Home – Home – Jornals – Siberian Journal of Forest Science 2025 number 4

The current state of the grass-shrub cover and soils of the forest area «Birch Grove», which belongs to the urban forests of the city of Krasnoyarsk and has been subjected to a strong anthropogenic impact over the past 30 years, is investigated. The main forms of recreation are walking, picnic, and physical culture. A detailed description of the vegetation of three types of forest is given: large-grass birch, forb birch with Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) and forb-sedge pine forest and their recreational characteristics. It was found that in the forb-sedge pine forest, which is most subject to recreation, there was a decrease in the degree of projective cover of the grass cover and the introduction of ruderal grass species under the forest canopy. It is shown that the largest stock of forest litter is characterized by less trampled large-grass birch, the smallest - forb-sedge pine forest. It was established that trampling led to the complete degradation of the forest litter and grass cover on the trails. A significant increase in the density of the composition and a decrease in the moisture content of the top layer of the trail soil was also noted. Water-physical and chemical analysis of dark gray and gray forest soils did not reveal a significant change in their parameters and deterioration of forest vegetation properties under the influence of recreation in forest types with stage 1 of digression. In sod-carbonate soil (a type of forest with the 2nd stage of digression), a significant increase in the density of composition, a decrease in the porosity of the root layer, alkalinization of the soil solution, as well as a weak accumulation of humus and biophilic elements were noted. A further increase in the recreational load on the Birch Grove forest area will lead to a more significant deterioration in the forest vegetation properties of soils, a decrease in the productivity of grass and tree layers.