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Biodiversity of Native Forest Types in Strict Scientific Forest Reserves of the Moscow Region

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Abstract

A dataset of relevés for native forest types, including spruce, pine, and broad-leaved forests was created as a result of route surveys of strict scientific forest reserves in the Moscow region (boreo-nemoral zone). These relevés can be considered as a “benchmark” of native forest communities in comparison with young, secondary, and anthropogenically disturbed forests. The purpose of the work is to determine the species diversity indicators for undisturbed (by logging or recreation) native forest communities in the main forest types in the Moscow region. Classification of relevés into syntaxa (forest types) was carried out according to the principles of the V.N. Sukachev’s school (based on habitat features and the composition of diagnostic groups of species) with further refinement of the results by ordination of relevés in multidimensional axes of detrending correspondence analysis (DCA). Biodiversity indicators (for an area of 300 m2), such as the alpha diversity, the Shannon index, and the rank abundance curves were calculated for the first time for native undisturbed forests of the Moscow region using a unified approach. The maximum species diversity of the tree layer (A) was observed in mixed coniferous-broadleaved forest types – Pineta composita (4.9) and Piceeta composita (4.4). The maximum species diversity of the shrub layer (B2) was observed in Piceeta composita (6.1) and Piceeta oxalidosa (5.3). The maximum species diversity of the field layer (C) was observed in two nemoral spruce forest types—Piceeta composita and Piceeta oxalidosa (over 29). The maximum species diversity of the bottom layer (D) was observed in Vaccinium-type pine forest (7.6). In general, the maximum species diversity for a forest type (all layers) was observed in the nemoral spruce forest types, Piceeta oxalidosa and Piceeta composita (ca. 43) with the highest values of the Shannon index (ca. 2.8), and the shape of rank abundance curve close to S-shaped. This shape of the curves is characteristic of mature natural communities.

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Notes

  1. The concept of this region includes the city of Moscow (with the territory of “New Moscow”) and the Moscow region.

  2. Another point of view on “native forests” equates the term with the concept of climax. Thus, “Lesnaya entsiklopediya” (1985) defines native forests as “forests that grow in one place for a long time without changing species and develop almost without human influence.”

  3. Silver birch, downy birch, and their hybrids were counted as Betula sp. due to problems with determining taxonomic affiliation (Maslov, 2021).

  4. According to the map “Vegetation of the Moscow Region” (Ogureeva et al., 1996), lichen, cowberry, bilberry, pine forests and blueberry spruce forests belong to coniferous boreal forests, Oxalis-type spruce forests belong to subnemoral coniferous forests, and mixed coniferous-broadleaf pine and spruce forests belong to boreo-nemoral forests.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to fellow members of the “scientific forest reserves study group,” Yu.V. Peterson, L.I. Savelyeva, and E.S. Komissarov, as well as to Yu.E. Alexeev and E.A. Ignatova for help in problematic plant species identification and to S.M. Hennekens for providing the opportunity to work with the licensed version of TurboVeg.

Funding

This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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  1. Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, 143030, Uspenskoe Village, Moscow oblast, Russia

    A. A. Maslov

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Correspondence to A. A. Maslov.

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Translated by M. Shulskaya

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Maslov, A.A. Biodiversity of Native Forest Types in Strict Scientific Forest Reserves of the Moscow Region. Russ J Ecol 54, 611–620 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1067413623070093

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