Post-fire renewal of the b road-leaved forest in the Foothill Dagestan
Z. M. ASADULAEV, P. K. OMAROVA
Federal State-Funded Institution of Science the Mountain Botanical Garden of the Dagestan Federal Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Makhachkala, Russia
Keywords: broad-leaved forest, competitive advantages, crown fire, Foothill Dagestan, species richness, pioneer species, competition, dominance
Abstract
The article presents the results of the analysis of the peculiarities of renewal of woody vegetation after a crown fire which broke out in 2010 in the beech-yew forest in the Termenlik district (965 m a. s. l.) on the south-eastern slope of Gimrinskiy Khrebet in the Foothill Dagestan (East Caucasus). For the description of the changes which occurred on the post-fire spot in 2019 there have been arranged eight sample areas (SA) 100 square metres each (10 × 10 m). A geobotanical description of the sample area has been conducted according to the generally accepted method which included the definition of the microrelief, the species composition (species richness) of the trees, their distribution in the layers and biometric parameters. For each treespecies there has been revealed a projective cover in percentage as well as the abundance, the sequence of penetration and distribution, the dynamics of the development of the above-ground part and there have been evaluated the results of their competitive interaction. Owing to the appearance of new species of seed origin with accelerated growth in the composition of the forest stand, such as Populus tremula L., Salix caprea L., Acer campestre L., Fraxinus excelsior L., a suggestion has been made about the change of the succession trend and the formation of a new reformed cenosis without participation of the basic dominant species of the primary forest, namely Fagus orientalis Lipsky., Carpinus caucasica L., Taxus baccata L., Acer platanoides L. There has been offered a method of mechanical removal of the dominant species P. tremula leading to the enhancement of the competitive advantages of the pioneer species characteristic of this locality. It is believed that such a method will lead to an increase in the competitive advantages of other species with a predictable consequence. Thus, in the studied community of the burned area, vegetation development will change towards the initial beech-yew forest for this area, and not a community dominated by aspen.
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