Spatial variability of the soil properties of the uneven-aged pine forest stands of the landscape garden of the Arkhangelsk Estate

Spatial Distribution of Organic Matter and Nitrogen in the Entic Podzols of the Prioksko-Terrasnyi Reserve and Its Relationship with the Structure of Forest Phytocenoses

“…It should be noted that the proposed interpretation of the data reflects the conditions in forests with multi-species composition of the trees without distinct grouping of the trees of particular species. In forests formed by trees of one or two species, the spatial heterogeneity of forest litter may be more pronounced, for example, due to the mosaics of the ground vegetation [26,29]. On the contrary, under conditions of relatively sparse tree stands with the one dominated species in the ground cover (for example, green mosses or lichens), species-specific litterfall from trees accumulates under the crowns of particular trees (or groups of trees of the same species) that leads to the formation of spatially contrast forest litter and upper soil horizons [22].…”

“…The development of spatial heterogeneity of forest soils controlled by the structure of phytocenosis has been discussed in many Russian works. For example, there are data on significant differences in the reserves of litter and nutrients or in the microbial activity of soils near tree stems, under the crowns of different species, and in the intercrown space for coniferous, mixed coniferous-small-leaved, and small-leaved forests of different natural zones [2,3,16,17,23,24,26,29]. These relatively easily distinguished parts of forest BGCs were described under different terms: (micro)parcel, tessera, microsite, microbiotope, etc.…”