ECOTONS IN LANDSCAPE’S ORGANIZATION OF THE DRY LAND SURFACE

Abstrakt

The article substantiates the conception of ecotones. It has been mentioned that the most part of dry land is covered by various ecotones presented by ecotone landscapes – alternation of forests and tundra, forests and steppes, forests and savannas, etc. It has been noted that under global climate changes ecotones are gaining importance of general background in the context of the whole earth surface and landscape cover in general. Contrary to ecotone landscapes, boundary landscapes were singled out that have extreme values of climate characteristics. Arctic and antarctic deserts, deserts of tropical, subtropical and temperate zones belong to such boundary landscapes. Ecotones can exist not only at the planet level, but also regional and local levels (among altitudinal belts, river valleys, and watersheds). The size of the area covered by ecotones and their importance in the landscape covering of the earth determine the necessity to formulate the principles of a special scientific discipline ecotonistics (ecotone studies). The object of this discipline should be ecotones and the subject is the formation, dynamics and evolution of ecotones.