Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve, Russia

The Sayano-Shushensky State Natural Biosphere Reserve is a nature reserve in an inaccessible area of ​​the Western Sayan in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory on the left bank of the Yenisei River in the zone of influence of the Sayano-Shushensky reservoir.

The area is 3904 km². The relief is mountainous, with heights from 500 to 2735 m.

Studies the impact of the reservoir on the natural community. The main protected species is the snow leopard. The fauna of the reserve is extremely diverse, almost 100 species are rare, endangered and included in the Red Book. Most of the reserve is occupied by forests. The main value is Siberian cedar. The area of ​​cedar forests exceeds 1000 km². It is part of the Association of Nature Reserves and National Parks of the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion.

 

The history of the formation of the reserve

The Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP was designed since 1961, construction began in 1966, and the Yenisei was closed in 1975. But back in 1967, the first publications appeared about the need to create a nature reserve in the area of ​​the future reservoir: in order to be able to study what was, what will be in the future and what really is. In 1976 the reserve was organized. It was an ordinary nature reserve in the Glavokhota system. Thanks to its timely creation, the staff of the reserve managed to collect a "cut" of information from those areas that were subsequently flooded.

Any reservoir is a big enough load on the ecosystem. And such loads, of course, must be calculated in advance, and accordingly some compensation measures must be taken in advance. Moreover, they must be absolutely adequate - only in this case, the damage that any hydroelectric power plant brings to the environment will be minimal.

The reserve was immediately created as one of the compensatory measures during the construction of the hydroelectric power station. The reserve was faced with the task of preserving the ecosystem in the state in which it was at the time the reserve was created. Due to its inaccessibility in those years, there were no poachers or loggers on the territory of the reserve. It was located on an area of ​​almost a million hectares, but geologists opposed this, who discovered significant deposits of asbestos, which were planned to be used in the future. Therefore, the reserve has occupied its current area of ​​400 thousand hectares. Since 1978, research has begun on all aspects - flora and fauna, geology, snow cover, water, etc. have been studied.

Since 1985, the reserve has been assigned the status of a biosphere, that is, it has been included in the UNESCO system of international reserves. According to its new status, research began to be complex. If nitrogen, pesticides and some other indicators are not recorded in an ordinary reserve, now, after the construction of a special station for integrated background monitoring, they began to monitor almost all environmental parameters. Vegetation cover analyzes were carried out on a regular basis, snow samples were taken, which were processed in the departments of the Hydrometeorological Center of Khakassia and Novosibirsk.

The state of the territory at the time of filling the reservoir
When the reservoir was filled, 1.2% of the territory of the existing reserve was flooded. This is the territory that is released every year by the spring, when the reservoir is depleted by 40 m.

Initially, the “pressure” on nature from the creation of the reservoir was simply colossal, because everything that lived on this narrow strip of coast disappeared. Such coastal species of animals as the badger and the fox simply could not adapt to such a regime. The mud was impassable - the animals practically did not approach the water. The vegetation has completely disappeared. All this lasted for about 4-5 years. Plants were the first to settle down, and now this strip is like a green oasis, that is, it instantly overgrows in spring. Moreover, all silty deposits and overlays have stabilized. Landslide processes are also almost imperceptible - everything that could have slipped slid down immediately. And now the flooded strip is the food base for animals.

What happened next
Predators were the first to adapt. In particular, the wolf got used to it instantly. And about 10-12 years old ungulates have mastered. Now they are making the same traditional transitions that they did before the reservoir appeared. That is, the fears of scientists that the ibex population, which is considered rare, will be torn apart, turned out to be in vain.

Of course, with the advent of hydroelectric power plants, nature has changed. It has become warmer, the flora has changed along the banks. Some species of plants and animals have disappeared, but species associated with humans have become more common. A mass wintering of birds has arisen - now up to 10 thousand ducks winter on the non-freezing Yenisei. And, besides, the hydrological regime has changed, that is, the annual floods have stopped.

 

Due to the increase in humidity and climate warming, the growing season has become almost a month longer. The staff of the reserve uses such a method of observation as photographing the same area from one point. The compared photographs clearly show how the vegetation changed, eventually becoming completely different. The dry steppe slopes of the mountains are now intensively overgrown. The water in the reservoir has become much cleaner. According to analyzes, it in its natural state can already be used as drinking. According to this indicator, the Yenisei below the hydroelectric power station is perfect for fish farming. In the Sayano-Shushensky reservoir itself, cryogenic, that is, those that dominated earlier, types of fish have practically disappeared: grayling, taimen, lenok. However, in all the tributaries, in which the grayling was previously found, it recovered in the same volume. Lenok also recovered. The situation with the taimen is somewhat more complicated: a lot of juvenile taimen are caught, however, there are fewer large individuals so far. But new types of fish have appeared. Taking into account the total biomass, the fish stocks are now larger. Since 2006, the Sayano-Shushenskoye reservoir has been included in the list of fishing farms.

Expansion of the reserve
In 1994, by a decree of the Krasnoyarsk Territory administration, an additional protection zone was created - another 102 thousand hectares. An access control was introduced with the right of the director of the reserve by his order to completely terminate access when necessary. By 2000, a biosphere polygon project was developed, and for another 591 thousand hectares, according to which a biosphere polygon was created by the decision of the Administration and the order of the State Committee for Environmental Protection.

According to its status, the landfill includes:
directly reserved territory, which is the core of tourism, hunting, extraction of natural resources;
transition zone where you can already do business, but with a special permit;
a zone of cooperation, where traditional types of human use of nature develop, hunting, logging, etc.
Participation in the environmental work of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP

 

First of all, as a subject that generates a problem, OJSC “Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP named after PS Neporozhny” participates in this work, which financed the monitoring. In the period from 1994 to 1997, when there was a “perestroika” collapse in the country, the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP covered half of all the utility costs of the reserve, and the Minusinskaya CHPP took the other half. In 1993, a document was developed called "Program of monitoring studies in the zone of influence of the SSHHPP", according to which an annual comprehensive report-research on the impact of hydroelectric power plants on the region's ecology is prepared.

Snow leopard population
Twelve snow leopards currently live in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve. The snow leopard population has stabilized over the past few years.