MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE IN ARID HIGHLANDS (CASE STUDY OF THE MONGUN TAIGA MOUNTAINS)

The analysis of the spatial structure of landscapes of arid highlands was carried out by combinations of se veral morphometric characteristics based on the high-resolution remote sensing data. The choice of the Mongun Taiga Mountains located in the west of the Republic of Tyva (Russia), as a model site, is due to the possibility of verifying the results of morphometric analysis using the extensive material from long-term field studies of the massif. It is shown that the territory could be split into sections relatively homogeneous in terms of relief morphometric parameters in order to describe the locations with a sufficiently high accuracy. It has been established that the entropy of the distribution of plant community groups, averaged over altitudinal intervals, significantly decreases when locations are identified based on combinations of morphometric values for the entire altitudinal profile, regardless of the macroslope. Combining field trials, cartographic and remote sensing methods makes it possible to assert that proposed set of morphometric characteristics is able to output plant cover horizontal structure. It can be used for automatic interpretation of hardly accessible areas of Inner Asia as well as for the forecast of landscape structure transformation as a result of spontaneous or human-induced changes.