Herbarium of the core zone of Katunskiy Biosphere Reserve (KBR)

The Katunskiy BR is a unique area where the natural high-altitudinal ecosystems of the core zone are being conserved in their intact state, thus providing the huge lowlands of southern Siberia and Kazakhstan both important ecosystem services and a natural resilience to climate change. In the BR, Siberia’s most significant center of modern glaciation contains more then 330 glaciers with total area of 290 square kilometers.

The Biosphere Reserve is a home to at least 1350 species of higher vascular plants (including 89 endemics and 54 endangered species), 280 species of birds and 70 species of mammals. The BR includes habitat for the number of endangered flagship species such as snow leopards. The herbarium of the core zone of Katunskiy Biosphere Reserve (KBR) includes about 700 specimen of the higher vascular plants (as of 16.04.2026), collected during the period of 1998-2012 within the territory of Katunskiy Nature Reserve.

The physical collection is stored at the central office of KBR (Republic of Altai, Ust-Koksa, Zapovednaya str., 1). Goal. Visualization of specimen is a modern trend of the flora investigations at protected areas and the management of the relevant herbariums.

The data of the digital Herbarium of Katunskiy Biosphere Reserve is published on the web portal of the Virtual Herbarium of the South Siberian Botanical Garden of Altai State University (ALTB).