Syntaxonomy of the Numto Nature Park vegetation (north taiga, Western Siberia): 1. Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl et al. 1939

Abstract

This paper is the first in a series of publications dedicated to the description of vegetation in the Numto Nature Park, which covers an area of 597189.5 hectares and is located in the northern part of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area (63°7'– 64°20'N 69°44'–71°45'E). The territory of the park is representative of the entire subzone of the northern taiga in the central part of Western Siberia. The initial stage of the study focused on determining the syntaxonomic diversity of forest vegetation belonging to the class Vaccinio–Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl et al. 1939. Nine associations (5 new ones, incl. 2 provisional), 2 subassociations, 10 variants, and 3 community types were identified and assigned to 4 alliances within 3 orders. A new alliance, Sphagno fimbriati–Pinion sibiricae all. nov., was proposed within the class Vaccinio–Piceetea, covering vegetation of swampy forest and wooded swamps in the valleys of small rivers and streams in the northern and middle taiga of Western Siberia. The plant communities are described on the basis of 180 geobotanical relevés. The t-SNE method, supplemented with cluster analysis, was employed to assess the degree of similarity between individual syntaxa. The article also discusses the issues related to the syntaxonomic affiliation of swampy forest and wooded swamps vegetation.