Climate, hydrology, geology and geomorphology
Climate. According to division of agro-climatic zones, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is within the warm southern and unsteadily damp area of Belarus, occupying the western outskirts of the Pruzhano-Brest Agro-climatic Region. This area is characterized by the most short and most temperate winters, the longest period of growth of the vegetation and the highest solar input within the territory of the Republic of Belarus (Tolkach & Kachanovsky, 1975). The yearly average temperature is 6.6° C, while the July - as the warmest month - reaches 17.8°C, while the coldest month is January (no warmer than -5.4° C on average). A stable snow-cover is present no more than 50 to 60 days, while one out of five years is completely free of snow-cover. The average duration of the no-frost period is 135 days. The annual sum of daily temperatures over 5° C fluctuates yearly between the extremes 2346° C to 3225° C. The coefficient of humidity of this warm period of the year equals 0.8. This is the lowest local value within the whole territory in Belarus. It characterizes a discrepancy between evaporation and the quantity of precipitation. The average annual precipitation is 624 mm, which includes 420 mm of rain which falls during the warm period from April to October. In general, the climate of Pushcha is similar to that of Central Europe.
Khmelevskoye lake
Photo by Valentin Ezhelov
Hydrology. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is situated in the eastern part of the Vistula Basin, which exists of the basins of two rivers that debouch into the river Bug. One of them is the river Narev, having its basin in the northern and central parts of the area. The other river is the Pravaya Lesnaya, which floods off the water from the southern part of the forest. In the north and north-east, the rivers are adjacent to the Nieman and Pripyat Basins, while the watershed between the Baltic and Black seas is situated close to the borders of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The Narev rises east of the forest and crosses the bog Dikoe. The river runs through the northern part of Pushcha, flowing from east to west. It is situated within a narrow and swampy flood-plain. The main current contributing to Narev is the smaller Narevka river. Narevka springs off in the bog situated east of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, runs through the Belarussian and Polish parts of Pushcha and flows into the Narev at the northwestern outskirt of the Polish part of the forest. The Pravaya Lesnaya River springs off within the territory of Poland, flows in a south-eastern direction and crosses the southern border of Pushcha. There it merges with the Levaya Lesnaya River and together they make up the Lesnaya River, which floods into the Bug River north of Brest. A number of small rivers and streams run off into the Narev, Narevka, and Pravaya Lesnaya rivers, such as the streams Grozna, Solomenka, Pererovica, Perevoloka etc. Many of those streams carry of water which stagnates naturally within the territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. There are no natural lakes in Pushcha. However, ten artificial ponds are situated nowadays within the forest. The two most large ponds were created in valley of Perevoloka River and were located at the highest part a former bog and on a meadow: the Lyadskoye (345 ha) and Khmelevskoye (75 ha) lakes.
The Narevka River
Photo by Nina Verkaik-de Haan
(The Netherlands)
Geology and geomorphology. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is geomorphologically divided into the Province of Pre-Polessie Plains (Tolkach et al, 1996). Within the Pushcha territory the crystal bedrock extends down from the north to the south from 400 to 900 m of sea level. The differences in height currently present in the field resulted from the retreat of the Moscow Glacier Sheet. The Pushcha's territory has a weakly undulated relief which is continuously being formed by fluvioglacial sandy and sandy-gravel deposits. The central part of the forest is the most elevate, while the Belovezhskaya Ridge is situated in the south-east. The elevation ranges from a minimum of 145 or 148 m to a maximum of 202 m above sea level. This highest point is the Koziya hill, which is located near the area of Viskuly.
* Based on information from the article by Heorhi Kazulka & Vasiliy Zhukov "The State National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" is the oldest Natural Reserve in Europe”, published in the book "Belovezhskaya Pushcha at the Turn of the Third Millennium. Materials of the Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the Formation of the State Reserve "Belovezhskaya Pushcha". - Minsk, 1999. - pp. 16 - 33. (In Russian)
(With some modern data added.)
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