The territory of the Northern Caucasus is characterized by a great variety of natural conditions and, as a result, natural landscapes. A distinctive feature of this territory is the peculiar structure of altitudinal zonality, caused by the existence of local systems of the intermontane hollows and ridges bordering its mountain structure. The insignificant height of ridges in combination with a peculiar climate lead to the formation of a spatial structure of landscapes which differs both from the adjacent plains and from higher parts of the mountain structure. Such transitional areas are called ecotones and are highlighted as a separate category of natural territorial complex. Most authors of the landscape maps of the Northern Caucasus territory, distinguish only two higher classifying landscapes units (classes) here — plains and mountains, which correspond to relief megaforms. However, there is a transitional zone from the plain to the mountains within the Northern Caucasus, which was called "foothill landscapes". A complex of the quantitative and qualitative parameters in combination with significant spatial mosaic of locations and temporal variability of climatic conditions form peculiar features of the low-mountain foothill landscapes of the Northern Caucasus, which should be assigned into a peculiar classification unit.
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