Development of biota within the Seliverstov Glacier deglaciation zone after the Little Ice Age maximum (Mongun-Taiga mountain range, Southeastern Altai)

Recognized as part of the so-called Third Pole, the highlands of the Tuvan Altai represent the most arid part of the Russian Altai with a sharply continental climate, despite these features being a large glaciation node. Deglaciation caused by global climate change creates conditions for the initiation of postglacial vegetation successions. However, if the newest dynamics of glaciers of the high mountain massif of Mongun-Taiga, located at the junction of the mountain structures of the south-east of the Russian Altai and the mountain systems of the Sayan and Mongolian Altai, is well studied from a glaciological point of view, the issues of postglacial successions of biota in this region remain practically unstudied. This article is an attempt to give the first characteristics of the biota in the deglaciation zones of the Seliverstov Glacier in relation to deglaciation zones of different ages and typologies.