Structural Features of a Post-Clear-Cutting Ecotone between 90-Year-Old Bilberry Spruce Forest and 35-Year-Old Herbs-Forbs Deciduous Stand

In a natural regeneration process, a community dominated by birch and aspen forms in the site 35 years after a bilberry-type spruce stand is logged down. The newly formed ecotone complex consists of four zones, each characterized by certain features of the ground vegetation and epiphytic vegetation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2022-09, Vol.13 (9), p.1468
Main Authors: Genikova, Nadezhda V., Kryshen, Alexander M., Obabko, Roman P., Karpechko, Anna Yu, Pekkoev, Aleksey N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Bilberry
bilberry-type spruce forest
Bryophyta
Cladonia
clear-cut
Clearcutting
Coniferous forests
Deciduous forests
deciduous stand
ecotone complex
edge effect
Environmental aspects
Forbs
Forests
ground vegetation
Hylocomium splendens
Logging
Mosses
Pleurozium schreberi
Polytrichum
Shrubs
Sphagnum
Spruce
Stand structure
Timber
Trees
Vaccinium
Vegetation
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Summary:In a natural regeneration process, a community dominated by birch and aspen forms in the site 35 years after a bilberry-type spruce stand is logged down. The newly formed ecotone complex consists of four zones, each characterized by certain features of the ground vegetation and epiphytic vegetation structure. The transitional zones and the mature bilberry-type spruce forest feature a clear dominance of boreal dwarf shrubs (bilberry and cowberry). Another feature of the transitional zone is a greater role of hygrophytic mosses of the genera Polytrichum and Sphagnum. Meanwhile, the true mosses Pleurozium schreberi and Hylocomium splendens dominate under spruce forest canopy, and the moss cover in the young deciduous stand is virtually nonexistent. The structure of epiphytic vegetation depends on the habitat conditions—the surface of tree trunks in the transitional zone is better lit and drier than inside the tree stand, which results in a higher abundance of epiphytic lichens of the genus Cladonia. The deciduous–coniferous fine root biomass ratio is dependent on the tree stand structure and is unrelated to ecotone zones. Overall, studies have demonstrated that transitional zones have certain characteristic ecological and community features, which persist for a long time after tree stand removal.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f13091468