by Alexei ROMANOV, Dr. Sc. (Biol.), Deputy Director for Science, State Natural Reserve "Putoransky"

It has turned out that in large biogeographical areas of the Earth there exist relatively small centers that form and sustain biodiversity in vast territories. The Putorana Plateau in the Arctic region is one of such significant areas on the planet. In 1988, to protect its natural complexes, there was established State Natural Reserve "Putoransky", covering habitats of many animal species, including rare and endangered ones, listed in the Red Data Book of Russia. For scientists this region is a model for studies of regularities of formation, dynamics and preservation of the pristine environment of mountainous and subarctic ecosystems. In 2010, the reserve received a status of an object of the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Bird's-eye view of Putorana Plateau.

LAND OF LAKES AND WATERFALLS

The "Putoransky" reserve occupies a vast area (1,887 thous. ha.) of the largest mountainous massif in the Russian Arctic region, extending southwards from Taimyr. It is known as a gem of the Polar Region for its exclusive landscapes. There you can find a fantastic combination of greenish tectonic lakes and monumental basalt canyons, rock piles resembling mediaeval castles and rapid rivers with numerous waterfalls, mountain peaks covered with stone placers and snow fields.

The main objects of research and protection are such animal and bird species as Ovis nivicola borealis, Anser erythropus, Haliaeetus albicilla, Falco rustkolus as well as Gavia adamsii, Rufibrenta ruficollis, Cygnus bewickii. Anas formosa, Pandion haliaetus, Aquila chrysaetos, Falco peregrinus, Numenius minutus, and are registered in the Red Data Book of Russia.

As for its geological structure, the Putorana Plateau is a north-western high-lying edge of the Central Siberian

Plateau. It is a basalt crystalline massif with flat peaks, rising on average 1,000 m above sea level with the maximal absolute height of 1,701 m. Numerous elevations resulted in the formation of deep tectonic faults that gradually filled with water and now look like narrow and deep canyons with stepped slopes. Their picturesque labyrinths are very similar to fjords of the coast of northern Scandinavia.

The fullest and the deepest lakes of Siberia except for Baikal and Teletskoye are located on the Putorana

Plateau. There is no other mountainous area in the world that could be compared to it in terms of number and depth of local lakes. There are about ten large lakes (up to 100 km long and 250 m deep): Lama, Khantaiskoye, Keta, Vivi, Severnoye, Ayan, Annama, Beldunchana, Dyupkun.

This land is also wellknown for an avalanche of waterfalls. No one counted them, but it will be no exaggeration to say that there are thousands of them and, moreover, they are all different. Some of them are small,

deliberately "slipping down" in thin water strings. Others are giants, more than hundreds of meters wide and tens of meters high, roaring down from black basalt rocks in foaming swirling streams. Sometimes it seems that nature has chosen them to demonstrate its primeval unbridled temper. The highest waterfall in Russia (108 m) is located in our reserve.

Putorana winters are long and severe. Ice and snow are dominating elements of the local landscape. Numerous snow fields do not let us forget about their supremacy even in summer. This is a region where traces of mountainous Pleistocene glaciers are not a rare occurrence.

AMAZING FACTS AND DISCOVERIES

A huge area of the plateau as well as its expressed vertical zoning has resulted in a unique combination of habitats where animals, adapted to living in absolutely different conditions, exist side by side. Tundra, forest tundra, taiga and mountain animals have found a comfortable environment there. The high-lying Putorana landscapes are the habitat for a unique fauna of forest

(mountainous and northern taiga), pre-alpine (mountainous and forest tundra) and alpine (mountainous and tundra) belts. They have no absolute analogues in Eurasia, which makes them valuable protected objects in the reserve.

Areas of distribution of many animal species, spread mostly in Europe and Eastern Siberia, Arctic tundras and southern taiga of Central Siberia, are overlapping in this region. One can observe here a wide range of land and water habitats. The Putorana Plateau is located within the limits of the Yenisei zoogeographical border-one of the biggest meridional biogeographical borders of Eurasia. This explains a unique biodiversity and a transitional character of the local fauna.

Diversity of ichthyofauna is maintained with an extensive local water system in the basins of the Yenisei, Pyasina and Khatanga rivers. There are 36 fish species inhabiting the Putorana Plateau. For example, there live 4 endemic species of the Taimyr Peninsula--Salvelinus boganidae, Salvelinus tolmachoffi, Salvelinus drjagini, and Salvelinus taimyricus. One more interesting fact: Salvelinus alpinus, Coregonus lavaretus pidschian, Coregonus

muksun, Prosopium cylindraceum, Thymallus arcticus form here unique morphological and morphoecological groups, still unqualified by scientists in the structures of appropriate species.

We can observe 187 bird species there, which is much more than in other northern taiga regions of Siberia. Spruce and larch forests of the Putorana Plateau are a usual habitat for Tetrao parvirostris, Surnia ulula, Picoides tridactylus, Perisoreus infaustus, Bombycilla garrulus, Prunella montanella, Phylloscopus borealis, Turdus naumanni, etc. Littoral bushes are inhabited by Phylloscopus trochilus, Luscinia svecica, Carpodacus ery-thrinus, Emberiza pallasi (all from Passeriformes). Forests with sparse growth of larch trees shelter Acanthis flammea, Motacilla citreola, Emberiza pusilla. There you can watch birds nesting in the rocks: Buteo lagopus, Ealco rusticolus, Delichon urbica, Corvus corax and Motacilla cinerea. Open woodless high-lying areas of the plateau are inhabited by specific species of Arctic birds--Lagopus mutus, Eudromias morinellus, Eremophila alpestris, Plectrophenax nivalis, Oenanthe oe nanthe, frequent in the north of Eurasia; Heteroscelus brevipes and Anthus rubescens, characteristic of Northern Asia. Gavia arctica, Anser fabalis, Anser erythropus, Anas crecca, Bucephala clangula, Larus argentatus and Sterna paradisaea are nesting in water and near water habitats.

Each year the Putorana avifauna studies bring outstanding results. For example, in 2001-2003, the author of this article discovered isolated mountain populations of rare vanishing species of geese--Anser erythropus. In 2010, we discovered nesting places of Calidris ruficollis. The nearest habitats of this species were known earlier only in the eastern outskirts of the Taimyr Peninsula, about a thousand kilometers northeast from Putorana Plateau. We discovered the species in the alpine tundra belt of the Putorana Plateau--in the littoral tundra near two mountainous tectonic lakes--Bogatyr and Neralakh with hollows "ironed" by Late Pleistocene glaciers.

The most exciting thing we noticed was that one of the birds we watched in 2010 was ringed far away from our places: its right leg was in a bright orange plastic ring, used by ornithologists to ring sandpipers coming for winter to the State of Victoria in the south-east of Australia. It was already known that Calidris ruficollis nesting in Chukotka tundras, flew to Australia in winter. But the fact that they even from the westernmost nesting place, Putorana Plateau, fly to Australia, was discovered for the first time! We registered the westernmost point in the Taimyr Peninsula and Arctic regions, the birds returned to from Australia. Thus, to our surprise, there was discovered a new, previously unknown Calidris ruficollis population in the Putorana Reserve and a great migration mileage of this species was confirmed too. It was the first time when scientists determined the maximal distance of its seasonal migration routes. This small sandpiper (a little bit bigger than a sparrow) covers about 17,000 km twice a year, crosses the equator, tropics and visits two continents--Eurasia (in the Northern hemisphere) and Australia (in the Southern hemisphere)!

LIFE OF MAMMALS ON THE PLATEAU

There are 39 mammal species inhabiting the reserve. Ursus arctos, Canis lupus, Gulo gulo, Mustela erminea, Lepus timidus, Rangifer tarandus, Alces alces, Sorex cae-cutiens, Ochotona hyperborea, Clethrionomys rutilus and Clethrionomys rufocanus are most common there. As for Ondatra zibethicus, Vulpes vulpes and Lutra lutra--they inhabit only separate areas of the reserve. Talpa altaica, Tamias sibiricus, Ovibos moschatus and Moschus moschiferus inhabit outskirts of the plateau, adjoining its foothills. Besides, high-altitude belts of the Putorana Plateau are settled by mammals unevenly. Their habitats, to one extent or another, are located in forest, pre-alpine tundra and alpine tundra belts, but they are

mainly concentrated in the forest belt. Nevertheless, there are species preferring exclusively the upper part of the high-altitude profile (Putorana Ovis nivicola borealis) or, vice versa, bottom areas of the mountain hollows (Lutra lutra, Alces alces).

The most frequent mammals of the plateau are Ochotona hyperborea, Lepus timidus, Clethrionomys rutilus and Clethrionomys rufocanus, Mustela erminea, Rangifer tarandus. In winter the population of Alopex lagopus increases as many animals of this species migrate there from the plain tundras of the Taimyr Peninsula.

With the prevailing mountainous-hollow landscape, the habitats of many animals are of "insular" character. Populations of some species (subspecies) are isolated and live in one or two mountain hollows located far from the main distribution area. In particular, the Putorana Plateau is inhabited by the unique endemic subspecies of Ovis nivicola borealis. About 40 percent of the whole

population of this species living in the preserve are under protection now.

The Putorana Plateau is the venue of the most breathtaking event in the life of big mammals--seasonal migration of the Taimyr Rangifer tarandus population, one of the biggest in Eurasia. The estimated size of the population is some hundreds of thousands of animals. Moving herds attract a multitude of car nivores--Canis lupus, Ursus arctos and Gulo gulo.

Concentrations of Ursus arctos are comparable to that of their Kamchatka relatives near spawning rivers. Man has also been hunting the reindeer from ancient times, which is evidenced by stone arrow heads of the Neolithic found by scientists (absolute age--6,000 years).

As the Putorana Plateau was difficult of access, this territory was the northernmost natural area to preserve sables (Martes zibellina) in the period when this species

had almost completely disappeared in other territories of Siberia (about a century ago).

ECOEDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Studies of natural complexes and long-term monitoring of local processes carried out in the reserve are aimed to estimate and forecast the ecological situation, to develop scientific bases to preserve the biodiversity and manage natural resources. That is why we pay much attention to fundamental works, which enable to use the Putorana Plateau as a model region to determine general regularities of formation and dynamics of mountainous and subarctic ecosystems in their original environment.

Employees of the reserve are engaged in detailed and comprehensive studies of the fauna of the key areas of the major mountain system of the Asian Subarctic regions taking into consideration its regional heterogeneity and peculiarities of the landscape. We are focused on areas with sparse growth of trees, spatial and time characteristics and quantitative assessment of the fauna. Monographs and collected articles, containing new data, are published in Russian and English, and are in great demand in scientific centers of Russia, many countries of the American continent, Asia and Europe.

The primary results of field studies carried out in 1988-2007 were published in specialized monographs of the author of this article The Birds of the Putorana Plateau, The Bird Fauna of Lake Basins in the West of Putorana Plateau, Vertebrate Animals of the Putorana Plateau and in the collection of articles Studies and Protection of Putorana Plateau Animals and Biodiversity of Ecosystems of the Putorana Plateau and Adjacent

Territories. Each research phase is crowned with such publications and their presentation at Russian and foreign scientific forums.

The ecological and educational activities of the natural reserve are focused on promotion of nature protection in the region. For this purpose we actively attract mass media--television (our employees took part in more than 50 local TV programs) and printed stuff. In addition, we organize competitions of children's creative projects and produce printed materials which help foster sympathetic and careful attitude to nature. Thus, we publish information leaflets, posters, photo albums, postcards, envelopes, calendars, stickers, and also make badges of appropriate subject-matter. In our eco-center you can see films dedicated to the beauty of these lands, attend lectures and take part in interesting excursions. Children of all ages can participate in seminars and environmental games. Of great interest are expositions dedicated to the unique history of adaptation of the musk ox in the territory of Putorana Plateau and to the Mammoth's World.

The most popular among visitors of our center are demonstration open-air cages with animals and arboretums. Such excursions are accompanied by colorful presentations or videofilms.