Kolok (forest)

Birch pegs with a lake surrounded by a field. Neighborhood of the village of New Kalmansky district of the Altai Territory

Kolka and forest belt in the steppe of the Pospelikhinsky district of the Altai Territory

Kolok ^[1] ( pl. Tolka ) or shreds ( pl. Tine) ( nar., Colloquially ) is a small forest , usually in the field , in the steppe, among arable land , swamps, etc. In some places most often use the option "okol", "okolki" ^{[2] [3]} .

Birch groves (sometimes with aspen ) are widespread in the forest-steppe part of the south of Western Siberia , Southern Urals and Northern Kazakhstan ^[4] and, in combination with the fields, form a characteristic landscape. On the Oka-Don plain there are aspen groves.

The size of the pegs is from 0.2 to 30 hectares, located in moist saucer-shaped slides (saucers or basins). Spikes are rarely found on aquifer elevations (lenses). Typically, pegs have a rounded shape, under their canopy there are many meadow plants.

In the deep depressions (up to one and a half meters) there are 3 splitting lanes: in the center there is a small swamp , on the slopes there is a strip of dense birch or aspen with tall grass, on the edge with mixed grass cover. In flat depressions (up to a meter) there is no swamp. Soils in the center of the pegs are solods ; at the edges are gray forest ones. Dry plots are occupied by stone . In pegs in spring, the leaves bloom first on marginal trees, in autumn the yellowing of the leaves begins from the center.

Kolka have a protective value, increase the humidity of the air and soil. The groundwater level in pegs increases to one and a half - two meters, in the fields between them (with a forest cover of 7-10%) - by 0.7 m. Kolkovye forests contribute to the desalinization of the soils of the adjacent fields. Crop yields among pegs are much higher than in the open steppe.