There is no Mediterranean landscape on the northern slope; in the lower altitudinal zone, the southern forest-steppe is developed, and in the middle (with the exception of the most western regions) there are no forests of the Crimean pine typical of the southern slope. Greater similarity is observed, as is usually the case in the mountains, in the landscapes of the upper parts of the slopes. Nevertheless, in general, one can speak of different types of altitudinal zonality structure of the landscapes of the northern and southern slopes of the Crimean Mountains. Their differences are due to the climatic barrier role of Yayla. More continental variants of the selected types are observed in the east.

Mountainous Crimea is a natural museum, where a variety of landscapes and a lot of unique natural monuments are concentrated on a relatively small area.