Scientists of Tomsk State University (TSU), in the course of their study of khasyrei - hollows of former lakes, where shrubs and meadow plants begin to grow actively, found that such "oases" can be created artificially and then used for grazing deer and harvesting green fodder. This was reported to TASS by the press service of the university.
According to the press service, with a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, TSU scientists have studied Arctic swamps, lakes, as well as "oases" with shrub-meadow vegetation. Khasyrei appear after the drying up of water bodies due to thermal erosion of their shores, while it was previously believed that their formation takes several decades.
“These ecosystems can be purposefully activated in order to provoke the growth of green mass. To do this, it is enough to fill the basin with water, creating a dam, and lower it after a few years, after which the khasyri covered with grass can be used for summer grazing of deer and preparation of green fodder. However, after dozens of years, the productivity of the Khasyreis will start to decline again. Now we are studying how and on what the rate of its decrease depends,”the press service of the head of the scientific project Sergey Loiko quotes.
It is specified that the bottom sediments of the khasyrei accumulate a large amount of mineral substances that feed the plants. The observations of TSU scientists show that in the last 30 years, the processes of formation of khasyrei have become much more active, and their number has almost doubled. This is also due to the warming in the Arctic zone.
It is also reported that the scientists took samples from a dozen different swamps throughout the depth from the surface layer to the mineral bottom and found that the frozen part of the bogs contains a huge amount of nutrients - 20-70 times more than the surface layer.
In the event that the warming trend continues, the substances contained in the frozen water will begin to be released and transferred into the soil. This will lead to an increase in its fertility and the growth of more lush vegetation, especially in river valleys and khasyreys, where nutrients will be washed out from the swamps.
