Starchenko & Borisova. Differentiating taxa of vascular plants in the botanical and geographical zonation of Amurskaya Oblast. In: The East Asian Flora: and its role in the formation of the world’s vegetation

Differentiating taxa of vascular plants in the botanical and geographical zonation of Amurskaya Oblast

Valentina STARCHENKO & Irina BORISOVA
Amur Branch of Botanical Garden-Institute FEB RAS, Blagoveshchensk, Russia

Amurskaya Oblast (363700 km²) is a mountain-plain area located in the southern Far East of Russia. The natural environment varies greatly in different parts of the region due to its geographic and orographic situation as well as the complicated history of development. Botanical and landscape materials collected within 1988- 2011 have allowed botanical and geographical zoning of Amurskaya Oblast, based on the principles developed by Sochava. Proposed geobotanical units are supported by extensive botanical information, including taxonomic, geographic and coenotic analysis. This approach makes it possible to designate the completed zoning as botanical and geographical. Two geobotanical regions were accepted at the territory of Amurskaya Oblast: Circumboreal and East Asian regions. Within the Circumboreal region three subregions were separated: Okhotsk-Kamchatka, Amur-Sakhalin and East Siberian; the latter included three provinces: Nyukzha, Gilyuy-Tok, Tukuringra-Soktakhan. Within the East Asian region two subregions were identified: Dahurian and Manchurian with 4 provinces: Zeya-Bureya, Upper Amur, Turan-Mamyn, Amur-Ussuri. Within regions and subregions 52 districts were separated. Brief physical-geographical and geobotanical data are provided for each region, subregion, and province. The differentiating families and genera are noted for the regions and differentiating species are listed for subregions and provinces. This work was supported by RFBR, grant no. 11-05-98527.