LANDSCAPE PECULIARITIES OF GEOSITES (A CASE STUDY OF MOUNTAINOUS ADYGEYA)

Abstract

Physico-geographical constituents of geological heritage attract significant research interest. However, despite the increasingattention of Russian and foreign science, many of them are yet to be adequately studied. The present research aims to analyze thelandscape peculiarities of geosites (the principal in-situ form of geological heritage) of Mountainous Adygeya, which is a large centerof geodiversity in the western part of the Greater Caucasus. The work is based on the materials collected during many years of investigations. We distinguished the principal types of landscapes in the study area and established their presence in each of seventeengeosites. The distribution of the landscape types in the geosites taken as a whole and the landscape diversity in each of them areexamined. The relevant values are corrected taking into account the size of the geosites. The results of the study indi cate that amongthe five principal landscape types, the most distributed ones are natural-anthropogenic and low-mountainous with deciduous forests,while the least distributed are high-mountainous landscapes with meadows. Taking into account the size of the geosites allowsnoting a relatively wide distribution of landscapes of two other types, namely middle-mountainous landscapes with mixed forestsand floodplains with meadows. The diversity of the landscape peculiarities of the geosites of Mountainous Adyg eya is limited, butit increases in the largest of them (for instance, the Lagonaki Highland includes four landscape types). Although the uneven distribution of the geosites in the study area influences the representation of landscapes, the entire geological heritage of Mountainous Adygeyaperfectly reflects the region’s natural peculiarities and their diversity. From the practical point of view, the research results appear to be important for planning and organizing geotouristic activities (including marketing purposes) and can also be used for practicaltraining at universities.