In 1999, the reserve "Chazy" was merged with the reserve "Small Abakan". Thus, the State Nature Reserve "Khakassky" appeared, spread out over the boundless mountainous taiga open spaces.
The steppe of the reserve captured a part of the left bankMinusinsk Basin. The zone of the mountain steppe, included in the reserve "Khakassky", is attached to the Altai-Sayan system. Here the lake basins and river valleys alternate with squat hills, ridges and elevations, the height of which does not exceed 800-900 meters.
Three types of relief are characteristic for a mountainous area.Alpine highland relief focused on the ridges. It is represented by sharp-angled peaks, circuses, carpets and rocky ridges. Massive-high-mountainous terrain was conquered by flat peaks, gently sloping dissected slopes. Rock rocks, breaking down, cover the slopes with stony screes.
The medium-relief relief covers areas for whicherosion separations, narrow valley plains and slopes with great steepness. The expanses around the large rivers are dotted with terraces. Clearly delineated floodplains of shallow rivulets include no more than one terrace.
The Khakass state reserve is located in thepower sharply continental climate. In the steppe, it is arid, with characteristic monthly and daily temperature differences. In the valley near the Yenisei, the climate is milder. Snow does not stay in flat spaces. The wind blows it into the lowlands and ravines. In the mountains, summer is short and winters are long and chilly. Here there is a high humidity and cyclones predominate.
The steppe belt of the reserve is littered with lakes.There are more than two hundred. Lakes are different in degree of overgrowing and mineralization. They are distinguished by the size of the water areas. The mountain area is covered with a network of streams and rivulets. The rivers crossing the Khakass Nature Reserve are mountain-tempered. Water flows in them are turbulent and swift, interrupted by multiple rapids, rifts and shivers. Pebbles are scattered along the coasts of the rivers. They are encumbered with blockages from stony blocks, giant boulders and windbreaks. In the highlands there are caring lakes.
On the shores of lakes and valleys of rivers there are reed, sedge and tuber-swamp bogs. The end of the swamp water is tightened with canary, reed, horsetail, cattail, chasuha and arrows.
Steppe soils are covered by panceria by 40%grayish, thyme, wormwood cold, kohie, snakehead, dwarf pygmy and small-crowned cereals. The basis of the herbage in the steppes that cover the Khakassky Reserve is drought-resistant grasses, represented by fescue falsely-eared, thin-skinned slender, feather grass, bluegrass, sedges and serpentine.
Here forest parks of park type prevail.Rare and developed underbrushes overgrow with tavolgami, cotoneaster, dog rose and acacia. The mountain-taiga belt grew dark coniferous tree species. Minor areas are covered with dark coniferous-birch forests. In the upper forest belt cedar, cedar-fir and cedar-larch arrays have settled.
In some places the stand is mixed.It is represented by birch, cedar, fir, spruce, willow, larch and aspen. The undergrowth is formed by willows, stunted birches, Kurilian tea, spirits, currant, alder and bird cherry. Bilberry and cowberries settled in the bushy tier. Among the discharged herbage there are blueberries, alpine teeth and wavy hair.
The national reserve "Khakassky" is inhabitedmammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. More than 50 species of mammals have settled on the reserve territory. Acclimatized species are hare-hares, muskrats and mink. Here there are steppe variegates, various voles, ground squirrels and hamsters.
Habitual inhabitants of the reserve are recognizedfoxes and hares. They build here their homes choruses, badgers and wolves. Roe deer are found on its territory. They found here their home brown bears, wolverines, lynx, musk deer, marals and moose. In the mountains there are Sayan deer. To the rare inhabitants are otters, sables and Siberian cats.
The reserve "Khakassky" is rich in birds.They are found here 244 species. Passeriformes, Charadriiformes and Anseriformes settled in different parts of the reserve. Landslides, mosquitoes, taiga crickets, titmouses, woodpeckers, hazel grouses, wood grouse, snipe and owls have settled in the forests. They found a place for nesting predators - black kites, hawks, burial grounds and Saker Falcon. Rivers and lakes have become an abode for swan-swans, horn-nosed turpans, scorches, peganoks, diving ducks, gulls, waders, eagle owls, and cranes.
In the reservoirs of the reserve 32 species of fish were found.The reservoirs are inhabited by a ket and trout, peled and bream, ryadushka and omul, carp and pike perch. Aboriginal fishes here are perch, pike, crucian and golyan. Occasionally in the reservoirs there are grayling, taimeni, lenok, sterlet, sturgeon and tugun.
