Spatial structure of the vegetation of the pine exposure-related forest-steppe on the Tsagan-Daban ridge (Western Transbaikalia)
B.-TS.B. NAMZALOV1, I.G. KAZANTSEV2, L.V. BUDAZHAPOV3, M.B.-TS. NAMZALOV1
1Banzarov Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Russia
2Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
3Buryat Research Institute of Agriculture, Ulan-Ude, Russia
Keywords: plant species, communities, mountain forest-steppe, cartographic modeling, Selenga middle mountains, Transbaikalia
Abstract
This article analyzes the spatial structure of the zonal mountain-taiga vegetation on the Tsagan-Daban ridge in Western Transbaikalia. A three-level approach is implemented in revealing the spatial structure of vegetation: at the zonal (altitudinal-zonal), regional and landscape (intralandscape-phytocenotic) levels. As a result, features of the vegetation structure were identified on maps: a chorographic 1:1 500 000 map, a medium-scale (based on a satellite image) map, and a digital large-scale model using drone images. Thus, the zonal vegetation of the Selenga middle mountains, namely a steppe grass-shrub pine forest on a small-scale map of the vegetation of the south of Eastern Siberia on a medium-scale map of a key area, is differentiated by highlighting four contours: forests, forest-steppes, fallows, and agrocenoses. Further, on a digital large-scale map (Sc 1:5 000) of the key area within the boundaries of the mountain forest-steppe, 13 contours of steppe and forest vegetation, as well as shrub groups with areas of fallows and agrocenoses, were identified. The information content of the map has increased significantly. Thus, in the composition of the forests there occur rare communities of elm forests, as well as ephedra steppe groups with the participation of a relict population of the Dauro-Manchurian species Physochlaina physaloides. Also, a cluster analysis was made of forest-steppe catena communities. The results of the analysis are of methodological significance, because they allow typifying mountain forest-steppe landscapes. Thus, the identified steppe and forest clusters occur almost independently of each other, the similarity between them is minimal, indicating the most arid type of exposure forest-steppe. In general, the approach used in the analysis of the spatial organization of the phytocoenosystems is promising, as it provides a deeper understanding of the diversity of forest-steppe vegetation by identifying its structure at different scales.
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