STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF SIBERIAN SPRUCE STANDS ON THE WESTERN MACRO-SLOPE OF THE POLAR URALS
A. A. Vyukhina, N. M. Devi, M. O. Bubnov, V. A. Bessonova, V. V. Kukarskih
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Keywords: Picea obovata Ledeb, upper limit woody vegetation, age structure of forest stands, Enganepe Ridge
Abstract
In recent decades, climate change has had a marked impact on ecosystems around the world. One of the most obvious effects of climate change is the marked transformations in stands of the upper forest limit. Studies show that climatic changes, particularly increases in mean annual temperatures and changes in precipitation regimes, are leading to significant shifts in vegetation zones. This paper is the first to analyze the dynamics of forest stands in the forest reserve Yenganepe on the western macro-slope of the Polar Urals. The variability of average morphometric indices of forest stands depending on altitude is shown. Despite the fact that individual trees of Siberian spruce ( Picea obovata Ledeb.), within the studied ecotone appeared in the early XIX century, the greatest changes in stand density occurred in the 30-60s of the XX century. The density of stands since the beginning of the XX century increased 12 times at the limit of individual trees distribution in tundra and up to 35-30 times in sparse forests and dense spruce forest. The dynamics of the studied stands differs significantly from the previously shown changes in the upper forest limit in the Subarctic.
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