Soil and plant cover of the territory of Usinsk coal deposit (Bolshezemelskaya tundra)

The current state of natural complexes in the ecotone strip of the tundra-forest- tundra zone in the Usa river basin on the territory planned for the development of the Usinsk coal deposit is discussed. The soil cover of the territory of research is complex enough. Under the tundra communities there are formed tundra illuvial-humus, podzolized and tundra surfacegley soils. Under the forest vegetation mostly illuvial-humus-iron podzol soils and peaty-podzolic-gley and gley soils prevail. In the vegetation cover 11 basic types of natural and anthropogenically transformed plant communities are singled out. Currently, the eco-systems of the given area can be attributed to the weakly disturbed, since the area of anthropogenically disturbed sites in the vegetation and soil cover is small and makes 2-3%. The soilvegetative cover of the area of research is characterized by the expressed instability to anthropogenic impact and long-term restortion of ground cover. This demands work to be carried out strictly within the allotment of land with preservation of soilvegetation layer in the adjacent territories. The organization of the environment monitoring system that will allow to reveal and estimate in due time the quantitative and qualitative changes in the environment under the anthropogenous influence and to obtain prognostic characteristics, is necessary.