Altitudinal organization of plain landscapes (on the example of the Central Black Earth Region of Russia)

Absolute and relative terrain altitudes are an important factor in the genesis of geosystems. They determine differences in morphometry indicators, intensity and direction of landscape-forming processes, and landscape patterns. The study objective is to identify the relationships between altitudes and landscape metrics at four scale levels. The forest-steppe zone of the Central Black Earth Region of Russia was chosen as a study area. Authors of the article created a digital elevation model and a landscape map for the area, then conducted morphometric, hydrological, insolation, and textural analyses. Applying grids with different cell-sizes, the analyses results were obtained and stored into a spatial database. Authors divided the obtained indicators into three groups: condition, process, result. The regression analysis showed that the dependence of the relief dissection parameters on the absolute altitudes decreases with the increase of the study scale. The dependence of the indicators of landscape-forming processes and landscape textures on the relative heights increase when the study scale decreases. Ranking of the greed cells by indicators of absolute and relative heights made it possible to identify morphologically and dynamically unified altitudinal landscape systems. As one of the research results, the authors of the article devised a taxonomic scheme of altitudinal landscape systems, which included the division, class, subclass, type, subtype, family, genus, species, and subspecies categories.