Yielding capacity of pyrogenic communities in Central Kazakhstan

Abstract

Fires in the ecosystems of Central Kazakhstan trigger a pyrogenic succession for 1-2 decades as usual. In recent years, changes of climate and land use in region have led to the intensification of fires and the gradual steppification of the territory, where desert vegetation was previously successfully restored. We analyzed the change in aboveground phytomass stocks during 40 years of pyrogenic succession. In the zonal communities, the phytomass reaches the background values in eight years after the fire and does not change later. For intrazonal communities in river valleys and gullies, aboveground phytomass stocks at the 4th and 16th years of succession do not differ significantly, and the structure of phytomass fractions by the 16th year resembles background zonal communities. This can be associated with a more intense grazing on the intrazonal communities in river valleys and gullies in the studied region.