Study area - Homepage Wiebe Borren

Study area - The Vasyugan Peat Bog Complex

My study area is the Vasyugan peat bog complex at the water divide between the rivers Ob and Irtish in Western Siberia, Russia. The Vasyugan area is called a peat bog complex because it consists of several connected peatlands. It forms the largest peat bog complex in the world, with an area of about 60.000 sq.km (about 1.5 times the land area of The Netherlands). Moreover, it is almost completely without any human influence.

In the Vasyugan peat bog complex I selected two model areas. The first is the Bakchar Bog between the Ob tributaries Bakchar and Iksa. The second is East-Vasyugan, the eastern part of the main complex.

Maps and images

(Click on an image to enlarge)

Western Siberia

Western Siberia (Russia) is the lowland area between the Ural Mountains and the river Yenisey. The area of peatland within this part of Siberia is roughly estimated at 1.000.000 sq.km, spread over several bioclimatic zones. My study area is situated in the Southern Taiga zone, in the area west of Tomsk.

The Vasyugan Peat Bog Complex

The Vasyugan Peat Bog complex is situated at the water divide between the rivers Ob and Irtish (see red form on picture). Most parts are hardly accessible for fieldwork, because of the wet field conditions and long distance to human infrastructure.
Entrance with vehicles is possible only in winter, because of the frozen peat. Disturbance of the peat is then negligible.

This image of Vasyugan is made by the Russian satellite Resurs. The green colors are peatland areas.

On this picture the two selected model areas within Vasyugan are shown in red:

> Bakchar Bog (small area at the right)

> East-Vasyugan (large area at the left)

Bakchar Bog

	Topographical map (1:200.000) showing Bakchar Bog and model area.
	Bakchar Bog and model area on a Landsat image. Peat areas are purple, forests are green. The white plume in the middle is a peat/forest fire.

East-Vasyugan

	Topographical map (1:200.000) showing East-Vasyugan and model area.
	East-Vasyugan on a Landsat image. Peat areas are purple, forests are green.