SUCCESSION DYNAMICS OF NATIVE SPRUCE FORESTS OF DIFFERENT AGES IN EUROPEAN RUSSIA

Abstract

Relevance. The article discusses various options for assigning forest biogeocenoses to a certain dynamic position in the successional field of their development. The proposed method for dynamic assessment of the position of forest creates the possibility of assessing the total movement of tree volumes in the age generations of the age range of the forest biogeocenosis the possibility of analyzing the past changes in the age structure of the biogeocenosis and predicting its future development for a very distant future. Material and methods. The objects of research are native virgin spruce biogeocenoses of different ages in the northern taiga of the Kandalaksha forestry enterprise of the Nyamozersky forestry of the Murmansk region, the Severodvinsky forestry enterprise of the Arkhangelsk region; middle taiga spruce forests of the Vepssky forest reserve, Leningrad region. and the tract “Atleka” of the Andomsky forestry of the Vologda region; southern taiga spruce forests of the Kologrivsky forest reserve Kostroma region and the Central Forest Biosphere Reserve in the Tver region. The author studied the features of the structures of the age series of spruce forests, the most typical and productive types of growing conditions for spruce. Results and conclusions. All represented forest communities have different ratios of the number and volume of trees in the age generations of the age series and, as a consequence, different positions in the successional dynamics of development. Wood-destroying fungi of the biotrophic complex, as an endogenous structure of the forest community, actively participates in the dynamic processes of its development at all stages of its successional movement. The infection of trees by fungi of this complex increases from the last generations to the first to the maximum values in the oldest trees of the first generation. The dynamic position of the indigenous virgin forest community of different ages can be described with a wider range of assessments of the dynamics of its development in retrospect and perspective in terms of the ratio of quantitative and volumetric indicators of age generations of age series than in terms of the current structure of the age series. When assessing the successional stage of the forest community, it is necessary to take into account the quantity (volumes) and structure of the deadwood.

Keywords

• forest biogeocenoses
• successions age
• sustainability of forests
• series and generations
• deadwood
• wood-destroying fungi