Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2025 number 3

The article analyzes literary, archive and our own research data on peat accumulation during the Holocene. The dynamics of the process at the present stage is considered. It is shown that the process of paludification in the territory of Gorny Altai has a clear dependence on the relief dissection. It is determined that within this territory there are two large sublatitudinal zones of areal development of swamps, which are characterized by weak and medium relief dissection. In the northern part of Gorny Altai, this zone of areal development of swamps covers low-mountain and mid-mountain flattened spaces; in the southern part, it is recorded within the high-mountain uplands, tablelands, plateaus and intermountain basins. It is established that the trigger factors of paludification in the study area are represented by meteorological, hydrological and hydrogeological parameters. The features of spatial (zonal) dynamics of the peat growth rate in general for the Holocene, as well as the patterns of their change by the Holocene periods have been revealed. Peat formation rates in each zone of Gorny Altai have been determined for the first time. In the low-mountain zone, extreme values of the peat formation rate (0,1-0,7 mm/year) refer to the Middle and Late Holocene. In the mid-mountain zone, extreme values of the peat formation rate date back to the Early and Middle Holocene (0,03-1,0 mm/year), while in the high-mountain zone - to the Late Holocene with a wide range of values (from 0,05 to 2,3 mm/year). The carbon balance study of swamps in the north-eastern part of Gorny Altai has provided evidence of progressive peat formation process in the modern period.