Visim Nature Reserve () (also Visimskiy) is a Russian '

zapovednik A zapovednik is an established term on the Post-Soviet states, territory of the former Soviet Union for a protected area which is kept "forever wild". It is the highest degree of environmental protection for the assigned areas, which are strictly ...

' (strict nature reserve) protecting an area of southern taiga in the low Middle

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

. In 2001, it was named a UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve. It is named for the ancient village of Visim, which was home to the Russian writer

Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (; October 25, 1852 – November 2, 1912) was a Russian writer. He is most well known for his novels and short stories about life in the Ural Mountains. Biography Early life Mamin-Sibiryak was born in Vis ...

, who wrote about rural life in the Urals. Most of the reserve is located on its western slope in the headwaters of the Sulёm River, a right tributary of the Chusovoi River, part of the vast Volga-Kama basin. Part, however is on the eastern slope in the

Ob River The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...

watershed. The reserve thus straddles the Europe-Asia continental divide: water from the reserve flows into both the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

through the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, and the

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

through the Ob River. The reserve is situated in the Kirovgrad District of

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblastʹ, p=svʲɪrdˈlofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the c ...

, about 100 km northwest of

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

Topography

The Visim Reserve has a terrain that is mostly low mountains with conifer forests. The core reserve is roughly rectangular, 20 km across, with much larger buffer zones (where hunting and fishing are prohibited) to the north. The eastern part of the reserve is low mountains with relative heights of 250 to 300 meters, and a maximum height of 700 meters above sea level. The delineated biosphere includes the core region of Visimskiy (33,487 hectares), plus a buffer zone extending north for 46,000 hectares, and a transition zone extending for a further 100,000 hectares north.

Climate and ecoregion

Visim is located in the '' Urals montane tundra and taiga'' ecoregion, a region that covers the Ural Mountains in a band that is narrow from west-east, but runs up most of the divide between European and Asiatic Russia. The area is a meeting zones of taiga and tundra tree and plant species. The climate of Visim is '' Humid continental climate, warm summer'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

(Dfb)). This climate is characterized by large swings in temperature, both diurnally and seasonally, with mild summers and cold, snowy winters. In the Visim Reserve, the growing season averages 141 days; average annual precipitation is 600 mm.

Flora and fauna

The Visim Reserve serves as a reference for representative plant communities of the southern Urals mountain taiga. 56% of the plant species of the Middle Urals botanical region are found within Visimsky. Scientific study can study the relative growth patterns in

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

(in the core reserve), secondary forest (particularly in the buffer zones where logging occurred in the 1950s), and transitional zone forests that have been affected by mining and other economic activity. Scientists on the reserve have recorded 435 species of vascular plants. The reserve experienced extensive windfall damage during storms in 1995, and forest fires in 1998 and 2010, that left only 1,500 hectares in a pristine old-growth state. 86% of the territory is forested, with Siberian spruce, Siberian fir, and birch dominating the secondary forest. The animal life of the reserve is typical of the Mid-Urals taiga: moose, wolf, bear, rabbit, beaver, marten, ermine, weasel, shrews and other rodents. Scientists on the reserve have recorded 48 species of mammals. 185 species of birds have been recorded, of which 125 are nesting.

Ecoeducation and access

As a strict nature reserve, the Visim Reserve is mostly closed to the general public, although scientists and those with 'environmental education' purposes can make arrangements with park management for visits. The reserve is building three 'ecotourist' routes, however, that will be open to the public, but require permits to be obtained in advance. Public access is easier in the buffer and transition zones. The main office is in the city of Kirovgrad.

References

External links