Inside the Kremlin: Elsa's article on the Cathedrals

One more borrowed article and I promise Ill start writing again:-) Its just she does such a nice job and I can add more pictures than our local newspaper will publish with her articles.  I just wish I could learn how to download some of the videos that give a better perspective,,, oh well.

We spent about an hour and 1/2 inside the Kremlin.  We didnt do the guided tour due to time and cost, but we wandered freely and guided ourselves with the pamphlets and a booklet we bought inside at a kiosk.  We did not go into the famous Armory where the Fabergé eggs are (apparently spectacularely beautifu http://www.faberge.com/news/49-imperialeggs.aspxl) but we had our fill of beauty, and rich history as it was.  Enjoy Elsas Article and the accompanying pictures:

From Russia With: Cathedrals, Frescos, and lots of Ivans.

 

 

I know that I have mentioned the Kremlin before. However I need more space to do it justice. Inside the Kremlin, history comes alive in Moscow. The arched brick entrance opens up to a whole new kind of beauty. It is a result of the history, the people, and the cathedrals (there are 7), all of which have walls that are painted with people and angels depicting stories and events, and golden domes.

 

 

 

  

The Kremlin also holds several important government buildings along with the historic armory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Annunciation Cathedral is one of the oldest cathedrals and buildings in the Kremlin. It is very beautiful with six domed towers and five apses (domed semi-circles) , and not an inch inside is without color.

The Annunciation Cathedral was built in 1484 by order of Ivan III (The Great). Since 1484 the Cathedral has been altered by several different Princes and Tsars through out the generations. Ivan IV (the Terrible) had the Cathedral re-built in the 16th century and added 4 side chapels.

The Dormation Cathedral (The Cathedral of the Assumption) is the oldest church in the Kremlin and also the most important. The church was moved from Vladimir in 1326 and has since held many important events. The royal weddings were celebrated here, the coronations took place in this cathedral. The walls are painted with fresco (painting with water color on wet clay, a technique that was popular during the Italian Renaissance) by a team of 150 icon painters. About 250 compositions were made (we're talking Big compositions!)

 

The next cathedral, The Archangel Cathedral, was build in 1333 by order of Ivan the first. This particular church was dedicated to Archangel Michael (Heavenly Patron of the Russian Army)and to burying the Princes of Moscow along with the first few Tsars of Russia.

There are three more equally magnificent Cathedrals and an armory, but I would need hours to give them credit. The architecture is truly amazing.

 

 

  Never have I seen such exact work. Its crazy to think how these fresco master pieces have been through so much, if they could talk I have the feeling they would be able to share some wisdom.

 

No pictures were allowed to be taken inside, but I can tell you, walking in was like walking back in time. It was weird looking at one of the red velvet chairs and thinking “wow, Ivan the first sat there.”Anyways, seeing all these great cathedrals is just another thing to add to my list of things I'll never forget... which is about 3 feet long at this point!

 

 Celia's footnote:  these young men were marching in formation through the grounds of the Kremlin.  As we took their picture one or two of them turned to us and said " We are Russian!" .

I think we answered, " " Yes!, We Know!!

As young boys do, they giggled and smiled among themselves.

 

Tourists on Red Square and the Kremlin

Im going to cheat yet again! Thanks so much to my daughter Elsas weekly articles for the paper, I can drop a few pictures on a page and copy her article here and 'voila' we have a blog entry!

The first article I am going to insert is her Red Square, St. Basils and Kremlin article:

From Russia with: A Visit To The Heart

Red Square, the geographic center of the capital of Russia, is one of the most famous and important tourist attractions of Moscow.   I think Red Square itself is incredibly beautiful.  The architecture is amazing, a mix of modern shops in old buildings.  There is a large fountain that drains into a man-made stream filled with stone statues depicting Russian fairy tales. The fountain is surrounded by gorgeous gardens. 

 

 

The eternal flame constantly burns to remind Russians of their great losses in ‘The Great Patriotic War’ (WWII) . 

There is a golden circle on the Red Square that marks the spiritual and literal place were all roads start.   It is a Russian tradition for newly wed brides to come to this circle (in wedding gowns and all) and throw coins over their shoulder in hope of starting a new, fresh road in life.

St. Basils Cathedral sits on the edge of the Red Square and was built, not by coincidence, in the literal center of one of Russia's most beautiful cities.  St. Basils cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church.  Although it is mainly used as a museum, it still holds one service a year.  St. Basil’s was built by order of Ivan the terrible in the year 1560 by Barma and Postnik Yakovlev. Nothing else is known about the builders excepting a notorious legend saying that after the Cathedral was finished Ivan had them blinded so that they could not create anything that could ever compare to the thing of beauty they had created for him.  Later Stalin, during his reign of power, ordered that the historical Cathedral should be torn down because it presented a burier to the grand parades he wished to have in the square

 

 

 

The architect, who was ordered to destroy the Cathedral, bluntly refused and sent an angry telegram to the Kremlin.  He did save the Cathedral but he spent the next five years of his life in jail.

           Finally, the Kremlin an ancient walled fortress with many old cathedrals, modern government buildings, gardens and souvenir kiosks, is next door neighbors with Red Square and St. Basils.   The Kremlin is home to Moscow head of government and has been around to see some amazing things.  About 100 people are buried in the walls, their ages vary and so does their “rank in society”.  The one thing they all have in common is that they died for a good cause in the opinion of their fellows.  It was built by Ivan the third, the grand prince of Russia in 1485 and was finished in 1495.   The Kremlin's architecture and engineering are said to be some of the best in the world.

 

I think that Red Square and the surrounding pieces of architecture and history are worthy of all the pride and patriotism bestowed upon them by the people.

 

 

 

That ends Elsas Article.. She says it pretty well, so Ill stop at that!!!

Researching Place Attachment and Environmental education in Elementary School Students: Adirondacks and the Altai

 

 My colleague Natalia and I began our work in the schools in the Altai last week.  The lovely teacher of this classroom of  about 27 students was kind enough and excited enough to collaborate on our study that she gave us  about an hour and 45 minutes to conduct a series of activities with her students. 

Natlia explains the tasks to the students (and the rules - your own thoughts feelings, memories - not your neighbors, though this is inevitably difficult) and I dutifully pass out papers, smile, and collect papers, since my language skills are not at the level of helping much more than that... thought I can say, thank you, good job! great! and well done and a few other things!

So here is what the research is about.  Forgive the lack of citations, this is my own general summary of some really interesting ideas that people have been researching in lots of ways for quite a while.  Our colleague at the University of New Hampshire, Eleanor Abrams, with whom I did my post doctorate, got me interested in this 'sense of place and ecological education' work and Natalia and I have been wanting to do this for several years. I have been working with teachers in the Adirondacks for several years and  Now we have our chance to work in the altai, another culture and another spectacular natural area.

 

Children’s perceptions of the natural environment around them, the components they value, and the ways in which they perceive the environment (positive, neutral, negative) are likely to influence the ways in which they personally behave toward it, and hopefully the ways in which they behave in community (decision making, voting, planning, engagement on behalf of the environment) as adults

Some researchers submit that student interactions with nature in early and mid-childhood influence their attitudes as adults.  Research around  ‘sense of place’ and place attachment suggests that emotional attachment, and or knowledge of  ecological relationships  to /about a place increase the likelihood that people will adopt a disposition to care and make more ecologically responsible decisions with respect to that environmental .

Young children learn about their environment in formal and informal ways that include parents, extended family, school work, friends and free play, household chores and agricultural work, and various media. These ways will likely be very different depending on the type of community in which a child is raised.  For example, children who live in cities will likely learn about their environment in different ways from those who live in agricultural, or subsistence communities. Clearly, many factors will influence the way in which children perceive the environment and their connection to it.

Here we focus on the relative influence of family activities (work and recreation), media sources (tv, movies, internet), and  formal school classrooms and texts.  We use descriptive word lists, drawing and narrative analysis, and a survey to analyze children’s attachment to and perceptions of self in nature in two relatively rural but very different areas of the world:   The Adirondack Park in Northern NY State and the Altai republic of Siberia in the Russian Federation.  We expect similarities in the components that students value based on the similarities in natural beauty (mountains, rivers and or lakes, forests) of both areas and also differences in perception of their relationship to nature and the ways in which they experience and learn about it due to the differences in the cultures.

 

Within the context of a community, if we understand the ways in which students learn about the environment and the ways in which they develop attachment to components of their environment, we can perhaps take some of the informal ways and incorporate activities into our formal school curricula.  For example; if students in rural or multigenerational communities tend to learn from spending time with grandparents or other family members working outdoors, gathering food,  etc. teachers may be able to create situations where students interact with a particular family member through interviews, or through sharing stories in writing about time spent in nature and what they learned.  These types of assignments can provide insight to what students are learning, its scientific validity, and create jumping off points of interest that students could research further in a formal school setting.  If students in more urban settings tend to learn through media, or more structured play spaces (playgrounds, internet, trips outside of their communities) then teachers could develop units that encourage exploration using these avenues either for assignments or class group activities.

 

Stay tuned......

A whirlwind trip to the Big City:Part II. The Bolshoi Theatre



The metro station 'teatralnaya' just two stops from the hotel where we stayed



 Im gonna cheat a bit here and post lots of photos and the article that my daughter Elsa wrote for our local paper, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. This post isn't directly related to the work Im here to do, but it is really important from the perspective of our experiences as visitors to Russia and especially Moscow. In about 2003 I was lucky enough to see the Russian National Ballet perform in that incredible theatre. I remember there was something special about that night because a Ballerina who was a favorite of the people was dancing, and there had been talk of her being 'too big' and the company not being happy with it or something.  I think that night people were out to show their appreciation and love.  I dont even remember what ballet it was, but it was my first time in Russia and I was with some amazing Adirondackers.  We were on our way to Irkutsk, with Dan Plumley as our leader.  I think it was the most 'romantic evening' I have ever spent.  In the most grand sense it was 'romantic'.  The balconies and seats all plush red with gold trim on everything.  The ceiling was painted with angelic figures.   The lights on the sides of the Theatre were so ornate and a huge chandelier was  hanging in the middle. 

The newly renovated Bolshoi theatre, Moscow

We were up high but directly in the center, and I don't care if the seats are considered less valuable, it was amazing getting that perspective on the whole affair and a great view of the orchestra pit.  I remember distinctly being shocked when the audience broke out in applause in the middle of some parts of the performance.  Lots of emotion, not the stayed silence we have come to know in the middle of these types of things in the States..

 Anyway, a little trot down memory lane! But I remember wishing my girls could see it. And so, it was first on our list of things we had to do if there was a performance to see when we were in Moscow.  The Theatre is just very recently renovated.. but more on that from Elsas article in a minute.

We saw La Traviatta. Thank goodness for two lovely Irishwomen sitting next to us who knew something about opera, and gave us the general story line. At the intermission, there was champagne and gorgeous food and snacks to be purchased in a lovely cafe. Just not much time to eat if you are at the end of the line, but we got some drinks and strawberries, just to say we did. 

The whole inside of the building outside of the main theatre, stairs and walls etc. is some kind of light colored marble.. I think.. Its just stunning. And another sophisticated thing is that in Russia in many places you dont have to take your coat, you leave it in the gardarobe, at no cost, and get a ticket so there are no coats over the backs of seats (even in the Universities, you cant bring coats into classes)


      The opera was in Italian and the sub-titles were in Russian. I was so fixated on trying to read a word or two of the subtitles, I didnt delve into the opera emotionally too deeply, but it didnt matter to me. The two leads were great, there were beautiful arias, some fun dance numbers. At the end, Willa was pretty sleepy (to be expected, it was late) and Elsa had tears running down her cheeks. Pretty cool.

Elsas article is below and really says it all.  Enjoy!

 

From Russia with: A Grand Performance.

 

 

            During my recent five day-long vacation in Moscow, I was privileged enough to witness something most people may only dream of.  I am very proud to inform anyone who may be reading, that I saw an Italian opera in the Bolshoi Theater!

            Walking in was like stepping back into the 1800's because that is the style of the building and the furniture and... In fact the only thing that was not styled in 1800's fashion were the people who, though dressed in fancy attire, were not wearing ball gowns. 

          Just a few facts about Bolshoi: First, six months ago it was refurbished. Thankfully the design and color were kept the same, a rich red with gold-leaf accents.  The refurbishing took 6 years! Second, this theater is pretty old. There has been a theater across from Red Square since 1776 (until 1812, when it burned down, a theater called the Petrovka Theater stood were the Bolshoi stands now).  In 1825 the new Bolshoi Theater held its grand opening.  And, on Friday October 12^th 2012, I went and saw La Traviatta, an Italian opera.

            We were in the fourth balcony (the cheap seats) so we had a nice view of the grand chandelier as well as the performance. We also got a pretty nice view of the ceiling. It was, like any other ceiling you may expect to find in an old important Russian building, painted with Angels and such things. The opera was a tragic romance (go figure) about a woman – of the wrong sort -  with T.B. who could not marry the Gentleman she loved.  From what I've heard of operas this is to be expected.  Despite the sadness, her death in the finale and the other depressing parts, it was still very beautiful and certainly made an impression.

            October 12^th 2012 was not all together a pleasant day.  It was drizzly and gray but for some reason the dreary effect such days often have on me, did not come. No, that day i spent traipsing around Moscow city with a rainbow umbrella (which I lost by the end of our expedition) and two Moscow State University students who were kind enough to show us their home “town.”  It really is a beautiful city.  They say that the ones who come to Moscow, always come back.  I totally and completely 100% believe it.   New York City is big, 319 square miles to be exact.  Think of all the things to see in that city... billions. Now double that and that’s the size of Moscow.  Just think about the history that has taken place in Moscow! There are buildings that have been around since the 1500s! I'm generally not a fan of cities but this one’s amazing!  So to wrap up the rambling, I agree, that one time in Moscow and you're guaranteed another trip.

 

 

 

A whirlwind trip to the Big City: Part 1: The Moscow Science Fesitval

Moscow Science Festival 2012

Close to the time we were to leave for Russia and Gorno, I got a note asking if I would come to Moscow in October for the Fulbright in-Country orientation, and also if I would be so kind as to present at the Moscow Science Festival that same weekend.  My girls would be taken care of, we would stay some extra days, and Oksana (the wonder woman) would arrange our hotel and travel.  Ummmmm, let me think..... ? YES!!!!!

So our long weekend in Moscow began on Thursday October 11th  and lasted until Monday night, October 15, with a nasty bit of

 travel on each end, but who's counting:-).  The building below is one of the loveliest college campus buildings in the world, Im sure.  In Moscow there are 7 Stalin houses.  This is one of them. Stalin had them built on the 7 hills of Moscow, as I understand it and I'm not really sure of their original purpose, but I do believe they were for living in.  Long story short, this one became one of the main buildings of the Moscow State University.  The young woman with me in the picture in front of the building is Natalia (one of the many I now know) a Moscow State University language student assigned to me during our stay. Sweet, smart, and extremely diligent! Camilla, not pictured, was the other amazing student who took care of my girls while I was in meetings (thank you girls and Olga for making it happen!)

 

We were lucky to get to go to the very top of this building for a tour of the Natural History Museum of the University (floors 24 through 28) and then up a couple more floors to that round part you see on the very top.  Going into one of these buildings just happened to be one of the things on my daughters wish lists when I made them research moscow before we went ( I am their teacher this semester you know). Little did we know at that time that we were destined for one already!

 The round room with the columns is the top of this building.  It has great accoustics we were told by the Museum Director, and lectures and music events were held there often.  Around the walls were tributes to all the University Presidents from the very initiation (an apparently late starting self taught man who was hungry for knowledge and just about a genius in many fields) to the current president who was loath to have his tribute added, but his adoring faculty insisted. 

 The room actually extends up two floors and there is a balcony, which we went up to, and above that this incredible, specially made glass star (there was a cool story about the chemical composition of the glass that gave it the color... one of the presidents invented..... but I cant remember!)

Below is the view from as high up as you can go.. It was awsome.  Moscow is twice the size of New York City they say. It was cold and windy up there, but that didnt bother me.  It was one of those surreal experiences for me.

 I was invited to pose with the bust of Lenin.  Lenin is everywhere in Russia including all siberian towns I have been in.  I thought at first it might be some sort of dessicration but was assured it was not and so I kissed the man on his forehead.... I didnt include that image, just in case:-)

 At 1:30 I was scheduled to give a talk on the "Importance of Research in Undergraduate Education: Paul Smiths College, College of the Adirondacks" .  The audience were high school students from all over the City, and their parents, teachers, and some univeristy students interested in international science opportunities.

 I had a translator and so things took longer than they would otherwise, but the talk was scheduled for 45 minutes and by breezing over a couple things, I was able to make it. 

Olga (another Russian wonder woman) the festival organizer and the one who invited me to speak, presented me with her own amazing book on the architecture of Moscow that was influenced by Stalin... Its gorgeous and all in Russian, of course, so no excuse now not to keep learning the language (which I am more and more fascinated by).  She also made sure that I had the opportunity to meet with a Dean in the Biology Department and that we could all discuss our mutual interests in international exchange (Ochen Preetna, Andrey!).  Exciting stuff.

 Olga also found out that I was a singer songwriter and had visited my web site and liked it very much. Since much of my stuff is inspired by the Adirondacks she asked me If I would perform at the end of my talk and at the closing ceremony of the festival on Sunday Eve.. Bonus. Im just saying

After my talk I had an hour break and then was honored to be on a panel of academics talking about the role of scientist and academics in the information age.  Natalia and I showed up at the room, sat down and little did she know ahead of time that she would be asked to help me understand the discussion.  She did an amazing job for someone not trained as a translator.  We sat there with her small computer open and her english russian dictionary up on the screen.. She listened , madly wrote notes and then tried to explain the conversation.. At some point I was asked to stand and make my comments.. which I did, only because Natalia had done a great job of summarizing the things the other folks had shared.  I think it went well.  Who knows who understood me, though I spoke plainly and not so fast (ne tak boeestra)


 I was one of many acts at the closing ceremony, including barbershop quartet, opera singing, ballet dancing, Russian traditional songs.... .....I got some really nice feedback from young and older people. Im pretty sure that this was the first and probably the last time I will perform and be projected onto a big screen!  All of these performances were punctuated by the real reason we were there.. Student received awards for their work in science and related fields and were brought out on the stage and interviewed and given prizes.  It was an amazing festival. I was honored to be a part of it. Thanks for letting me relive it a bit here and make it a bit less surreal for the reflection.



A trip to the mountains: Seminsky Pass and Forest Composition

At 8:15 on Saturday morning October 6th, we met at the front gate of Gorno-Altaisk State University to wait for the bus that would take us on an overnight trip to Seminsky Pass - (elevation close to 1894 m - about 300 meters higher than Mt. Marcy) . Seminsky is about 190 km from Gorno and is the  highest pass on the chuy highway as you drive south from Gorno into the golden mountains. Eight of my students, my two daughters, the driver and myself headed out of town with the goal of stopping 3 times on the way at different elevations.  I brought along some information to share from research I had done about some of the species we would see, the changes in abiotic conditions as you climb up in elevation, and the changes that climate change has already wrought in the siberian mountains with respect to forest composition and distribution.

Lida and Vicka keep us smiling!

Our first stop along the highway to talk about forest composition.

It won't come as any surprise to students of forestry or ecology that the lower elevations, like in our subboreal areas, are inhabited by birches and poplar, willows in the lowlands and some spruce and fir. 

Interestingly, like in the Adirondacks (my back yard for instance) there is an abundance of scots pine, but here they grow straight, unlike many of the planted stands we see that have double leaders and crooked stems.  Around the city in the low hills there are forests dominated by these that look like the plantations but this is within the broad range of their natural habitat and so they are likely natural forests (common in the zone called 'light needled mountain tiaga' - see below).
The birch that you can see in the background of the picture of us above is Betula pendula.  At this time of year with branches pedulous, the leaves yellow-gold and thinning, they look to me like the left over sparkles of those big gold-edged fireworks that disperse and then the edges hang in the sky for a while.

The vegetation structure as you travel up the mountains is really much more complicated than I shared with my students, as you can see just looking out at the landscape in the image below.
These are determined by the combination of temperature and precipitation which in-turn are influenced by aspect and elevation. The picture that I took below gives a pretty good visual of these zones if you use your imagination:-)

Eight primary vegetation belts are described by researchers for the mountains of southern Siberia,

Beginning at the highest elevation belt :

(from N. M. Tchebakova, R. A. Monserud, E. I. Parfenova. 2001.  Phytomass change in the mountain forests of southern Siberia under climate warming  - on-line paper, a collaboration of researchers from Krasnayarsk and Rocky Mountain Research Station in Colorado)

 

Mountain tundra (lichens, mosses,

Rhododendron, Betula rotundifolia) with temperature sums (growing degree days ) <700C and no value in the dryness index.

Subalpine mountain taiga (cold and wet)

Pinus sibirica and Abies sibirica, including wet subalpine meadows)

Subgolets sparse mountain taiga (cold and dry; both dark- and light-needled open taiga)

Dark-needled mountain taiga (dominated by
Pinus sibirica and Abies sibirica)

 

Light-needled mountain taiga (dominated by

Larix sibirica and Pinus sylvestris)

Dark-needled chern taiga (floristically rich and productive warm taiga mixed with

Populus tremula),

Subtaiga/forest-steppe

(Pinus sylvestris, Larix sibirica and Betula pendula)

Steppe and dry steppe

(Caragana, Spirea, Cotoneaster, Stipa, Fescuta, Koellria)

 

The place we stayed was right on the pass is an old olympic training center for nordic skiing with a complex of dorm type buildings and different size cottages for people to stay. Our first stop, and where we spent the night was at Seminsky Pass which is clearly in the zone of Dark needled mountain tiaga. The area was Dominated by Pinus sibiricus heavily draped in 'old mans beard' lichen (Usnea).  The air was incredible and it was our first snow experience in our trip.  The only place the snow fell that day and night was on the pass.

The coolest thing about Pinus sibirica (which the locals call siberian cedar - underscoring the value of the latin names!!!) is that while it is a 5 needled pine like our own in the Adirondacks, it has large seeds (pine nuts just like the ones we buy from Pinyon pine at home) that are collected and snacked on right out of the cone.  In the Altai they are sold all over the place and are prized as snacks. We picked our own out from under the layer of fresh falling snow...



There is a Stolovaya where you eat excellent Russian food in a nice warm feeling, carved wood panel sided cafeteria. Several families with young nordic skiers were there for early season training. You cant just rollerski on the streets of Gorno, like you can outside of Lake Placid... No sir! I dont imagine you can do that anywhere on normal Russian roads, it is such a big place to take care of!! And so this facility had specially paved paths that were for the purpose.

 

 

 There was a biathalon shooting range where we picked up a few spend shells for our young nordic skier friends:-) 


After a lot of walking, talking and great eating and a gathering in the Devchata's (Girls - young women) room we got some sleep and the next morning headed a bit further into the mountains to one of the most beautiful passes (though not as high) in the northern Altai mountains: Cheke-toman pass

The view from the pass is really stunning.  My favorite part was/is  the larches (Larix sibirica, 'leestveneetsa' is the Russian transliteration) burning on the hills.  In the Adirondacks larches are associated with wetlands and low areas, going gold with a backdrop of Abies balsamea.  Here they are an incedibly cold and wind tolerant species that are distributed in several of the forest communities, but are the last remaining tree in the higher elevations.  At the tops of some of the lower peaks they are all that remain on the ridgeline where the rocky steeps slope drop away and leave no soil for tree establishment.  I'm adding a few pictures so you can see some of the beauty of Altai in the fall (no reds, we miss those, but a golden beauty that glows)

On the way to the pass - out of the snow

Larches on fire on the hills

Cheke-tomon pass is 1460 meters and has one of the most beautiful views in these mountains

 

This is the valley you look into from the Cheke-tomon pass.

 Tolono takes Willa and Elsa up to the sacred place on the pass (all passes have sacred places where you pay tribute to the spirits in the native Altai culture) and explains the proper way and the significance. The prayer flags on the hill on the up-side of the pass are plentiful.

Devchata! (young women - girls)

Finally, some of the materials that I used to share with my students are summarized below for the interest of any ecologists.  I find it so fascinating to study this ecosystem and see the similarities to our own in terms of composition, and effects of climate change.

A bullet summary of the paper:

Spatial distribution and temporal
dynamics of high-elevation forest stands
in southern Siberia
Global Ecology and Biogeography,  (2010) 19, 822–830
Vyacheslav I. Kharuk*, Kenneth J. Ranson, Sergey T. Im and
Alexander S. Vdovin

•With elevation increase (and thus a harsher environment) forests shifted to steep wind-protected slopes.
•A considerable increase in the stand area and increased elevation of the upper forest line was observed (global warming)•Warming promotes migration of trees to areas that are less protected from winter desiccation and snow abrasion (i.e. areas with lower values of slope steepness). Climate-induced
•forest response has significantly modified the spatial patterns of high-elevation
•forests in southern Siberia during the last four decades, as well as tree morphology has shifted as a result of climate change.


The figure below shows that changes in precipitation and temperature in summer and winter in Siberia have been similar to those in the Adirondacks. Significant increases in winter temperatures in the last 100 years.

 

Both the Adirondack and the Altai are on the edges of biomes and thus are more prone to fast ecological changes due to climate change. (I try to show with below)

The more things change the more they stay the same!!  stay tuned
Celia