Eastern Kazakhstan is a unique land of unique landscapes. The Irtysh valley stretches to the west, and the Altai Mountains to the north and east. In the south, the Zaisan hollow extends, bounded by the Sauyr and Tarbagatai ridges. The forests of the Ore Altai are home to over a thousand different plant species, as well as a lot of animals and birds.
Natural Zones
Mountain, mountain-taiga, mountain-meadow, forest, forest-steppe, steppe, valley, semi-desert and desert landscapes prevail. Most of the territory is occupied by the mountain systems of Rudny and Southern Altai, Kalba, Saur-Tarbagatai. The altitudes of the mountains vary from 800 m to 1500 m, and in the extreme east of the Altai range up to 3000-4000 m (Mount Belukha, 4,506 m). There are about 350 glaciers in the Kazakh part of Altai, with a total area of 99.1 sq km. These mountain systems are divided by wide intermountain troughs. The largest of them are the Zaisan and the Alakol.
The western part of Eastern Kazakhstan is occupied by the Kazakh uplands. Foothill plains are characterized by the prevalence of feather-grass and feather-grass-typchak steppes. The Irtysh valley is the most flat part of the region. Wormwood and sagebrush-saline desert steppes are developed in the Zaisan hollow.
Climate
The climate is severely continental, with large daily and annual amplitudes of air temperature. Winter is harsh, while summer is long and hot. Absolute minimum temperature in winter - 52 degrees, maximum summer temperature of +46 degrees.
Precipitation is extremely uneven. In the highlands, over 1000-1500 mm per year, at the foothills of the mountains 400-500 mm, in the Zaisan hollow 130-200 mm. The duration of the vegetation period in the north of the region is up to 176 days, in the south - up to 198 days.
Water resources
In the region are concentrated more than 40% of all the water resources of the country. There are more than 800 rivers, the total length of which is more than 10 000 km. The main water arteries are the Irtysh (its large tributaries - the Uba, Ulba, Bukhtarma, Kurchum, Char, Kyzylsu rivers), the Ust-Kamenogorsk and Bukhtarma water reservoirs, created after the construction of the Ust-Kamenogorsk (1952) and Bukhtarma (1960) hydroelectric power plants.
There are about 2000 lakes with the area from 1 hectare to 528 sq.km. The largest lakes are Markakol, Zaisan, Sibinsk lakes, Maralie, Rakhmanovskoe, Kemerkol, Sasykkol, and Alakol.
Flora
The vegetation cover is very diverse and subject to both latitudinal and vertical zoning.
In the mountainous areas, at an altitude of 400 to 800 m (above sea level) in the North and 600 to 1300 m in the South, there is a mountain-steppe belt with forbs and shrubs (meadowsweet, hips, blackthorn, acacia, hawthorn - on the mountain slopes; willow, hips, bird cherry, snowberry, currant, hop, blackberry - in the river valleys).
The forest belt (birch, aspen, poplar, cedar, fir, fir, larch, various bushes) is at an altitude of 800-1,700 m in the North and up to 2,300 m in the South. Forests cover an area of more than 2 million hectares.
From 2000 to 3000 m lies a zone of subalpine and alpine meadows. There are cobresia, oleaster and cuff meadows with gentian, asters, buttercups, primroses and others.
Above the alpine meadows are stone placers and areas of mountain tundra. Even higher are the snow and glaciers. The vicinity of the Alakol hollow is occupied by sands, solonchaks and solonchaks and is a desert. In the Irtysh floodplain there are birch and aspen poplar forests, bushes and flood meadows.
Eastern Kazakhstan is the main supplier of valuable medicinal plants for the pharmaceutical industry (sea buckthorn, rhodiola rosea (golden root), saffron milk thistle (maral root), cinquefoil (white root).
Fauna
The fauna of the area is rich and diverse. There are more than 400 species of birds, about 60 species of mammals. This bear, squirrel, ermine, weasel, chipmunk, flying fox, lynx, sable, wolverine, wolf, fox, hare, moose, maral, roe deer, leopard, argali, Siberian ibex, wild boar, many species of rodents and reptiles. Of birds: whooper swan, black stork, herring gull, merganser, wigeon, geese, cranes, cormorants and many others.
Rivers and lakes are rich in fish (anchovy, bream, carp, pike, uskuch, trout, taimen, pikeperch, grayling, perch, crucian carp, nelma, sturgeon).