New Siberian Islands Islands (228 km²) lie to the north-east of Novaya Sibir. The New Siberian Islands are low-lying. Their highest point is located on Bennett island, with an elevation of 426 m. The New Siberian Islands once formed major hills within the Great Arctic Plain that covered the northern part of Late Pleistocene "Beringia" between Siberia and Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum (Late Weichselian Epoch). These islands represent the remains of about 1.6 million square kilometers of the formerly subaerial Great Arctic Plain that now lies submerged below parts of the Arctic Ocean, East Siberian Sea, and Laptev Sea. At this
East Siberian taiga quite warm for the northerly location. Precipitation is low, ranging from to , decreasing from east to west. The topography of this ecoregion is varied, consisting of wide, flat plains and areas of karst topography. In contrast to the neighbouring West Siberian taiga, large bogs and wetlands are conspicuously absent. Some trees also shed their leaves annually, a characteristic of deciduous forests. Vegetation consists mainly of vast, dense forests of Dahurian Larch ("Larix gmelinii"), with Siberian Larch ("Larix sibirica") and hybrid between the Dahurian and Siberian Larches ("Larix x czekanowskii") occurring as one moves to the west. Cranberry ("Vaccinium oxycoccus")