Landscape-Forming Processes, Factors and Landscape Structure of the South of the Selenga Middle Mountains

Abstract

The article studies the landscape structure of the territory of south the Selenga middle mountains. The introduction to the article defines the concepts of landscape structure, factor-dynamic system, and reveals the essence of the structural-dynamic approach to the study of geosystems. The section "Object and methods of research" describes the natural conditions of the south of the Selenga middle mountains and methods of landscape research. The results of the study present an analysis of the main landscape-forming processes, factor-dynamic series, and dynamic categories of geosystems, as well as a map of the landscape structure of the study area. A structural-dynamic (factor-dynamic) approach to the analysis of landscape structure was implemented using GIS technologies based on remote sensing data, field research materials, maps of various contents and literary information. The leading landscape-forming processes and the main factors that influence the formation of the landscape structure are shown. As a result of the conducted research, a landscape map of geosystems of the topological hierarchical level was constructed, which shows the types of geosystems (geomes, classes and groups of facies) reflecting the factor-dynamic structure of landscapes. For the mountains of the south of the Selenga Middle Mountains, the leading landscape-forming processes are gravity-slope, slope water-erosion, fluvial and aeolian processes that determine the formation of lithomorphic, alluvial-hydrolithomorphic and psammo-lithomorphic factorial-dynamic series of geosystems (facies classes). For plains, the leading landscape-forming processes are slope water-erosion, alluvial, lacustrine and aeolian, forming lithomorphic, alluvial-hydromorphic and psammomorphic series of facies.