Vasyugan Swamp

Category: Inland Aquatic Biomes.

Geographic Location: Asia.

Summary: A nearly pristine peat-bog ecosystem, the extensive Vasyugan Swamp is the largest swamp in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Vasyugan Swamp, also known as the Great Vasyugan Mire, is an ecosystem unlike any other on Earth. Geomorphologically unique, the Vasyugan features unique types of swamp massif. Located in the Tomsk region of western Siberia, Russia, the Vasyugan Swamp is the largest swamp system in the Northern Hemisphere and one of the largest swamps in the world, spreading across an area of 20,500 square miles (53,095 square kilometers). The swamp represents about 2 percent of the total area of the planet’s peat bogs. From east to west, it extends more than 350 miles (563 kilometers), and from north to south, it extends around 200 miles (322 kilometers).

Formed in the last ice age, the watersheds of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers accumulated sediment, giving rise to the Vasyugan Swamp. It is considered to be a continuous and even accelerating natural phenomenon that has been expanding since it appeared some 10,000 years ago. Most of its growth has happened in more recent times; three-quarters of its current area was developed in the past 500 years.

Located in the central sector of the western Siberian plain in a transitional zone between a subregion of small-leaved forests and the southern taiga, the Vasyugan Swamp sits on the Vasyugan plain. The plain lies within the boundary of four regions of the Russian Federation: Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk, and Novosibirsk. It extends along the west bank of the Ob River at the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh Rivers.

The swamp has a continental climate with short, hot summers and long, cold winters. Average temperatures range from minus 5 degrees F (minus 21 degrees C) in January to degrees 64 F (18 degrees C) in July. Precipitation is in the range of 17–19 inches (440–480 millimeters) annually.

The primary source of freshwater in the region, with about 100 cubic miles (417 cubic kilometers) of water reserves, the swamp includes almost 800,000 small lakes and is also the source of numerous rivers. It holds massive reserves of peat, estimated at more than 1 billion tons, which reach depths of more than 30 feet (9 meters).

While the climate, topographical relief, and geological structure of the Vasyugan Swamp are typical for temperate-zone swamps, its particular development, distinct lithogenic and biological characteristics, and specific location in the southern portion of the western Siberian plain give the swamp its unique quality. Evenly comprised of bogs, fens, and forested mires, the landscape of this complex ecoregion is perpetually in development. It features springs, peat beds, valleys of rivulets, swamps in transitional phases, and temporary water canals extending from vast waterlogged interfluves.

Its central regions feature swamps and ombrotrophic (watered only by precipitation) mossy pine bogs, known as ryam islands, which rise 20–30 feet (6–9 meters) above the low-lying swamps that line the periphery. The swamp features different types of peat deposits, diverse flora, and distinct forest and swamp landscapes along its northern and southern edges. These differences are caused by varying rates of soil alkalinity and salinity within the mineral bed of the swamp.

Vegetation

The Vasyugan Swamp features a complex mosaic of botanical communities covering the southern taiga forest zones and multiple swamp zones. Vegetation occurs in about 60 percent of this ecoregion, which supports distinct birch-aspen forests, spruce-fir-cedar forests, and dark coniferous forests featuring layers of dwarf pine. There are also low shrubs, such as leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), marsh Labrador tea (Ledum palustre), and bog cranberry (Oxycoccus microcarpus), as well as herbs such as cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) and common sundew (Drosera rotundifolia).

The open water area features floating vegetation mats of species such as mud sedge (Carex limosa), rannoch-rush (Scheuchzeria palustris), white beak-sedge (Rhynchospora alba), hare’s-tail cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum), and red cottongrass (E. russeolum), as well as several mosses, including Baltic bog-moss (Sphagnum balticum), Jensen’s sphagnum (S. jensenii), and Papillose bog-moss (S.papillosum).

On the surface of the interfluvial watershed zone between the Ob and Irtysh Rivers are water bogs that support a variety of flora, such as sedges (family Carex), moss (family Hypnum), and peat moss (Sphagnum), the most dominant of these being brown sphagnum (Sphagnum fuscum).

Fauna

The swamp supports a wide variety of insects throughout its many subregions, including butterflies (families Geometridae and Noctuidae) and beetles (Cerambycidae, Chrysomelidae, Ipidue, Carabidae, and Staphylinidae). Various suborders of ants, wasps, and bees (Hymenoptera) are found in its low-lying grass and bush layers; mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and true flies (Diptera) along the riverbanks; and dragonflies (Odanata) and blood-sucker flies (Hipoderma bovis, Oestris ovis, and Hippoboscidae spp.) in bogs.

Because the swamp is extremely difficult to access, there is lack of human development in this region; thus, the ecosystem has remained a virtually undisturbed habitat for many native animals. Mammal species include brown bear (Ursus arctos), elk (Cervus canadensis), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), sable (Martes zibellina), squirrel (Sciuridae), Russian mink (Mustela lutreola), Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), and wolverine (Gulo gulo). Of the mammals, reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is a rare species.

Bird species include wood grouse (Tetrao urogallus), black grouse (T. tetrix), willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus), hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia), aquatic warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola), and slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), as well as several vulnerable bird species, including golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), osprey (Pandion haliaetus), great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor), and peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus).

Amphibian species in the Vasyugan Swamp biome include the Siberian salamander (Salamandrella keyserlingii), true frog (Ranidae), common toad (Bufo bufo), common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), and viper (Viperidae).

Environmental Threats

Due to the unsuitability of the land in this biome for standard dwellings or cropland development, there has been very little human settlement, logging, or agrarian activity such as herding. There are growing concerns about the state of the endangered species in the Vasyugan Swamp, however, due to the effects of infrastructure development, as well as air, water, and ground pollution by the oil and gas industry, which operates primarily in the western part of the swamp.

Global warming is a serious threat, as it is thought to be heightening evaporation and thereby altering the moisture retention capacities of the peat bogs. Peat bogs also play a role in trying to reduce global warming by absorbing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Increased evaporation could endanger that function of the Vasyugan Swamp. Increasing average temperatures are leading to a northward procession of habitat types; this stresses local habitats and compels migration of fauna. Not every species will be able to adapt rapidly enough to keep pace with the warming trend.

The eastern region of the Vasyugan Swamp has been nominated for inclusion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.

Bibliography

Kulikova, G .G. “History of Formation of Forests of the Vasyugan Swamp During the Holocene.” Moscow University Biological Sciences Bulletin 34 (1979).

Pisarenko, O. Yu, E. D. Lapshina, and E. Ya Mul’diyarov. “Cenotic Positions and Ecological Amplitudes of Mosses in the Vegetation of the Great Vasyugan Swamp.” Contemporary Problems of Ecology 4, no. 3 (2010).

Sinelschikova, Yekaterina. “This Swamp Is Bigger Than Switzerland and Still Growing.” Russia Beyond, 1 Oct. 2019, www.rbth.com/lifestyle/331059-vasyugan-swamp-bigger-switzerland. Accessed 18 Aug. 2022.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “The Great Vasyugan Mire.” World Heritage Centre, 2007. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5114.

Verhoeven, Jos. T. A., Boudewijn Beltman, Roland Bobbink, and Dennis F. Whigham, eds. Wetlands and Natural Resource Management. New York: Springer, 2006.