Snowy Tundra near Biranga Mountains, Taymyr, Russia July 1989
The first destination of the German-Soviet expedition in 1989 was the Zapovednik (nature reserve) "Taymyrsky", in central Taymyr peninsula in the north of Krasnoyarsky Krai, established in 1979. Except the main area the Zapovednik includes also three isolated sites "Ary-Mas", "Lukunsky", "Balakhinsky". The total area is 1781,9 thousand ha. The Taymyr peninsula is covered by the most extensive and northernmost tundra habitats in Siberia. These enormous wetlands are used during the short Arctic summer by millions of waterbirds, which winter in Southern Europe, Southern Asia and Africa. The biodiversity of the Taymyr peninsula is with 20% well covered with different kinds of protected areas. However, there may be need to connect them by South-North corridors to secure adaptation of biodiversity moving North with climate change. With increased warming and thawing of tundra massive release of methane stored in the ground could trigger further climate change.
Year: 2013
From album: Great Arctic Reserve, Taymyrski Zapovednik and German-Russian Expeditions 1989-1991 to Taymyr
Photographer: Peter Prokosch