Our beautiful planet: the hidden land of fire and ice | eco@africa | DW | 13.10.2017
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Eco@Africa

Our beautiful planet: the hidden land of fire and ice

For a century, Russia's nature reserves — with the world's strictest wildlife protections — have been largely off-limits to humans. One of them, Kronotsky, boasts geysers, active volcanoes and 800 brown bears.

Russland Kamtschatka Kronozki-Naturreservat (Imago stock&people)

This year marks a century since the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, formally approved a plan to close a vast swathe of Siberian forest to the public - one of his final acts before the Russian empire collapsed in the 1917 revolution.

The original aim was to prevent the extinction of a weasel-like creature called the Siberian Sable, highly valued for its fur. But it also founded a unique nature reserve system extending over an area the size of France and rated by the UN as having the world's highest level of protection for wildlife.

Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Russia. Photo credit: (picture-alliance/Wildlife/I. Shpilenok)

Kronotsky volcano looming large

The rules governing these nature reserves, known as zapovedniki in Russian, are so strict, and some are so remote, that very few of Russia's own population have ever been inside one.

Since their foundation, only scientists, rangers and students had been allowed to visit these nature reserves, which conservationists have strived hard to protect and study. But government initiatives launched in 2011 mean many of these nature reserves are opening to a limited number of visitors

Nature protection in these zapovedniki is stricter than for the world's national parks, such as Yellowstone in the US, where hikers can roam, which have hundreds of kilometers of paved roads, and where the attitude is recreation together with conservation.

Russia also has national parks, but these don't come with such high protections as their more than 100 zapovedniki.

Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Russia. Photo credit: Imago/Mint Images.

The geysers in Kronotsky Nature Reserve can be deadly

Kronotsky, in Russia's remote far east, is one of these nature reserves. It extends more than 10,000 square kilometers and is home to Russia's only geyser basin. A small valley, discovered in 1975, earned the name "death valley" after it was found to regularly kill animals who perish from the high concentration of poisonous gases, among hydrogen sulfide, rising from the earth.

Brown bears in Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Photo credit: Imago/Zumapress.

Brown bears in Kronotsky Nature Reserve enjoy the world's highest wildlife protections

It also boasts several volcanoes, both extinct and active. This, combined with its harsh, icy climate, has earned it the nickname the "Land of Fire and Ice."

The reserve also has around 800 brown bears, some weighing as much as 650kg, making it one of the species' largest protected populations in the world.

Few people have ever stepped foot inside Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Photo credit: Imago/ITAR-TASS.

Few people have ever stepped foot inside Kronotsky Nature Reserve

Do you have a picture of a beautiful landscape or something amazing in nature that you want to share with our readers? If so, you can send it to us using the upload tool on our website, or by emailing us at ecoafrica@dw.com. We look forward to hearing from you!


  • Red and green leaves (picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    A magical transformation

    Leaves are green - you'd think that was obvious. But in fact, it's only true during spring and summer. In autumn, leaves turn brown, red and yellow. Where do these colors suddenly come from?

  • green leaf close up (picture-alliance/PhotoAlto/M. Constantini)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Only green leaves can photosynthesize

    The deep green pigment in leaves is called chlorophyll. It absorbs sunlight and enables plants to produce sugars out of water and carbon dioxide. In its structure, chlorophyll resembles the red pigment in our blood.

  • Colourful autumn leaves (picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    When fall arrives

    When the days get shorter and darker, a tree knows that it's time to prepare for winter. It starts slowly breaking down its precious chlorophyll into small molecules and stores them in its trunk and roots - they are much too valuable to throw away.

  • red leaf (picture-alliance/dpa/F.Rumpenhorst)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Red shines through

    As well as the chlorophyll, a leaf also contains red and yellow pigments. In spring and summer, though, we aren't able to see them because the green color of chlorophyll hides all other colors. When the chlorophyll vanishes, the vivid red and orange colors finally get their turn to shine.

  • Colorful autumn leaves (picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Color palette

    Carotenoids give leaves their golden or orange colors. Anthocyanins make them red or purple. But you can only see those vivid colors when the deep green stops cloaking all of the others.

  • A tree shedding its leaves (picture-alliance/dpa/M. Bein)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Get rid of it!

    Once the tree has broken down all of the chlorophyll, it no longer has any use for its leaves - so they have to go. A layer between the branch and leaf forms and that cuts the leaf off from its water and nutrient supply. It dies off and falls to the ground.

  • Autumn leaf (picture-alliance/F. May)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Why all this waste?

    A leaf's cells contain a lot of water. If the water froze over in winter and formed ice crystals, the leaves would break anyway. So there is really no use in holding onto them.

  • A tree in winter (picture-alliance/dpa/S. Hoppe)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    On a winter's break

    It's much too cold for trees in winter, anyway. As all water freezes, trees don't get enough liquid water to perform photosynthesis. So, again, why keep the leaves? Naked and bleak, they hibernate, waiting for the days to get longer and warmer, so they can start growing leaves again.

  • Trees in Brazil, Amazon (picture-alliance/dpa)

    Autumn: when trees prepare for winter

    Some have summer all year round

    Evergreen trees like those in the Amazon behave differently. As it never freezes over in those parts of the world, the trees don't need to hibernate. They keep their leaves and chlorophyll throughout the year. So the forests never turn a vivid red and yellow in fall in those regions, and it's a pity, isn't it?

    Author: Brigitte Osterath


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