The Vegetation Resistance of Geosystems in the Depressions of Northeastern Cisbaikalia to the Pyrogenic Factor

—The study of vegetation stability remains an important and poorly developed issue of geobotany. Results from studying of a study of resistance to the pyrogenic factor of plant communities of vegetation cover of the North Baikal and Upper Angara depressions are presented. In recent years, fires have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geography and natural resources 2022-03, Vol.43 (1), p.50-58
Main Authors: Sofronov, A. P., Vladimirov, I. N., Voronin, V. I., Sofronova, E. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Coniferous forests
Earth and Environmental Science
Economic Geography
Fire damage
Fires
Floodplains
Forest communities
Forests
Geobotany
Geography
Human influences
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Meadows
Mountains
Plant communities
Plant populations
Plant species
Research in the Baikal Watershed
Resistance factors
Stability
Steppes
Taiga
Tundra
Vegetation
Vegetation cover
Watersheds
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Summary:—The study of vegetation stability remains an important and poorly developed issue of geobotany. Results from studying of a study of resistance to the pyrogenic factor of plant communities of vegetation cover of the North Baikal and Upper Angara depressions are presented. In recent years, fires have become catastrophic in Siberia, as well as on the territory of the country as a whole; therefore, pyrogenic impact is one of the main negative anthropogenic factors. We suggest an original technique for determining the parameters of vegetation resistance to the pyrogenic factor, based on assessing ignitability. The susceptibility to fire of both individual plant species and plant layers of cenoses, as well as the degree of damage by fires, have been comprehensively studied, with regard for the mesoclimatic conditions and areal distribution throughout the territory. It was established that the resistance of the communities can vary according to on their hierarchical rank. As a result of this research, a legend and a medium-scale map of the vegetation resistance in the region to the pyrogenic factor have been generated. It was revealed that the most stable communities are sparse alpine tundras, alpine meadows and meadow-swamp communities of the Upper Angara floodplain and wet forests of mountain valleys. The medium-stable cenoses include tundra watersheds and sloping summits with well-developed shrub-lichen cover, sparse communities of Pinus pumila , small-leaved forests, steppe slopes and forest communities of the floodplain. The lowest degree of stability is typical for closed P. pumila thickets, subgoletz dark coniferous-larch forests, and mountain taiga dark coniferous forests, as well as for pine forests of the submontane-depression belt. One important characteristic of the stability of the communities is the duration of recovery of the primary (conventionally primary) state. It is shown that the accessibility of natural communities to humans significantly affects the resistance of vegetation to the pyrogenic factor, because this greatly increases the likelihood of fire in any of these cenoses.
ISSN:1875-3728
1875-371X
DOI:10.1134/S1875372822010127