Harp

Created: 2018-02-19 11:46:47
Modified: 2018-02-22 08:01:48

Harp grid (R53) is located (66.723483 N, 66.080488 E) in the north of Western Siberia, about 25 km east of the Polar Ural near settlement Harp. The site is situated on a coastal-marine terrace, characterized by loamy soils and underlined by low-temperature, continuous permafrost. The climate of the region is subarctic with prolong and snowy winters and short cool summers. On average the period with negative mean daily air temperatures is 265 days. Mean annual air temperature is -7.1оС. Mean air temperature of the coldest month (January) is -24оС, of the warmest month (July) is +14.1oC. Average annual wind speed is 4 m/s and annual sum of precipitation is 414 mm/yr. The climatologically average maximum snow-cover thickness is 110 cm. It has micro relief of various genesis and complicated landscape structure, described below:

1. Relatively elevated wet areas (because of thick peat-moss cover), with hummocks, bushes up to 20-30 cm, dwarf birch (Betula Nana), Labrador tea (Ledum Polustre), an abundance of cloudberry (Rubus Chamoemorus), sedge (Carex Sp.), sphagnum moss. Shrub-moss-peat hummocky tundra.

2. Spotted-medallion microrelief with overgrowing ground spots and rollers, transformed into hummock, moderate humidity. Within spots - outputs debris. Dwarf birch (Betula Nana), a willow sp. (Salix), blueberries (Vaccinium ueiginosum), cranberries (Vaccinium Vitis), sedges (Carex Sp.), relatively thin moss layer, fragmentary lichen (Cetaria Islandica). Spotted-medallion relatively drained shrubby-sedge tundra.

3. Hummocky microrelief, some hummocks up to 40-50 cm. Overgrowning spot-medallions, watered hollow. Dwarf birch (Betula Nana), Labrador tea (Ledum Polustre), cloudberry (Rubus Chamoemorus), sedges (Carex Sp.). Hummocky shrubby-moss tundra.

4. Waterlogged land (thermokarst subsidence) with small puddles, from 0.6-0.8m. up to 1-1.5 m deep, overgrown with sedges, cotton grass and mosses (eutrophic wetland). Sedge (Carex Sp.), Cotton grass (Poa Sp.), Sphagnum moss (Sphagnum). Wet sedge -cotton grass-moss tundra within thermokarst subsidence.

5. Hummocky surface, relatively well-drained. Dwarf birch (Betula nana), Labrador tea (Ledum polustre), blueberries (Vaccinium ueiginosum), sedge (Carex Sp.), with thick moss - peat cover. Hummocky-shrub-sedge-moss tundra.

6. Spotted-medallion sufficiently drained terrain. Large amount of rock debris occurs within overgrown ground spots: gravel, pebbles and large boulders (30-35 cm). Dwarf birch (Betula nana), a beautiful willow (of Salix), sedge (Kalix Sp.), moss (thin layer), moss fragments (Cetaria Islandica). Spotted-medallion-drained-shrub-sedge-moss tundra.