Gydan Peninsula with a harsh climate is famous for its gas and oil fields. But not only. On its territory there is a nature reserve. What animals live on land and in the sea, what grows there, read the article.
Where is the Gydan Peninsula located?
It is located in the northern part of the Siberian Plain of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The peninsula is washed by the Kara Sea. The territory of the Gydan Peninsula is four hundred kilometers long and the same width. Its surface is represented by a hilly plain, composed of marine and glacial deposits, turning into a hill on the south side.
It is called Tamanskaya, its height is two hundred meters. The Gydan Peninsula, whose climate is harsh, is the territory of the Tazovsky District of Yamal and the Taimyr District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Climate of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Energy of heat transfer and circulation of the atmosphere depends on solar radiation. What will be the angle of inclination of the rays of the sun is determined by the location of a particular area. in Gydanpeninsula one centimeter square area receives up to seventy kilocalories of solar radiation.
The number of days in a year with positive temperatures is one hundred five to one hundred and ten. In winter, the circulation of the atmosphere is subject to the Asian anticyclone. When it weakens, transformed air masses from the Atlantic Ocean penetrate the territory of the district. At this time, warming and thaws come, a lot of snow falls.
Winter on the Gydan Peninsula is the longest climatic season of the year. In the Arctic, it lasts up to eight months. The absolute minimum temperature is minus sixty-one degrees. Snow cover reaches seventy - eighty centimeters. It depends on the areas of the county. The period of persistent frost lasts up to two hundred days.
In the summer on the Gydan Peninsula, the average monthly air temperature is ten degrees above zero. This time falls on the month of July, when the maximum amount of precipitation falls. The exception is the tundra. Here they mostly fall in August.
Autumn on the Gydan Peninsula comes at temperatures below ten degrees Celsius. September and October are characterized by a gradual decrease in temperature and frequent drizzling rain. Mountainous areas and tundra frosts overtake already at the end of August.
Gydansky Nature Reserve
The date of its formation is one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six. The purpose of the creation of the reserve is to preserve nature in connection with the impact of man-made nature during the oil and gas development of the territory. After all, geologists and drillers have seriously disturbed reindeer pastures and hunting grounds with the work of heavy equipment. Some of the lakes have been poisoned by effluents and solutions, and the natural habitats of birds and animals have been disturbed. The reserve on the Gydan Peninsula is of great importance in preserving the bird flyway that runs along the Asian coast in the north.
This is the youngest reserve in Tyumen. Its location is the Tazovsky district. The reserve occupies the peninsulas of Gydansky, Javai, Oleniy, Mammoth and small islands. Its area is 878174 thousand hectares. The territory of the reserve is a plain, the relief of which is soft and ridged. There are icy loose deposits and thick underground ice, the thickness of the layers is 4-5 meters. The area is completely covered with permafrost up to three hundred meters deep. July and August are considered the warmest months of the year, and January is the coldest with an absolute temperature minimum of minus sixty-three degrees.
Water resources
The north of the reserve is washed by the cold sea of the Russian Arctic - the Kara Sea. This territory is the largest shelf zone on our planet. Therefore, the fresh waters of the rivers flowing into the sea affect it within two thousand kilometers from the mouth. The salinity of the water changes. The Yenisei and the Ob are of great importance for the West of Siberia and the Kara Sea. After all, the relief and outlines of the sea were formed precisely by river flows. Rivers are fed by melting glaciers. In summer, the rivers are filled with water, but it is in themcatastrophically small. And in winter, small rivers freeze to the bottom. The rivers of the tundra are very winding. The lakes are shallow, so in winter they freeze to the full depth. The water of most of them contains few minerals.
Vegetation of the reserve
In contrast to the south of Yamal, on the Gydan Peninsula, large-herd reindeer husbandry and the development of the peninsula appeared late. This played a role in preserving the land cover in its natural form. The territory of the islands of the Kara Sea and the northern regions of the Gydan Peninsula is occupied by bare ground and variegated vegetation, which is formed by mosses, creeping shrubs, lichens and grasses, among which sedge predominates. The territory of the reserve is rich in complex transitional bogs located in low places on watersheds and floodplains. In some areas, where the lakes have dried up, meadows with sparse grassy vegetation are spread.
The nature of these places has been influenced for many centuries by the indigenous people - the Nenets. They grazed livestock, cut down trees and shrubs, set fires on purpose to expand the territory of grazing meadows. Now larch is widespread in the south of the reserve. In the center - alder, as a typical representative of the tundra subzone. Flora has up to two hundred species of plants. This figure varies by location.
Birds and animals
The fauna of the reserve is relatively young. The oldest remains of a mammoth are only fifty thousand years old. Red Book of the RussianThe federation is supplemented by Siberian sturgeon and white-billed loon, lesser white-billed goose and red-throated goose, lesser swan and gyrfalcon, white-tailed eagle and polar bear, walrus and northern fin whale. They are all residents of the peninsula.
The Gydan Peninsula, where the reserve is located, is famous for the nesting of the red-throated gagra, white-fronted goose, duck-tailed duck, eider, tundra partridge, oystercatcher, Asian brown-winged plover and many others. Birds of prey - the peregrine falcon and the buzzard - build their nests here.
Insectivorous shrews, rodents lemmings, predators live in the reserve: white bears, and in summer also brown ones, wolves, arctic foxes, foxes. Wild reindeer and elk live here, which is only a guest of these places.
Inhabitants of the water basin
Sturgeon, Siberian lamprey, Arctic char - a representative of salmon species of fish - are found in the waters surrounding the reserve. Coastal and inland waters abound with Siberian grayling, nelma, tugun, arctic omul, vendace and many other fish species.
The rivers of the reserve are full of burbot, stickleback and ruff. In the past, the coastal waters in the north of the reserve were full of walruses and seals. Now haulouts of walruses are observed in places on the territory of the Bely Peninsula. Of the cetaceans, beluga whales, narwhals and fin whales are found here.
Gydan deposits
The first stage of prospecting and exploration works dates back to the sixties of the twentieth century. The studies were carried out with the help of seismic surveysby the method of reflected waves. Conducting prospecting offshore work was organized in the nineties of the last century. After a detailed study of all the results obtained, the Kamennomysskoe-Sea and the northern structure with the same name were discovered.
The next stage in the development of the bowels of coastal waters is 1999. Everything was ready to carry out exploration drilling of the first offshore wells. This happened a year later, as a result of which the industrial gas content of the deposits was established. The same year was marked by seismic work in preparation for exploration drilling in the area of the Chugoryakhinskaya and Obskaya structures, where Cenomanian gas deposits were discovered at these sites in 2002.
From now on, regular work has been carried out in the waters of the peninsula. New deposits of the Gydan Peninsula are put on the map and their industrial development begins. Currently, they contain one and a half dozen million tons of oil, two trillion cubic meters of gas and forty million tons of its condensate.
