Swamps of facts and myths. Interesting Swamp Facts 10 Interesting Swamp Facts in Brief

- A swamp that sucks in is called a swamp. It can only pull in living objects. The bog is formed on the basis of lakes by overgrowing with a green carpet of moss and algae. The swamp only sucks in living objects, because they are constantly moving. What if it freezes? Will the dive stop? Alas, this will only slow down the immersion, because a living body always moves because it breathes. Inanimate objects remain motionless, so they do not completely sink.

– Peat in wetlands is a flammable material. When air replaces water in its thickness, the peat layer after some time acquires the ability to burn throughout the entire depth of occurrence. The depth can be two, 10 and even 20 meters in size. Therefore, it is useless to flood the flame from above - water stops the fire only on the surface, and in the depths the peat continues to smolder, burning out huge voids.

– Swamps are storage clean water. Contrary to popular belief, the water in swamps is not stagnant: if in lakes the water is completely renewed on average for 17, then in swamps - for 5. Swamp moss (sphagnum) is an excellent antiseptic, it does not allow even those bacteria that can exist without oxygen to develop . In addition, peat in the swamp binds harmful substances into insoluble compounds, thanks to which the swamp system is a natural filter fresh water.

- Wetlands are a climate regulator. The only ecosystem on the planet that counteracts the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and, accordingly, the greenhouse effect, is swamps. One hectare of such land is 10 times more efficient at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than a forest of the same area. Bogs accumulate peat, which consists mainly of carbon, and by removing it from the atmosphere and accumulating, they are natural "traps" for this gas. Thus, bogs protect the atmosphere from overheating, reduce the greenhouse effect and cool the planet.

“Small bubbles constantly appear on the surface of the swamp. This comes out swamp gas, which accumulates under the silt. It is formed as a result of rotting plants that do not have access to oxygen at the bottom of the swamp. The swamp gas mainly contains methane.

- The swamp environment slows down the growth of bacteria, which is why the bodies of organic origin, drowned in the swamp, are not destroyed. For hundreds of millions of years, peat layers have preserved various outlandish animals and plants. If there were no swamps, people would hardly have known that magnolias and palm trees once grew in Greenland and Svalbard a very long time ago. Over the past 300 years in abandoned peat bogs Britain, Ireland, well-preserved bodies of people were discovered. Most of these mummies date back to the 1st c. BC e. - 4 in. n. e.

Over hundreds of millions of years, peat layers have turned into horizons. hard coal. And in them, in the form of imprints, the skeletons of strange animals and bizarre plant species appeared. If there were no swamps on Earth, we would hardly have known that magnolias and palm trees once grew in Greenland and Svalbard a very long time ago.



However, a person is in no hurry to master this natural pantry. People break into space and sink to the bottom of the oceans, but still shun the swamps. Even the most desperate berry pickers and hunters who visit the swamps say that it is worth being in the middle of the swamp, when suddenly there is a strange ringing in the ears, dizziness, legs become wadded and a serious desire to run appears. Inexplicable fear binds from head to toe, I want to forget this place forever. Hunters grimly joke that it is impossible to drown quickly in a swamp, it remains "time to eat toffee." A person who is not familiar with the "rules of behavior in the swamps" seems to be paralyzed. He is no longer able to move, bound by horror and marsh ligature, and as if from the sidelines he is watching his death. This can last from several minutes to several days. Until the swamp water fills my lungs...




It is not for nothing that the swamps in Rus' are called Adovo, Sukino, Chertovo ... In these names - the people's fear of the mystery and mystery of the swamps.

spirit realm

The swamp has its own guardian spirit, the owner. The Slavs called him a swamp. It is he who frightens those walking through the swamp with sharp sounds, sighs, and loud smacking. It is he who lures the self-confident and careless into the quagmire and, on the contrary, shows a safe path to those who treat nature with respect. The swamp has many neighbors, these are mermen, lords of the waters, and goblin, and kikimors. The swamp endows its original inhabitants with unprecedented power, such as, for example, the giant Yar Mort, a character in Finno-Ugric mythology.




None of the natural pantries is shrouded in so many secrets, legends and mysticism as swamps. Their fame is not good, so people bypass the kingdom of kikimora on the tenth road. And she loves uninvited guests. It drags gaping travelers into its quagmire. True, she rarely shows herself to people - she prefers to be invisible and only screams from the swamp in a loud voice. But if he gets naughty, he can ride on a frightened traveler to death. According to legend, girls who are cursed by their mother in the womb or in infancy before baptism, as well as girls born to a woman from a fiery serpent, turn into kikimor. It was believed that such children are kidnapped and carried away devilry. Sometimes - straight from the mother's womb. After seven years, these children turn into kikimore. Children who died unbaptized could also turn into kikimor. In most beliefs, kikimora is evil spirit. If she marries a brownie, then she settles in the house and arranges riots. Sometimes even forcing the owners to leave the home. If the goblin looked to her as a husband, then from now on her house is a swamp. Children are born at a kikimora with a wood goblin - forests. They play pranks, knock travelers off the road, helping their parents with all their might to lure travelers into the swamps.




The Celts called swamps "the gates of spirits" - where the seemingly solid ground instantly leaves from under their feet, the gates to the world of mysterious spirits of nature and deities open. Therefore, the Celts revered the swamps and came there with sacrificial gifts. The Khanty and Mansi believed that the whole world was born from the "liquid earth", that is, from the swamp. The Egyptian goddess Isis hid her son there - the god Horus ... It turns out that this place is not such a dead place?

Again the dead man lit a candle




The swamp beckons. The sounds that the swamp makes are similar to the dialect of a giant living creature. And wandering lights in the swamps are often mistaken by lonely travelers for the lights of a dwelling and come straight to the swamps. Due to the characteristic location of the lights - at the height of a human hand - they were called "candles of the dead." It was believed that the one who saw them received a warning of imminent death, and they were carried by aliens from the other world. In Germany, they said that the lights in the swamp are the ghosts of those who stole land from their neighbors. The Finns called them "lecchio" and believed that they were the souls of children buried in the forest. In Northern Europe, it was believed that the lights in the swamp were the spirits of ancient warriors guarding treasures.




In fact, the lights in the swamps are not fantasies and not inventions of dense grannies. In warm dark nights on swamps or fresh graves, one can actually observe pale bluish, faintly flickering lights. They seem to dance in the air, writing out a complex trajectory. It "burns" hydrogen phosphorous. At the bottom of the swamps, in a damp area, many remains of dead animals and plants rot. In this case, various gases are formed, including marsh. Phosphorus compounds, which are part of the corpses of animals and humans, decompose under the action of groundwater with the formation of hydrogen phosphide. With a loose embankment above the grave or a small layer of water in a swamp, the gas, having come to the surface, is ignited by the vapors of liquid hydrogen phosphide.



Not all swamp secrets can be explained by the results chemical reaction. And then the terrible swamp mysticism breaks into real life.

...Tikhvinsky district Leningrad region reputed to be a bearish corner. The places here are deaf, swampy and sparsely populated, which makes them attractive to hunters and fishermen. One autumn, the leading engineer of the Elektrosila plant, Yakov Aizeman, came to hunt. He stopped at his friend in the village of Volozhba.
In the morning Eiseman went into the woods. And he did not notice how lost he was. This did not frighten him, the engineer considered himself a good connoisseur of the Tikhvin forests. All day he wandered through completely unfamiliar places, and towards evening he came out onto a barely noticeable forest road. The road led him to an abandoned farm on the edge of a large swamp.
Apparently, the farm was abandoned for a long time. Eiseman went up to the porch and pushed open the front door of the hut. She opened with a creak. There was nothing remarkable inside the house, except for the traces of someone's long-standing overnight stay: several empty cans, a bottle of vodka and an armful of firewood thrown near the stove bench.
It was getting dark quickly. A whitish mist was creeping up from the swamp in wisps, and a dank dampness lingered. "I'll spend the night in the house, and in the morning I'll find out where the devil has brought me," Eiseman decided and began to settle down for the night.




During the night, he suddenly woke up from a wild terror. Someone shuffled past him. For a few seconds the engineer lay motionless, but then he raised himself in fright on his couch. Nothing could be seen in the pitch darkness, but Eiseman sensitively caught someone's presence in the hut and realized that the one who was hidden by darkness was deadly. He hurriedly flicked on the lighter. A fluctuating tongue of flame snatched out of the darkness the corner of the couch and the stooped figure of an old woman standing a few steps from it.
Iseman screamed in surprise. The old woman slowly, as if blind, leaned in his direction, spreading both arms. A sweet smell of decomposition flowed down the hut, and Eiseman clearly saw that a ... corpse was approaching him! In desperation, he threw a lighter "Neva" at the deceased, still Soviet-made, hefty and weighty, like an armchair. She hit the old one hard on the rotten forehead and, rebounding, instantly went out. There was a scream in the darkness. Eiseman rushed into the passage. Fear gave him strength, and he, with one jerk, pulled out of the closed front door hook, jumped out onto the porch.




The rest of the night he ran over some unsteady bumps, now and then falling into the peat slurry. At dawn, he felt solid ground under his feet and collapsed exhausted. Recovering his breath, he looked around and realized that he was not far from Volozhba.
When Eiseman appeared in the village, he caused a commotion among local residents- so wild was his appearance. However, everything that he told did not surprise the villagers in the least, since a bad rumor had been going on about the farm in the swamp for a long time. It was rumored that the old woman is a witch and keeps an old book on witchcraft in her house.
Aizeman left Volozhba for St. Petersburg, not even remembering the backpack, cartridge belt and double-barreled shotgun thrown at the farm. Upon arrival in the city, he underwent a medical examination for mental disorder, to which one could write off everything that happened to him on the farm. But the engineer's health was like that of an astronaut, the doctors did not find any hints of mental instability. Then Yakov turned to the St. Petersburg researcher for clarification. anomalous phenomena Andron Friedman. The opinion of the connoisseur was as follows:
- In the northern regions of Russia, according to an old witchcraft rite, a sorcerer or witch had to find a successor for himself in order to transfer to him all his forbidden knowledge before his death, usually in the form of a handwritten code. Otherwise, their black souls could not find peace and were doomed to eternal torment. Sudden death Korenikhi (she was killed by a shell fragment during the shelling of the village by the Germans) violated this rite and caused the ghost of the witch to appear.




In addition, Andron Friedman put forward a version that the farm, most likely, contains the rarest handwritten collection of witchcraft - the Russian version of the terrible Necronomicon, known since the 13th century. The researcher intends to go in search of him, although such an undertaking would be incredibly dangerous. After all, a witch won't just give away a witch's book...




Mystery covered in peat

The swamps for us are still an undiscovered treasury, from where we can draw information not only about past landscapes, but also learn about our history. This historical book can be read endlessly, page after page, making new discoveries. But peatlands testify not only to changes in marsh vegetation. Often they keep the tools of labor and wars of the past buried in them. And even the remains of the owners of these guns. Sphagnum moss and its decomposition products, including humic acid, react with calcium and nitrogen, making human flesh incorruptible.




...In May 1950, two Danish peasants were digging in the swamps of Bieldskovdal, Jutland, and stumbled upon a corpse. They thought they had found a schoolboy from Copenhagen who had disappeared in the swamps the year before. They called the police. How could they assume that they found the corpse of a man who died in the 4th century BC?.. The eyelids of the "man from Tollund" were wearily lowered, he seemed to be sleeping. The swamps even preserved his mustache and beard, and the cuts on his feet from walking on sharp stones were clearly visible. The cause of death of the "man from Tollund" is covered in darkness (more precisely, peat), but the research of forensic doctors revealed many interesting details. For example, the last thing he ate before his death was porridge made from barley, wild oats, buckwheat, flaxseed and mari - about thirty different herbs in total. Two English archaeologists tried the dish prepared according to this recipe and found it tasted disgusting. Botanists have established the conditions in which he lived, and archaeologists have specified his age.



In total, about 2,000 mummies have been discovered in the swamps of Europe over the past hundred years. These unfortunates were able to tell us something about the manners of the ancient Northern Europe, which is up to today remained a mystery for historians and archaeologists.

In 1984, a peat excavator in the Lindow swamp, south of Manchester, dug human leg and then the whole body was found. The most thorough study of swamp mummies carried out so far is associated with this find. A team of fifty experts, ranging from pathologists to paleobiologists, studied the Lindow Man, estimated to be 2,000 years old. It was determined that this man's last meal was a flatbread of wheat and barley. They even found out that before eating the bread was heated for a short time at a temperature of 200 to 250 degrees. The "Man from Lindov" was no older than thirty, suffering from arthritis of the lower thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. And perhaps the skin of this ancient Briton was dyed blue or green. What was it - war paint? Julius Caesar in his "War with Gaul" writes: "All Britons rub themselves with vitrum, which stains the skin so that in battle they look even more awesome." The only thing researchers are missing is DNA formulas. The humic acids in the swamps destroyed this hereditary material as thoroughly as they helped preserve hair and skin. Presenting to the descendants of a man of flesh, but without blood.




And yet, the main question that scientists will have to fight for a long time is: why were these people treated so cruelly by their contemporaries, why were they drowned in the black mud of swamps? The executioners tightened the veins of the animal around the neck, after which they cut the throat - this increased the flow of gushing blood.
Under the long braids of the young Elling woman, a deeply depressed inverted V was found on the back of her head. A teenager of 10-14 years old, who was removed from a grave in a swamp near Kayhausen in Lower Saxony, was so tightly bound that he could not even move. He was stabbed several times in the throat. "The woman from Huldremosa" had her hand cut off. Several stab wounds were on the thigh and foot. The face of another Jutland woman was mutilated beyond recognition by the murderers after her death and, apparently, she was scalped...
Were they victims of the gods, criminals or worthy members of society, who, following some mysterious rituals, were sent to the other world? Since ancient times, the swamp has been considered a transitional place from the real world to the afterlife, and therefore they chose it as a place of sacrifice. After delving into folklore, the researchers suggested a version: these people were drowned in a swamp so that they could not rise from the dead and begin to take revenge on the living. In their assumptions, scientists rely on the same shaky ground as the one in which these unfortunate people were found. Scientists have yet to unravel the mysteries of the ancient swamp mummies.

Where Susanin brought enemies

And in Russia in this century, the legend of the brave Russian peasant Ivan Susanin, who led the Polish army into the swamp, and thereby saved Russia from ruin, was confirmed. Near Isupovo village, Susaninsky district Kostroma region, where a swamp was a century ago, archaeologists discovered hundreds of human remains and 40 pectoral crosses, presumably belonging to the soldiers of the Commonwealth army. One of the crosses is made in the tradition Orthodox Church and, most likely, adorned the chest of a heroic villager. Such pectoral crosses were made in the XVI - XVII centuries. In addition, the cross is not whole, but consists of fragments. It was possible to establish that he had been cut down - probably by the sabers of Polish soldiers. It is known that none of the Polish detachment survived. The only documentary evidence of Susanin's feat was the tsar's letter. In it, Mikhail Fedorovich gave Susanin's son-in-law, Bogdan Sabinin, half of the village of Dereveshchi: "Knowing about us, Susanin endured unbearable torture, did not tell about us, and for that he was tortured to death by Polish and Lithuanian people." So the swamp, after several centuries, gave people one more of its secrets.




Myth

According to the legend of the creation of the world, at first there was solid water on earth. God walked along it like dry land and once noticed a muddy bubble. Having caught up with God, the bubble burst. And the devil jumped out of it. God ordered the Devil to go down to the bottom and get the earth out of there. The devil obediently carried out the order. Yes, he could not resist and hid some earth behind his cheeks. In the meantime, God scattered the earth, and where it fell, dry land appeared, and on it - trees, bushes and grasses of extraordinary beauty. But the plants began to sprout in the mouth of the Devil. And the unclean one began to spit out the earth. So swamps appeared on the earth - liquefied land with small, ugly trees and coarse grass.




Data

On South Tomsk region, on its very border with Novosibirsk, the Vasyugan swamp is located. Stretching for 500 kilometers in length and from 15 to 120 in width, it is the largest swamp on the globe.




In the bowels of the swamps, 11,500 km3 of fresh water is retained. This is five times more than in all the rivers of the world (2,100 km3), and almost half of the volume of Baikal's water (23,000 km?)!
Stagnant swamps regulate the flow of rivers and streams and even feed big rivers. The Dnieper and Volga, for example, originate from swamps. But, contrary to popular belief, the water in the swamps is not at all stagnant. Let's compare: in lakes, water is completely renewed in 17 years, in swamps - every five years!

Large swamps can stop forest fires.

Every year, one hectare of swamps absorbs 550–1800 kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases 260–700 kg of oxygen. This is 7-15 times more than one hectare of forest or meadow can process.

But that's not all: swamps attract and absorb dust particles, which, as you know, move towards lower temperatures in calm weather (and the temperature above the surface of swamps is always lower than around). One hectare of swamps can "swallow" up to three tons of dust! (By the way, it contains minerals that plants feed on.)




Although unique complexes swamps of Russia suffered greatly from human intervention, they still survived. And even in well-developed regions, ecosystems remain the least disturbed. Therefore, they often become a refuge for many Red Book plants and animals that cannot withstand anthropogenic stress.
In 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as a Habitat for Waterfowl was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar; it is now commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. Its goal is to preserve the most valuable territories in this respect: sea bays, lakes, river deltas, swamps. Today, 60 countries participate in the convention, including Russia, where 35 Ramsar sites have been identified. Many of them are of international importance also because they are a haven for migratory birds.

The first swamps on our planet arose about 400 million years ago. Modern swamps are young, they are "only" 12,000 years old. They are distributed throughout the Earth, their total area is approximately 2682,000 km2. Russia accounts for 73% of this territory, and this is the area of ​​​​five France!




In order for a swamp to form, a combination of a number of conditions is necessary: ​​climate humidity, proximity to groundwater, landscape features, waterproof soil layers.
Swamps can appear on land - due to a constant excess of moisture in the soil and on its surface and weak water flow. It becomes difficult for air to penetrate into the pores of the soil, which is why the dying plant remains are not completely oxidized, and as a result, organic materials are preserved. Sometimes swamps also appear where there is not enough, or even little, moisture, for example, in desert areas. A lake can also become swampy if, due to its abundance sunlight, quickly fill aquatic plants.
Peat accumulates in the swamp very slowly. For example, in northwestern Russia, a peat deposit increases its thickness by 0.5–1 mm per year. This is the growth rate of the main peat-former - sphagnum moss.
Swamps are holistic natural complex, where its three main components - an excess of moisture, organic deposits in the form of peat and specific vegetation - determine the existence of each other and the ecosystem as a whole. Peat retains moisture, and marsh vegetation forms peat under waterlogged conditions.




swamps Russian Federation(with a peat depth of more than 30 cm) in % of the area of ​​the territory (from: Vompersky et al., 1999)

It is worth getting to know the swamps better - and they will surprise you with the variety of their colors and smells. Most of all here are mosses. In summer they are emerald green and light green, in dry summer they are white, and in autumn they are yellow, wine red, brown and even purple! And against the background of the moss carpet - light lilac heathers, white caps of wild rosemary, pale pinkish bluebells, red ears of marsh calla, bluish-blue blueberries, inky-violet blueberries, orange cloudberries ... And dark red cranberries! And burgundy cranberries!




On hot summer days, the swamps are filled with the smells of herbs and shrubs, exuding a unique, rich essential oils aroma not only during flowering, but also in "ordinary life".




Mirt Bolotny.

Applied swamp science (for lovers of hunting, cranberries, etc.)
IN different time(winter, summer, autumn) swamps are passable or, conversely, completely impregnable. The very surface of the swamps is very deceptive, sometimes it seems solid, but in fact the quicksand goes down under the weight of a person. Other seemingly strong green areas are actually fireboxes, and you can suddenly fall into them.



The most dangerous are rafted swamps, or quicksand. Here the vegetation has a slightly whitish color. When moving through a swamp, one should never rush and rush, and if one fails, one should not give in to panic. It is better to have a long pole with you and, before taking the next step, check with it a place to support your foot. Hidden lakes, overgrown with marsh vegetation, under which no water is visible, pose a great danger to people. Under this vegetation cover, a bottomless reservoir (charusa) can be hidden. The peculiar crevices in such a hidden lake can be easily stumbled upon if precautions are neglected.
Moving through the swamp, you need to step on the tussocks or rhizomes of plants and small shrubs, which provide solid support for the legs, to overcome dangerous areas very carefully, after probing with a pole.
Having fallen into a swamp, in no case should you make sudden movements. It is necessary to carefully, leaning on a pole lying across (the presence of which is mandatory here), pull up, take a horizontal position, drop the backpack, free yourself from the gun, reach out with your hands to the strong marsh grass and, pulling yourself up, crawl away from the dangerous place.
When hit in a swamp, it happens that the legs, along with the boots, cannot be pulled out of the quagmire. All your attempts to snatch one or both legs at once do not lead to positive result. The bog holds a stranglehold. You feel like you are slowly being sucked in. In this case, without losing self-control, try, leaning on the same pole, to get out of your boots. It is possible - the legs are difficult, but they are released.




Overcoming the swamp, it is necessary to outline the azimuth of movement, otherwise, bypassing swampy places, you can easily get lost, go astray and stray along it forever. Moving through the swamp, it is very difficult to navigate - only a monotonous marsh landscape is visible around. In these cases, the sun helps. Starting the movement, you need to carefully look around, try to find possible landmarks for yourself.
Sometimes you can appearance determine the degree of passability of the swamp.
A continuous moss cover on which there are no trees or they are rarely found (a lone pine tree), the water is above the surface or at its level, there are many hollows - such an upland (moss) swamp is very difficult to pass.
In lowland (peat) swamps: a continuous grass cover, no trees, bushes are very rare, and water is on the surface - such a swamp will be very difficult to overcome. On peat bogs: peat is liquid, fluid, when taken in a fist, the mass is completely squeezed through the fingers - such bogs are absolutely impassable for pedestrians.
And if the peat is very loose, highly moistened, and when squeezed in a fist, water flows out in a trickle, and the mass is squeezed through the fingers, then such an area is considered "conditionally passable" - on bogshoes, the allowable pressure on it is only about 0.25 kg / cm2.

They take over swamps.

In is the largest swamp in Europe. The swamp is located in the Ust-Tsilemsky district of Komi. Average depth the swamp is 1.6 meters, and the area is almost 200,000 hectares. This is not just a swamp, but a huge forest-bog system, which includes a large number of rivers and lakes.

Vasyugan swamps formed about 10,000 years ago and are constantly growing. Researchers believe that 3/4 of the area of ​​modern Vasyugan swamps was swampy less than 500 years ago. It turns out that this system of swamps is the main source of fresh water in the region, there are about 800 thousand small lakes, and many rivers originate from swamps. The area of ​​the Vasyugan swamps is 53 thousand km². This is more than territory , or . Vasyugan swamps are located within the boundaries of Omsk, as well as the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

One of the largest swamp systems in Africa is located in. Marshes can be found in the White Nile Valley. The area of ​​swamps is extremely variable - from 30,000 km² (on average), to 150,000 km² in the rainy season.

Coniferous-deciduous forests of the reserve.

It's been a month since those memorable days. The day after tomorrow I'm on the road - it's time for a vacation, but I still don't compose anything. And the days turned out to be wonderful in all aspects: the company was good, and the weather did not let us down, and the birds were not silent, although they were in no hurry to show themselves.

In the first half of June, I accompanied birdwatchers Ilya Ukolov () and Sergey Eliseev ( user_elis ), together with the ornithologist Sasha Yakovlev who joined us ( birdchuvashia ). They are already slowly spreading the results of their Far Eastern aspirations. I will try to briefly describe how it all happened.

Wayward nightingales and short-tails drive into boredom.

We corresponded with Ilya for almost a year. And if everything was more or less clear with the flat part of the reserve, then the “mountain” part had to be pretty climbed before finally deciding on the choice of place, which, as it turned out, was not so bad. The trouble with our mountain-forest part of the reserve is the lack of residential areas - no cordons, no normal huts, and those that are are located near the "hell in the middle of nowhere", do not shine with their condition and the path to them, lost in the densest thickets of hazel, sometimes not immediately and find.

Upper camp on Dyrovatka. Early morning. The sun has not yet risen from behind the ridge. They are still sleeping and only the birds are pouring over the surrounding bushes and trees.

In order not to waste precious time on long crossings, we settled down not far from the border of the reserve, in the middle reaches of a forest river called Dyrovatka. Where it came from is now a historical mystery, the disclosure of which can be devoted to a separate page ... but not this time. The territory cut down in the first half of the 20th century is almost everywhere covered with secondary forest stands, among which there are occasionally small pockets of preserved primary coniferous-broad-leaved forests.

Sasha Yakovlev froze in anticipation of the long-awaited meeting.

We spent the first few days coniferous forest. Here reigned shade and coolness, even on a hot June afternoon. Birds are early creatures, in order not to miss the period of vocalization, we had to get up at dawn. A short breakfast and there, to the desired meetings and secrets. By noon, when the merciless heat forced all living things to seek refuge, we returned to the camp, dined and rested, sometimes getting a couple of hours of sleep. And towards evening they again went to the blue nightingales, short-tails and other mysterious trifles hiding behind the green wall of bushes and lianas.

"Do you see the snake? ... but it is there!" (Sasha and Sergei are examining the Ussuri muzzle).

Oh, that weasel!

Lower camp on Dyrovatka. Around are giant poplars, elms, firs, cedars; creepers of lemongrass and grapes, impenetrable thickets of dense undergrowth and ferns.

A couple of days later, they moved to a kilometer down the river, to where coniferous trees give way to broad-leaved and the forest acquires classic Far Eastern features. A week is not such a long time, I had to leave, it would seem, just a settled place, where certain tree giants are already familiar, where you recognize almost every feathered vocalist, where each animal path is no longer just a path, but the direction in which you go with a purpose...

River Dyrovatka. Valley coniferous-deciduous forest.

The sound call is the main instrument of a birdwatcher, without it, sometimes, you can’t even see a bird.

What birds, when there is such beauty around! How to get past the shoes when they are at every turn!

The remaining days were used to get acquainted with the birds of our swamps and meadows in the vicinity of the cordon on Lake Klyoshenskoye. Here, in a well-equipped house, life went by the wayside, more time was devoted to birds.

Sedge swamp. Walking on the raft is another "entertainment"!

A path through the swampy valley of the Borzi River.

We didn’t manage to see something from the plan, but we were pleased with the meetings with birds, which were not even included in the wish list.

"How much is a pound of birds." Ilya and Sergey in vain waiting for red-necked oatmeal. Small glowing dots - midges and mosquitoes, sometimes there were a lot of them.

Large camera - the second main tool birdwatcher, how to show what you see without it?

Photo results of the trip can be viewed in magazines

Swamps, these amazing landscape ecosystems, have always attracted people with their secrets and frightened them with both far-fetched and very real dangers. It is terrible to fall into the power of the swamp, which, with just one approach to it, is felt so clearly that it is attributed to a special guardian spirit of the swamp, its owner, the “bog dweller”. Often, just looking at a photo or picture of a swamp is enough to breathe a sigh of relief when you feel solid ground under your feet.

Meanwhile, they are playing one of critical roles in the general ecosystem of the planet, and if you look into them "into the soul", you can see a strong, very harmonious and completely self-sufficient combination of the two basic elements of the elements of our existence - earth and water in all their gloomy, but surprisingly diverse life beauty.

What are they needed for?

First of all, it is a colossal natural storage of moisture necessary for all living things. Their bowels hold 5 times more fresh water than in all the rivers of our planet and a little less than half the volume of the largest fresh water body in the world - Lake Baikal. From the swamps begin small streams and some deep rivers. And the state of these initial swamps largely regulates the course of these rivers, and sometimes their very existence.

In addition, they play the role of a powerful vacuum cleaner and converter chemical composition air. One hectare of "liquid land" is able to absorb as much carbon dioxide and produce as much oxygen as 7-15 hectares of forests or meadows. And since the air temperature above the swampy surface of the earth is always lower than in the vicinity, it is here that they move air masses carrying tons of dust. Contained in warm water mineral elements marsh plants feed. And, of course, these territories are a natural obstacle to the spread of forest crown fires.

Stagnant water?

The biggest misconception about swamp water is that it invariably "stands" in place, as if in a photo, which is why it becomes what it is - viscous, firebox and "rotten". Whether business the purest lakes! It turns out that in fact, it takes an average of 17 years to renew water in lakes, and only five in swamps! And this water is the cleanest on the planet.

How is it arranged?

The peat bog is formed by two layers. The upper one is called "tow" and usually does not exceed a depth of 30 cm. It consists of sphagnum - peat moss, which has retained the features of both terrestrial and aquatic plant cultures. Water passes through this layer easily. Under the tow lies the rest of the mass, peat itself, which is the remains of sphagnum and other marsh plants compressed over the centuries.

The degree of decomposition of peat determines its color - from almost beige to almost black. It passes water very poorly, through this layer rainwater can penetrate into underground lakes for weeks and even months. For this reason, water accumulation can almost always be observed on the surface of the swamp. The accumulation of the peat layer occurs even more slowly, no more than 1 mm annually, on the basis of which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the age of the swamp and obtain data on plants that grew on this landscape centuries and millennia ago. External environment very little effect on the state of peat, it is protected from it almost like the ocean floor.

It is practically impossible to drain the peat bog to the very bottom, the so-called mineral bed. When we talk about draining the swamp, we are talking only about its upper part, while the lower part is always saturated with moisture.

The classification of "liquid earth" is carried out according to various criteria, among which the layman is most interested in the division according to how they look externally, i.e. three main types.

low-lying

As the name implies, they are located in lowlands, places of lowering of the relief, as well as in floodplains and along the banks of rivers and lakes. They are heavily swamped and rich in minerals. From the vegetation they are distinguished by sedge, cattail, rare alder and birch trees.

riding

Most often they are formed in the upper watersheds and do not have underground nutrition, filling up due to natural precipitation. Because of this, their subsoil is poorly mineralized, but cranberries and blueberries grow excellently on them. From herbaceous plants moss and wild rosemary predominate. In turn, they are divided into forest and ridge-hollow, on which trees do not grow.

transitional

A variety that combines the features of upland and lowland bogs and is quite rich in mineral composition their bowels.

The largest swamps in Russia with a photo

If you look at the map of the world, where wetlands are indicated, then in Russia they will be grouped mainly along its northern and eastern edges in areas with low relief. These are Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, and also Western Siberia and on Far East, including Sakhalin Island and Kamchatka. The total area of ​​these territories occupies about a tenth of the area of ​​our country. The largest and most famous of them are as follows.

Location - Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk region, where they occupy an area of ​​more than fifty thousand square meters. km. These are colossal deposits of peat and the most important source fresh water for this region. The depth of peat is about 2.5 m. In addition, biologists play an important role in counteracting the greenhouse effect on a global scale to this world's largest swamp. The age of the swamp is estimated at 10 thousand years.

Once Vasyuganye consisted of 19 independent swamps, but over time they merged into a single one. Rare Red Book representatives of birds live here, elk, deer, bears and smaller animals - foxes and wolverines. Oil-producing enterprises are developing in the region and the natural reserve of the same name is functioning.

Usinskoe

Has the status of a republican nature reserve, covers an area of ​​​​almost 14 thousand square meters. km on the border of the Usa and Bolshaya Vyatka rivers flowing in the Komi Republic. This is one of the largest European peatlands and fresh water reservoirs in the whole chain of lakes of this nature reserve. By species composition there is no great variety of grasses and shrubs, but the avifauna is actively developing here. The suitable climate and inaccessibility to humans make these places ideal for nesting birds, among which there are endangered species - the whooper swan and the magnificent white-tailed eagle.

The territorial location is the basin of the Siberian river Yenisei, the total wetland area is 904 sq. km. The vegetation of this place is interesting. Trees are represented mainly by dwarf birch, a lot of sedge, but here you can also see a completely unique a natural phenomenon- swampy Pine forest. This is a favorite place for the settlements of the Old Believers, here among the swamps there are many of their hermitages and monasteries, and also on the river of the same name is the unspoken Old Believer capital - the settlement of Sandakches.

This is one of the most amazing and largest swamps in the world located in Botswana. Its total area reaches 15 thousand square meters. sq. km. Unusual is the fact that the river of the same name is lost in it, which does not flow into any sea. It is sometimes referred to as the Okavanago Delta. These places attract tourists from lovers of extreme African safaris, because with the onset of the rainy season, a huge number of animals and birds gather here.

Of the 11 trillion liters of water arriving annually, more than half is used to feed plants and animals, about 35% evaporates and only a little more than 2% enters Lake Ngami.

In the United States, the largest mari is located in the state of Louisiana, where a hot and damp climate prevails. Here, just like in Dubches, you can see gorgeous pictures of a swamp in the forest, which are fantastic landscapes. On the territory of this pool (more precisely, about this swamp itself), a horror film called “Swamp Shark” was filmed, which, of course, is nothing more than fiction, because sharks are certainly not found in swamps. But this does not mean that Atchafalaya does not pose a danger to people, especially during the spring flood and the often occurring summer hurricanes due to significant temperature changes.

• Not all places with excess moisture are swamps. The boundary indicator is a peat layer of at least 30 cm. If it is thinner, it is just a wetland.
• Bogs can appear both in dry areas with excessive moisture stagnation, and in the place of reservoirs when they are overgrown.
• The most swampy continent is South America, where this figure reaches 70% of its entire area. Eurasia is in second place. On a global scale, peatlands occupy 2% of the land.
• Russia accounts for 37% of all swamps of the planet. The record holder for this indicator is Western Siberia.
• Swamp water is the purest due to natural natural filters. The absence of harmful bacteria in it makes it possible to preserve organic bodies in the depths with little or no decomposition. It's an excellent preservative.
• The absence of decomposition leads to the fact that the cycle of substances in nature remains incomplete, which saves the planet from the greenhouse effect.
• It is not water that emits an unpleasant odor, but a gas coming from the depths, mainly methane. It is his bubbles that can often be observed on the surface.

• Many rivers (Volga, Dnieper and others) originate in swamps. But there is also a case, as with African river Okavango when they run out of them.
• The largest swamp in the world occupies a record area of ​​230 thousand square kilometers. It is located in South America and is called the Pantanal. And the deepest - in a tectonic depression in Greece, called Philippi. According to various sources, its depth reaches from 190 to 250 m, and the peat layer exceeds 70 m.
• Draining wetlands is fraught with serious disruption of the earth's ecosystem. In addition, after this, some rivers may simply disappear.
• The drained swamps are absolutely unsuitable for agriculture, and the opinion about their fertility is nothing more than a myth.
• February 2 is World Wetland Day.
• Despite the fact that the swamps are "wet", they can burn due to the high combustibility of deep peat.
• Neither frogs nor toads live in real swamps.