Systemic integrity and similarity of the spatial and age structure of the undergrowth of Scots pine and Crimean pine

Abstract

Studies of the natural reafforestation of pine forests (Pinus silvestris. L.) on the territory of the southern brae of the Russian Plain, as well as the foothill and mountain-forest Crimea (Pinus pallasiana D. Don), carried out by us during 2003 - 2021, allowed us to put forward an assumption about the general features of the spatial structure of the undergrowth of species of the genus Pinus. The uniformity of the structure of coenopopulation fragments and coenopopulation of undergrowth can be equally observed in different ecological conditions, for example, under the forest canopy, as well as within the boundaries of existing breaks in the canopy of forestry shelterwood, on burnt forests along the linear contours of forest tracts, on lands taken out from under agricultural use, etc. In each specific case, the invariance and, at the same time, the different scale of the structure of coenopopulations of undergrowth is explained by the complementarity of bioecological properties of seedling growth and undergrowth capacity of existing ecological niches, autoregulation of the cenopopulation structure in accordance with the dynamics of changes in ecological factors limiting the process of natural renewal of pine forests. Similarity of the spatial structure of coenopopulations of P. silvestris undergrowth. and P. pallasiana and its constituent elements is an argument in favour of the assumption of the fractal nature of the process, which makes it possible to explain the mechanisms of stability of forest ecosystems in accordance with the principle of invariance of the spatial structure of the formed cenopopulations. The established structural and functional features serve as the basis for deepening the theory of natural regeneration and improving the complex of reforestation measures aimed at preserving biological diversity and forest sustainability with the dominance of species of the genus Pinus.