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3.10. A) Scan the text to find the names of the climatic zones of Russia.

b) Read the text again and pick up the main features of the climatic

zones in Russia.

he broad zones of natural vegetation and soils correspond closely to the country’s climate zones. Summers are too cool for trees in the far north, where tundra vegetation of mosses, lichens, and low shrubs grows instead.Permafrost, or permanently frozen subsoil, is found throughout this region. There is a polar desert zone on several Arctic islands to the north of the tundra zone; the vegetation in this zone consists of a limited number of moss and lichen groupings scattered in patches.

Russia’s forests, located mostly in Siberia, cover more than two-fifths of the country’s total territory (1/4 of the world’s total forested area). The forest zone has two distinct areas: a large, mainly coniferous forest, or taiga, lies in the north, and a much smaller area of mixed forest lies in the south.

The taiga occupies two-fifths of European Russia and extends across the Urals to cover much of Siberia. Much of the taiga also has permafrost. This vast zone is made up primarily of coniferous trees, but birch, poplar, aspen, willow and other deciduous trees also grow there. The taiga contains the world’s largest coniferous forest, representing about one-third of the world’s softwood timber. Larch, a deciduous conifer, becomes dominant throughout much of the Central Siberian Plateau and the mountains of eastern Siberia.

Large areas of taiga zone are devoid of trees, particularly where the soil is poorly drained. In these areas marsh grasses and bushes form the vegetative cover. The taiga contains infertile, acidic soils known as ultisols, or podzols.

Amixed forest, containing both coniferous andbroad-leaved deciduous trees, occupies the central portion of the Great European Plain between Saint Petersburg and the Ukrainian border. The mixed forest is dominated by coniferous evergreen trees in the north and broad-leaved trees in the south. The principal broad-leaved species are oak, beech, maple, and hornbeam. Gray-brown soils are found in the mixed forest zone.

To the south, the mixed forest transitions through a narrow zone of forest-steppe and then passes into the zone of a true steppe. The natural vegetation of a forest-steppe is grassland with scattered groves of trees. At present much of Russia’s forest-steppe is under cultivation. The natural vegetation of a true steppe consists of a mixture of grasses with only a few stunted trees in sheltered valleys.

Both the forest-steppe and the steppe have fertile soils and together form a region known as the chernozem, or black-earth, belt; this is the agricultural heartland of Russia. Soils in the chernozem belt are high in humus content and have a balance of minerals that is suitable for most crops.

The forest-steppe has a better moisture supply than the steppe during the growing season, and consequently it is the best agricultural area of Russia. The chestnut and brown soils of the southern steppe are not as rich in humus as the chernozems to the north, but they are high in mineral content and can be productive with adequate moisture.