Using Data on the Thermal Conditions of Soils for the Differentiation of Vegetation in the Exposure-Related Forest-Stepp
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g Data on the Thermal Conditions of Soils for the Differentiation of Vegetation in the Exposure-Related Forest-Steppe of Transbaikalia O. A. Anenkhonova, *, D. V. Sandanova, H. Liub, A. Yu. Korolyukc, C. Xub, W. Guob, d, A. A. Zverevc, e, B. B. Naidanova, and D. G. Chimitova aInstitute
of General and Experimental Biology, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, 670047 Russia b College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University, Beijing, 100871 China c Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia d University of California, Merced, 95343 United States e Tomsk State University, Tomsk, 634050 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received February 26, 2020; revised April 7, 2020; accepted April 10, 2020
Abstract—The results of the long-term monitoring (from 2008 to 2018) of thermal conditions have been applied to assess the ecotopological differentiation of vegetation in the exposure-related forest-steppe of Transbaikalia. Significant differences are revealed between thermal conditions on northern and southern slopes, as well as between different kinds of forest-steppe along the aridity and continentality gradients. The temperature conditions on southern slopes are relatively unified and determine the formation of vegetation of one steppe class: Cleistogenetea squarrosae. The temperature conditions on northern slopes are more heterogeneous and result in the development of plant communities of different classes: steppes of the class Cleistogenetea squarrosae and forests of the hemiboreal class Rhytidio-Laricetea and of the boreal class Vaccinio-Piceetea. Differences in soil temperature are additionally affected by the size of forest plots in the forest-steppe. Keywords: ecology of plant communities, soil temperature, habitat humidity, indicator value scale, slope aspect, forest-steppe, Transbaikalia DOI: 10.1134/S1995425520050029
INTRODUCTION Forest and steppe communities play a landscapeforming role in the forest-steppe zone of southern Transbaikalia, which is the main component in the altitudinal structure of the plant cover in this mountainous area. The annual heat-to-moisture ratio is the general factor determining the existence of biogeocenoses in the contact zone between forest and steppe. The amount of winter precipitation is of additional importance (Bessolitsyna et al., 1991). The transitional climate from semihumid to semiarid with the neutral moisture balance (Erdős et al., 2018) is a generally recognized condition for the existence of a forest-steppe. The greatest contrast in the ecological conditions here is seen between southern and northern slopes. In the middle latitudes, the aspect and steepness of slopes is a factor of insolation redistribution (Beresneva, 1983). The studies in the exposure-related mountain forest-steppe of Eastern Khangai, where coniferous forest communities are allocated to northern slopes and steppe vegetation occupies southern slopes, have shown that, during the growing season, northern slopes receive much less heat (about 410– 450 W/m2) than
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