Forest biodiversity investigations in Europe including Russia
(in collaboration with European Forest Institute, Joensuu, Finland)

Information on 547 research projects on biotic diversity of forest zone of Europe (54 international projects and 493 national European projects including 193 Russian ones) was collected into the database and analysed. The original Russian method of assessment of plant diversity at the landscape, forest type and forest stand levels developed in Russian Academy of Science is described. The method uses the computer information-analytical system (IAS) consisting of a set of databases, application programmes, GIS with a module of spatial data processing. IAS outputs can be used in SFM for aims of conservation and restoration of biodiversity.
 

Identification of functional groups of vascular plants in ground cover of European Russian forests
(in collaboration with Ecosystem Modeling Laboratory of Institute of Physical and Chemical Problems of Soil Science RAS and Laboratory of Productivity and Sustainability of Center for Problems of Ecology and Productivity of Forests RAS)

Objective - spliting of vascular plants of the European Russia into functional ecological and ecological-coenotic groups.

Methods - analysis of large volume of vegetation sample plots with database technology and modern methods of numerical ecology using reference information on plant species biology.

Results - 1) algorithm of vegetation sample plots classification using multivariate statistics has been developed; 2) a method to analyse and to correct a composition of ecological-coenotic groups considering both ecological and coenotical features of species has been suggested; 3) six ecological-coenotic groups of plant species of Central Russia have been analysed and specified.

Application - ecological-coenotic species groups have been applied in estimation of vegetation biodiversity and succession dynamics of five forest reserves of Central Russia.

Ordination of 588 vascular plants species of "Kaluzhskie zaseki" reserve with specification of functional groups and confidential (70%) ellipses. Functional groups: Nm - nemoral, Br - boreal, Nt - nytrophilious, Md - meadow-edge, Pn - pine forest, Wt - water-swamp.


 

Assessment and prognosis of vegetation biodiversity of the Prioksko-Terrasny reserve with GIS-technology
(in collaboration with Ecosystem Modeling Laboratory of Institute of Physical and Chemical Problems of Soil Science RAS)

Purpose - spatial assessment of ecosystem and plant species diversity and estimation of succession dynamics of forest reserve areas using GIS

Methods - database and GIS technology, horoplet map analysis

Results - 1) a methodology to estimate spatial diversity of the reserve vegetation using the GIS ArcView extensions SpatialAnalyst and PatchAnalyst has been developed; 2) on a base of forest inventory data of 1982 and 1999, the dynamics of spatial parameters for Prioksko-Terrasny reserve tree vegetation diversity has been evaluated. It has been shown that stands with domination of one or two species (birch and pine mainly) becomes multispecies ones, and share of spruce is on the increase.

Spatial distribution of forest inventory data of Prioksko-Terrasny reserve. A patch color is defined by species richness of that patch.


 

Development of data bases in vegetation science
(in collaboration with Ecosystem Modeling Laboratory of Institute of Physical and Chemical Problems of Soil Science RAS and Laboratory of Productivity and Sustainability of Center for Problems of Forest Ecology and Productivity RAS)

The following database have been developed and maintained:

    primary data on field researches of vegetation
  • Vegetation sample plots data (4000 plots)
  • Data on tree population demography (1000 plots)
  • Forest inventory data (forest reserve Prioksko-Terrasny, Kaluzskie zaseki, Bryanskii Les

    reference databases

  • Taxonomic Database on vascular plants of European Russia (2700 species)
  • Reference databases on species biology (10 literature sources, more then 3500 species)
  • Syntaxonomic Database (forest vegetation of the European Russia)