Long-term Investigations of Larch Forests in Cryolithic Zone of Siberia: Brief History, Recent Results and Possible Changes Under Global Warming

Abstract

Brief history of forest cover investigations in Siberian cryolithic zone is outlined.Since 1950 the detailed studies in the system "permafrost-forest" have been developed by the scientists of V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest under supervision of Prof. L.K. Pozdnyakov in Yakutiya.Vast research of hydrothermal regime of forest frozen soils, of spatial, age and size structure of larch stands as well as of primary productivity of larch forests has been carried out that period.In the latest decades of the 20th century V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest has faced the low studied northern forests of Central Siberia.New data on ecosystem diversity of forest vegetation and its post fire change, on the structure and variability of larch populations, on fire ecology and pyrological zonation as well as on permafrost table dynamics, cycling of mineral nutrition, the soil respiration rate and adaptation mechanisms of larch species to extreme northern environments has been obtained.Resulted from these investigations generalized scheme of the most typical post fire succession patterns in the cryolithic larch forests is described.Forest successions are considered in relation to possible vegetation changes under climate warming.These changes are discussed with respect to wet and dry warming scenarios.