Successional dynamics of vegetation and soil properties at the stage of grass-to-forest community replacement in post-technogenic ecosystems of taiga zone (Komi Republic)
E. G. KUZNETSOVA, I. A. LIKHANOVA
Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biology, Syktyvkar, Russia
Keywords: primary succession, parcels, initial soil formation, post-technogenic ecosystems, middle taiga subzone, European North-East of Russia
Abstract
The paper aims at the dynamics of vegetation and soil properties formed by the primary succession (for about 30 years) in the middle taiga subzone of the European North-East of Russia. By the end of the third decade, the post-technogenic territory practically finished the process of grass-to-forest community replacement with the formation of a dense tree layer, development of soil ground cover dominated with forest and forest edge species. Forest ecosystem means differentiation of separate groups of woody plants (parcels) with the formation of litter: deciduous-coniferous litter in pine parcel and deciduous-grass litter in birch parcel. The grass-to-forest community replacement is accompanied by transition from humus-impregnated humus pelozems to eluviated humic- impregnated pelozems. At the tree stand development stage, soil morphological structure and chemical properties are determined by the parcel structure of forest community. Differences in Corg. and content of biogenic elements in litter and organic-mineral soil horizon are caused by different composition of plant communities in parcels and, consequently, different mineralisation rates of plant residues. By the end of the third succession decade, the upper 0-20-cm soil layer accumulates up to 24.5 t organic carbon /ha in pine parcel and 28.7 t organic carbon/ha in birch parcel.
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