Animals that only inhabit a certain territory are referred to as endemic species. Almost all of the species that images are represented below are listed as endangered, and some are on the verge of extinction.

text: https://www.rbth.com/society/2014/08/17/russias_rare_breeds_ten_species_that_are_endemic_to_northern_asia_39037.html

The concurrent increase in the productivity of the tundra, probably due to longer and warmer growing seasons, will in the long run cause northern boreal forests to invade the tundra, while boreal forests at the southern ecotone are likely to retreat due to increasing drought, insects and more prevalent fires (1). Since the rate of loss at the southern ecotone due to relatively fast processes such as fire is likely to be higher than the rate of gain at the northern ecotone due to the slow growth conditions, the overall effect of these two processes for the boreal forests is likely to be negative during the transient phase, i.e. until a new equilibrium between climate and vegetation is established. However, in equilibrium a general increase in deciduous vegetation at the expense of evergreen vegetation is predicted at all latitudes.

Marine biodiversity
Surface temperature of the Black Sea increased during the period 1982 – 2015 by 0.64 °C per decade. This is expected to continue, possibly reaching +5.1 °C by 2100 (compared to 2015). The warming of the sea seems to influence the amount of caught anchovies in the Black Sea, the most caught fish species in the Black Sea. The amount of captured anchovies generally decreased with increased sea surface temperature.

text: https://www.climatechangepost.com/russia/biodiversity/

European Russia has two major mountain chains, the Caucasus, which marks the southwestern border between Asia and Europe, and the Ural mountains, which lies on the Asia-Europe border as well. The highest point of Russia, the 5642 meters tall Mount Elbrus is located within the Caucasus range, it is also the highest point in whole Europe. The Ural mountains are considerably lower lying ranges, its highest is Mount Narodnaya, staying just below 1900 meters.

There are four major ranges on the southern side of the Russia map. The westernmost and highest of those is the Altai range, shared by Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia. The highest peak here is Belukha Mountain, with an altitude of approximately 4500 meters. Higher summits than this can only be found in Kamchatka and the Caucasus range. As we progress to the east, the mountains get gradually shorter. The next range in the row, the Sayan Mountains lie east of Lake Baikal, its highest is the so called Munku-Sardyk at around 3500 meters. On the other, eastern side of Lake Baikal, the two major ranges are Yablonoi mountains, and the Stanovoy range, both have a maximal altitude of around 2500 meters. The highest summit in the Stanovoy range is Mount Skalisty with 2467 meters in height.

The highest mountain chain in the northern part of Russia is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Klyuchevskaya Sopka of this range is the 13th most prominent peak of the whole planet, and the second in Russia (after Elbrus of course), with a height of 4750 meters, and a topographical prominence of 4649 meters. Unlike in the south, the northern mountain ranges of Russia get smaller as we continue towards the west. Next to the Kamchatka area, the Kolyma and Chersky ranges rise to around 3000 meters, Mount Pobeda being the highest of this region just above 3000 meters. The somewhat shorter Verkhoyansk Range lies on the eastern banks of the Lena river. On the other side of Lena, between the Yenisei and Lena rivers lie the not so tall, but huge are of the Central Siberian Plateau, covering an area of more than 3.5 million km².

text: http://www.freeworldmaps.net/russia/mountains.html
image: Simone Stuenzi (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu) https://imaggeo.egu.eu/view/12893/

Since a staggering 19% of the world’s forest reserves are located in Russia, the deforestation in this country alone accounts for anywhere between 300 to 600 million tons of the 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) that are sequestered each year as a result of global deforestation. Unfortunately, during the 2015 Paris Agreement, little focus was made on Russia’s role in degrading the environment as a result of their astonishing deforestation rates³.

Between Russia’s historical nuclear weapons program and nuclear energy sector, nuclear contamination of the countryside is another major environmental concern for the country. Many of Russia’s first generation nuclear reactors are at the end of their life span, therefore, continued operation of this reactors only increases the already present risks for disaster at these locations. Additionally, Russia’s nuclear weapons program has resulted in permanent damage in southern Siberia, and near Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains. 

Significant neglect during the Soviet Union area has also led to degradation in the quality of Russian land and water. In particular, lands in the industrial belt along the southern section of the Ural Mountains have been degraded beyond repair.

Despite being a country that is rich in water supplies, with 2 million lakes, 210,000 rivers and approximately 25% of the earth’s total freshwater reserves, Russia continues to face difficulties in maintaining the cleanliness in their water supplies. Hydroelectric dams on the Volga River have decreased the river’s volume of water, causing it and other rivers to retain even more of the pollutants than they normally would have. Additionally, water contamination in the country’s capital of Moscow has also become increasingly concerning, especially following a recent report conducted by Greenpeace that found mercury levels within the Moskva to be 20 times higher than the minimum accepted levels, whereas manganese levels were up to 120 times higher. As urbanization of Moscow is continued to rise, water demands will also rise, thereby posing a risk of increasing human exposure to these toxic substances through the water supply. 

text: https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=542
image: Rosatom, https://www.zdnet.com/article/russia-to-emerging-countries-well-build-operate-your-nuclear-reactors/

text: https://www.iamat.org/country/russia/risk/intestinal-parasites-soil-transmitted-helminths#

The Ixodidae are the family of hard ticks or scale ticks, one of the two big families of ticks, consisting of over 700 species. They are known as 'hard ticks' because they have a scutum or hard shield, which the other big family of ticks. They are ectoparasites of a wide range of host species and main long-term reservoirs and vectors for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), the disease that is a big problem in Russia.

text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixodidae
image: Lamiot [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Some 60% of the Great Northern Forest is located in Russia, where it is known as the Taiga. However, in 2013, less than a quarter of the Taiga remained as IFL. The forest is being carved up into ever smaller fragments by industrial exploitation and wildfires.

The most significant and largest proposed protected area in Arkhangelsk Oblast covers the core part of the largest unprotected IFL left in the middle boreal zone of Arkhangelsk Oblast – the Dvinsky Forest. In the 15 years since the IFL was first mapped in 2000, the Dvinsky Forest has lost over 300,000 ha.

This biodiversity hotspot – predominately a spruce forest – provides important habitat for a number of species of mammals such as brown bear (Ursus arctos), wolverine (Gulo gulo), grey wolf (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx lynx), Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), European pine marten (Martes martes), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and one of the last remaining populations of the endangered wild forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). It is of critical importance for many species included in the Red Data Books of the Russian Federation and Arkhangelsk Region, including many bird species such as the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo), Eurasian pygmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum) and great grey owl (Strix nebulosa). It also hosts threatened species of plants (e.g. Cypripedium calceolus, Dactylorhiza traunsteineri, Paeonia anomala) lichens (e.g. Bryoria fremontii, Lobaria pulmonaria), and mosses (e.g. Sphagnum subfulvum).

The proposed Dvinsky Forest Reserve – now covering 489,000 ha of the IFL – is recognised as a conservation priority by the BPAN project, which promotes the establishment of a representative protected area network in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region in order to conserve the biodiversity of the boreal and Arctic zones, particularly their forests and wetlands.
text: https://storage.googleapis.com/planet4-international-stateless/2017/05/b1d0076e-eye-on-the-taiga_greenpeace_full_report.pdf