File:Bog near Ugut (15426992357).jpg

These strips of Sphagnum bogs are a very typical landscape around Ugut. The whole Western Siberian plain, especially in the North, is being slowly but steadily bogged since the last glaciation event, and forests are slowly giving way to raised bogs - Sphagnum mosses grow over lakes and woodland, killing off competition by creating a strongly acidic environment where few other life forms can survive (the Scots pine and cranberry are good examples).

Endless bogs of Western Siberia take in incredible volumes of carbon dioxide and virtually none of it ever gets out. All that carbon is taken out of the food chain as seen by chemistry: no one eats it, no one exhales it as CO2 again. It's accumulated as layers of peat as lower parts of Sphagnum plants gradually die off and get "mummified" in the acid Sphagnum itself creates. These bogs are thus, in essence, one of the most - if not the most - important biological phenomena to counteract the greenhouse effect (even though they do emit some methane, which is a greenhouse gas). They are also a giant sponge - they store water vital to the continent's rivers and precipitation.