Forests produce a huge amount of organic matter, which is a source of renewable raw materials for the production of technical, feed, food and pharmaceutical products. The logging and woodworking industry in Karelia, as in Russia as a whole, is based exclusively on stem wood. Woody greens are formed while felling ripe and over-mature stands, thinning and implementation of measures for the conservation, protection and reproduction of forests including forest stands cutting. The development of technologies for the use of woody greens is necessary for the multi-purpose utilization of the entire phytomass produced by forest plant communities. An additional economic incentive for young stands thinning and limbing, that are used to improve the quality of logs, is the ability to reduce costs or even ensure the profitability of these measures driven by the development of processing plants and the use of wastes generated during transportation: thinners, low-quality and low-value decidous wood, woody greens, that are raw materials for the production of biologically active preparations of various action. The urgent tasks are to increase the use of importsubstituting pharmaceutical substances and to search the alternative methods for producing raw materials for nutrient mixtures and feed stuff. Technologies for modifying the biochemical composition of coniferous greens, resulting in production of plant raw materials enriched with target biologically active substances, are being developed for the exploration of new plant sources. The water-soluble fraction of coniferous greens contains free amino acids, in particular L-arginine, which plays an important role in the life of animals. A promising way is to increase the free amino acids content in coniferous raw materials and change their quantitative ratio by regulation of the mineral nutrition regime of woody plants. An original scheme of additional supply of coniferous plants with nitrogen and boron is proposed in order to obtain coniferous greens enriched with L-arginine. The use of conifers as bioproducers of L-arginine and the study of its metabolism with reference to climatic factors, conditions of mineral nutrition, seasonal and daily dynamics in the natural environment, the search for ways to increase its level in organs and tissues is of current interest both on the theoretical and practical sides. Obtaining coniferous greens enriched with L-arginine will allow organizing the production of coniferous products for nutrient and pharmaceutical use. It is necessary to analyze the potential sources of raw materials taking into account their availability, costs for enriching the needles with L-arginine and product yield per unit area to assess the economic feasibility of organizing such production. A developed sequence of forestry measures will make it possible to obtain needles enriched with L-arginine, both in the process of implementing various types of forest use, and in carrying out activities aimed at increasing the productivity of forests and preserving their useful functions. Herewith, it is possible to turn costly cleaning and fertilizing of young Scots pine stands into profitable ones with additional products. Technologies of intentional changes in the chemical composition and pharmacological properties of plant raw materials obtained from woody plants will allow the development of new raw materials for biologically active substances.

Studies were carried out in the Kostomuksha State Nature Reserve, situated in the northern taiga of East Fennoscandia. We have described the main stages of research on the soils and soil cover in the study area. The analysis of the soils and soil cover of this Protected Area was integrated with the study of the parent rock material and woody vegetation. Soils of intact areas serve as an etalon during the monitoring of forest ecosystems disturbed anthropogenically. This makes our study to be of high relevance. This study was aimed to investigate the composition of the soil fund, and properties of most widespread soils in the Protected Area. The morphological and physicochemical properties of the soils were studied. Natural conditions of the Kostomuksha State Nature Reserve are favourable for the podzolisation process. The most widespread in the Protected Area are zonal Al-Fehumus soils (Podzols). Shallow soils (Leptosols) are formed on bedrock outcrops. They have a minor proportion of the entire soil amount. The productivity of plants growing on them is low. Wet sites are occupied by intrazonal peat moor soils (Histosols), by covering small areas. They are developed in the lowlands, between hills, in mire margins, in saucer-like concavities on bedrock outcrops. The names of the studied soils were determined ac-names of the studied soils were determined ac-of the studied soils were determined according to the both regional soil classification and WRB classification. The soil association with the tree stand composition was identified. Albic Rustic Podzols predominate under pine (Pinus sylvestris) stands, while spruce (Picea abies) stands are far less widespread. Birch (Betula pendula) stands on soils of podzolic genesis occupy limited areas and occur on clear-cuts, sites affected by windfalls and wildfires. The associations between soils and quaternary deposits were analysed. Bedrocks overlap with sandy and loamy sand quaternary deposits, the thickness of which ranges from 5 cm to 5 m. Morainic and glaciolacustrine sediments are the most widespread. Peat deposits are less common in the study area. Morphologically, the soils are usually characterised by a welldifferentiated profile, a thick forest floor (О), and an ongoing podzolisation process. The soils are mostly coarsetextured. The low content of the fine powder fractions indicates that the weathering of primary minerals inside the soil is minor due to the cold and humid climate. No clear relationships were observed in their distribution across the soil profile. The studied soils are acidic. The acidity is the highest in the forest floor and it declines with an increasing depth of the soil profile. The formation of the soil organic matter is influenced by specifics of the primary soil-forming factors. The soils contain a high carbon (C) amount in the top organic horizon, with a sharp decline in its content with depth. The nitrogen (N) distribution along the soil profile correlates with the overall organic matter distribution. So, it is the highest in the forest f...

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The article analyzes and summarizes information on breeding and seed production of the main forest-forming and commercial species for the countries of Northern Europe and Russia: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst). It is shown that in the last 40–50 years Sweden and Finland have completed the first (primary) cycle of plus-tree breeding, and the second cycle is being actively pursued. In terms of seed production, this means a gradual replacement of the 1st generation forest seed orchards with the forest seed orchards of enhanced genetic value (of 1.5 and 2nd generation). By the middle of the 21st century, the productivity of new artificial stands is expected to increase by 20–25 % in terms of stem wood stock due to breeding work. Successful and quite large-scale works were undertaken in plus trees phenotypic breeding and forest seed orchards (1st generation) planting in some regions of European Russia in the last third of the 20th century. However, even this first (primary) cycle of plus-tree breeding has not been fully completed. The latter makes it possible to lay out the necessary areas of multiplicative populations of increased genetic value – forest seed orchards of the 1.5 generation. Although this is impossible to achieve in many subjects of the Northwestern Federal District due to the insufficient number of selected plus trees and, most importantly, the extremely small area of progeny tests. At present, the vast majority of initially selected plus trees were not genetically tested, which hinders the possibility of further development of the plus-tree breeding system. Russia also lacks special breeding zoning of the main forest-forming species, providing a spatial organization of breeding work and the use of seeds from forest seed orchards. A federal program for the preservation and sustainable management of forest genetic resources of the Russian Federation, together with a number of subprograms for genetic research and breeding of the most important forest-forming species, should be developed to achieve progress in this direction, considering current advances in molecular genetics and biotechnology. Acknowledgments: Financial support of the research was provided by the federal budget for the state assignment of the Forest Research Institute and the Department of Multidisciplinary Scientific Research of Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences with partial support of the World-class Scientific and Educational Center “Russian Arctic: New Materials, Technologies and research Methods”. For citation: Raevsky B.V., Ignatenko R.V., Novichonok E.V., Prokopiuk V.M., Kuklina K.K. The Current State of Conifer Species Breeding and Seed Production. Lesnoy Zhurnal = Russian Forestry Journal, 2022, no. 6, pp. 9–37. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.37482/0536-1036-2022-6-9-37