In 1999, the Chazy reserve was merged with the Small Abakan nature reserve. So the State Nature Reserve “Khakassky” appeared, spreading across endless mountainous taiga open spaces.
The relief of the conservation area
The steppe of the reserve captured a piece of the left bank of the Minusinsk depression. The mountain steppe zone included in the Khakassky reserve is attached to the Altai-Sayan system. Here, lacustrine basins and river valleys are interspersed with squat hills, ridges and hills, the height of which does not exceed 800-900 meters.
Three types of relief are characteristic of the mountain site. Alpine alpine relief concentrated on the ridges. It is represented by acute-angled peaks, circuses, punishment and rocky ridges. A massive-alpine relief obeyed flat peaks, gentle sloping slopes. Rocky rocks, collapsing, cover the slopes with stony screes.
The mid-mountainous relief covers areas along which erosive separations, narrow valley plains and slopes with great steepness lie. The expanses around large rivers are dotted with terraces. Clearly defined floodplains of small rivers include no more than one terrace.
Climatic conditions in the reserve
Khakass State Reserve is dominated by a sharply continental climate. In the steppe, it is arid, with characteristic monthly and daily temperature differences. In the valley near the Yenisei, climatic conditions are milder. Snow on flat spaces does not linger. Winds blow it into lowlands and ravines. In the mountains, summers are short and winters are long and icy. High humidity reigns here and cyclones prevail.
Reservoirs in the reserve
The steppe zone of the reserve is strewn with lakes. There are over two hundred of them. Lakes vary in degree of overgrowth and mineralization. They are distinguished by the size of water areas. The mountainous area is covered by a network of streams and streams. The rivers crossing the Khakassky nature reserve are endowed with mountain temperament. The water flows in them are turbulent and rapid, interrupted by multiple rapids, rifts and shivers. Pebbles are scattered along the river banks. On them there are clutter from rocky boulders, giant boulders and windbreaks. In the highlands there are caravan lakes.
On the shores of lakes and river valleys there are reed, sedge and tuber-kamysh bogs. The ends of the swamp water are covered by a canary, reed, horsetail, cattail, chastuha and arrowheads.
Flora
Steppe soils are 40% covered with grayish panzeria, thyme, cold wormwood, cochia, snakehead, dwarf kragan and small-soddy cereals. The basis of the grass stand in the steppes covering the Khakassky Reserve is drought tolerant cereals represented by a falcon, a fine-legged slender, feather grass, bluegrass, sedge, and serpentine.
Park forests prevail here. Rare and developed understory is overgrown with meadowsweet, cotoneaster, dogrose and acacia. The mountain-taiga belt is covered with dark coniferous tree species. Insignificant areas are covered with dark coniferous-birch forests. Cedar, cedar-fir and cedar-larch forests settled in the upper forest zone.
Mostly mixed stand. It is represented by birch, cedar, fir, spruce, willow, larch and aspen. The undergrowth is formed by willows, undersized birches, Kuril tea, spirea, currants, alder and bird cherry. In the shrub layer blueberries and lingonberries settled. Among the discharged grass stand, there are blueberries, alpine bison and scalp.
