Assessment of vegetation cover when analyzing the carbon budget in agricultural landscapes of Karelia

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the species composition of perennial grasses and the bioproductivity of long-term phytocenoses in Karelia for the subsequent assessment of carbon pools. On the typical peat agrozeme, during the 30-year succession, there was a restructuring of the vegetation cover of hayfields with the predominance of large-grass communities at present. Based on the results of geobotanical descriptions, dominant species were identified that correspond to the conditions of excessive moisture, high trophic soils and make the main contribution to the formation of productivity of perennial herbaceous vegetation. The economically valuable harvest of dry phytomass of grass-mixed herbage amounted to 10.16 t/ha and significantly exceeded similar indicators of 5.46 - 6.79 t/ha of mixed phytocenoses. The reserves of aboveground phytomass ranged from 12.06 to 17.94 t/ha and exceeded the underground reserves by 2.1 - 3.1 times. The assessment of vegetation cover on transformed agrophytocenoses gives an idea of carbon reserves during the successional change of perennial herbaceous plants.