Organization of forest geosystems in the Lower Amur region by a case study of the Komsomol’sky Nature Reserve

Abstract

This article is devoted to the structural-functional organization of the forest geosystems of Komsomol’sky Nature Reserve located in the south of the Lower Amur Region. It considers a landscape organization model built using the information theory methods. The model is represented as a block diagram consisting of digraphs, in whose center there are landscape features. This model is a modified version of the previously published one for the studied territory. It is built on the basis of richer field data and with the addition of previously unused landscape features. Weak links of medium density predominate in the model, which may indicate the stability of the forest geosystems formed there. Our analysis shows that the main factors determining the structure of Komsomol’sky Nature Reserve’s forest geosystems are altitudinal-exposure zonality, altitude, lithology of parent rocks, and soil hydrothermal conditions. It is established that the stand of timber is directly related to the humus soil horizon lithomass: it decreases with an increase in lithomass. Plants biomass is highly dependent on the steepness of slopes: it decreases with its increase. Separate relationships have been revealed for plant layers. The herbaceous layer height decreases with an increase in the altitude and lithom ass in the soil. The herbage floristic diversity differs greatly in land facie groups and has a maximum in the ridge-top areas of the slopes and at the foot hill. The shrub layer height depends on soil moisture content, lithology of parent rocks and lithomass: it de-creases with increasing soil moisture content most of all and increases with increasing lithomass in the soil. A relationship has been found only with the lithomass in the soil for all tree layer features. A lithomass increase has a depressing effect on trees.