Peculiarities and Determinants of Regeneration of Siberian Larch at the Upper Limit of its Growth in the Urals
A. V. GRIGORIEVA1, P. A. MOISEEV2
1Ural State Forest Engineering University, 620100, Yekaterinburg, Sibirsky trakt, 37
2Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of RAS, 620144, Ekaterinburg, 8 Marta str., 202
Keywords: семенная продуктивность, появление и выживание всходов, Larix sibirica Ledeb, экотон верхней границы древесной растительности, Северный и Полярный Урал, seed production, emergence and survival of seedlings, treeline ecotone, the Northern and Polar Urals
Abstract
Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of cones and seeds, the emergence and survival of seedlings of Siberian larch ( Larix sibirica Ledeb.) were studied in the different parts of the ecotone of the upper boundary of woody vegetation (treeline ecotone) on Mt. Serebryansky Kamen’ (the Northern Urals) and the hills (with land mark 312 m above sea level) in the vicinity of Mt. Chernaya (the Polar Urals) in the period from 2005 to 2011. A decrease in parameters of cones, the number of seeds in the cones and their viability in laboratory with increasing altitude as well as differences in quantity of seedlings between parts of treeline ecotone were revealed. It is shown that the formation of generations of Siberian larch in the Northern Urals occurs only after the productive years. It is noted that in the Polar Urals Siberian larch produces great seed crop every 2-3 years. It has been proved that seed production and death of seedlings of Siberian larch are influenced not only by air temperature and soil moisture, but also by the wind load, snow depth and soil temperature rapidly changing along the slope.
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