Functional Organization of Lower Vegetation Layers in Tree Communities of the Upper Timberline Ecotone
in the Polar Urals
N. V. Peshkova and N. I. Andreyashkina
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Division, Russian Academy of Sciences,
ul. Vos’mogo Marta 202, Yekaterinburg, 620144 Russia;
e-mail: nell-a@yandex.ru
Received June 9, 2006
Abstract—Typologically identical (dwarf birch–herb–dwarf shrub–moss) open and closed larch forests grow-
ing on the same altitudinal transect have proved to differ in the structural–functional organization of lower veg-
etation layers. Coverage, general species composition, and species richness of the herb–dwarf shrub layer are
higher in the open forest than in the closed forest. Correlations between individual species of vascular plants
weaken upon transition from the open to the closed forest. Conversely, the coverage of the lichen–moss layer
increases in the closed forest, which contributes to its role as a factor of selection of vascular plant species
against the background of the prevailing influence of the tree layer.
DOI: 10.1134/S106741360901007X
Key words: tree communities, lower vegetation layers, coverage of layers and dominants, species richness of
the herb–dwarf shrub layer, correlation between species richness and coverage.
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