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Floristisch-soziologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft e. V. (FlorSoz), 2015

DOI: 10.14471/2015.35.017

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Floristic composition and environmental determinants of pine forests in the hemiboreal zone of Western Siberia

Journal article published in 2015 by Wanja Mathar, Andrei A. Yurtaev, Norbert Hölzel, Martin Freitag ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Despite their vast distribution ranging from Central Europe to Siberia, hemiboreal oligotrophic pine forests remain poorly studied. Though they dependence on low productive soils, they are wide-spread on sandy deposits or in bogs. This study aims to classify and ecologically describe the vege-tation of oligotrophic pine forests in the south of Western Siberia. In total 50 relevés from nutrient-poor sandy substrates and bogs were sampled in the pre-Taiga zone of the Tyumen province covering the whole range from dry to wet habitats. Five vegetation types were defined by hierarchical clustering. Phi coefficient of association was calculated for groups and their combination, resulting in a high number of species with high fidelity to clusters. Floristic composition ranged from xero-mesophytic vegetation with high frequency of the tribe Pyroleae on dry sandy soils to pine-sphagnum-communities on bogs. The strongest environmental gradients influencing the floristic composition were soil humidity, nutrient supply and fire. Higher nutrient supply due to loamy subsoil increased vascular plant species richness, enabling common plants of hemiboreal birch forests to grow. Surface fires turned out to be a key process in dry pine forests, resulting in a destroyed bryo-phyte layer and to a partly altered vascular plant species composition. Fire regime plays an important role in maintaining the floristic composition and habitat structure over time. West-Siberian dry oligo-trophic pine forests are ecologically, structurally and floristically quite similar to Central-European pine communities of the Peucedano-Pinetum.