Vegetation dynamics and fire history at the southern boundary of the forest vegetation zone in European Russia during the middle and late Holocene

Novenko, Elena; Tsyganov, Andrey N.; Payne, Richard J.; Mazei, Natalia; Volkova, E. M.; Chernyshov, Viktor A.; Kupriyanov, D. A.; Mazei, Yuri

doi:10.1177/0959683617721331

Cited by 21 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…According to historical documents and observations of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve staff, significant wildfire evidences in the Protected Area have been recorded in 1842, 1899, 1932, 1972 and 2010 (Kuznetsov, 1960;Grishutkin, 2012). The frequency and intensity of fires has increased precisely in the last two centuries in accordance with paleoecological data (Sieber et al, 2013;Novenko et al, 2018;Šamonil et al, 2018;Stambaugh et al, 2018). The 2010 fires were especially significant, as their area was 38% of the total area of the Mordovia Reserve.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Post-fire fauna of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in forests of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Ruchin¹,

Алексеев²,

Khapugin³

et al. 2019

Nat. Conserv. Res.

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Wildfires are among the basic ecological factors that change habitats and initiate the succession of new forest communities. Burned areas are ephemeral habitats presenting a broad range of ecological niches that many insect species may exploit. In 2016, we studied the carabid fauna in burned pine forests of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (European Russia). Sixty carabid beetles in total were collected in an unburned (control) area and on sites damaged by crown fire and surface fire. Carabids were more numerous and diverse in the burned areas, compared to the unburned forest, while the catch index was significantly higher in unburned area. This was due to the extremely high dynamic density of Carabus arcensis on the control site, while it was ten times lower in the burned area. The number of carabid species tended to increase in the sequence unburned forest-forest impacted by surface fire-forest impacted by crown fire. Expectedly, species compositions were more similar between firedamaged areas, while there was a higher difference between the unburned site and area damaged by crown fire. Concerning trophic group classification, all carabid beetles were distinguished in two groups, zoophagous species and myxophytophagous species. In both groups, the species number increases in the sequence from unburned areas to the forest impacted by crown fire. Finally, the dynamic density of some carabids (e.g. Poecilus lepidus, P. versicolor, Harpalus tardus, H. rufipes, H. rubripes, Cicindela sylvatica) largely increased after fire impact, while it decreased for the most other species. Our results suggest that burning of the forest stand may support some carabid species, i.e. larger forest fire increases species richness of beetle fauna. The highest dynamic density of the carabids is maintained by a few beetle species (Carabus arcensis, C. hortensis, Pterostichus oblongopunctatus).

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Post-fire fauna of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in forests of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Ruchin¹,

Алексеев²,

Khapugin³

et al. 2019

Nat. Conserv. Res.

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“…In addition, the lack of water bodies negatively influences Odonata, Lepidoptera, and Mollusca. Second, the central and eastern parts of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve have been damaged by humans, as also indicated by palaeobotanical data (see Novenko et al 2017). In these parts of the Protected Areas, broad-leaved forests have been changed into pine forests, wildfires became more frequent and Picea abies started penetrating into the forest communities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Red Data Book invertebrates in a protected area of European Russia

Ruchin¹,

Khapugin²

2019

Acta Zool Acad Sci H

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Protected Areas are considered as primary efforts for biodiversity conservation worldwide. However, there is a lack of data on the biodiversity and threats for most of the federal-level Russian Protected Areas, especially for invertebrates. Intensive research on invertebrate diversity in Protected Areas is highly important to obtain comprehensive knowledge for the management of natural refugia of biodiversity. In the present paper, we studied the most vulnerable component of invertebrate diversity, i.e. the Red Data Book species, in the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (European Russia). We used both new (2007-2018) and literature (1936-2006) data to obtain information on habitat preferences, year of the first record, and spatial distribution in the Protected Area for 121 invertebrate Red Data Book species known from the Mordovia State Nature Reserve. Our study demonstrated a remarkable increase in the Red Data Book invertebrate diversity as a consequence of the research intensification in the Protected Area in the last ten years. This is also related to the fact that only 1-2 records are known for a large number of species (57.9%) within the Protected Area. The highest species richness was found close to the research stations (cordons). On one hand, this highlights their significance for biodiversity research. On the other hand, it outlines the need for performing more research in less-studied areas of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve. Finally, the species currently known for Mordovia and Russia only from this Protected Area (27 and four species, respectively) highlight the importance of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve at regional and national levels.

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“…The composition and structure of mid to late Holocene vegetation of the eastern Lower Danube Plain resembled, to a large degree, that of other European forest steppe areas, although particularities also exist. Whilst in central eastern European forest steppe, Quercus and Carpinus betulus were the dominant tree species with a lower occurrence of Tilia, Ulmus, Corylus and Pinus (Magyari et al, 2010;Feurdean et al, 2015;Kuneš et al, 2015), on the Eastern European Plain, Tilia and Quercus, and in some places Pinus, were the dominant tree taxa (Kremenetski et al, 1995;Novenko et al, 2016Novenko et al, , 2018Shumilovskikh et al, 2018Shumilovskikh et al, , 2019. Forests in the Black Sea region also included thermophilus taxa i.e., Quercus cerris, C. orientialis (this study, Marinova et al, 2006;Tonkov et al, 2014) Remarkably, Carpinus orientalis was found to be significantly more abundant around the Black Sea coast i.e., Romania (20%), Bulgaria (>5%), or with only scattered occurrences in Ukraine, whilst it was absent from Central European forest steppe.…”

Section: Comparison With Other European Forest Steppe Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The transformation of the forest steppe in the lower Danube Plain of south-eastern Europe: 6000 years of vegetation and land use dynamic

Feurdean¹,

Grindean²,

Florescu³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Forest steppes are dynamic ecosystems, highly susceptible to changes in climate and land use. Here we examine the Holocene history of the European forest steppe ecotone in the Lower Danube Plain to better understand its sensitivity to climate fluctuations and human impact, and the timing of its transition into a cultural forest steppe. We used multi-proxy analyses (pollen, n-alkane, coprophilous fungi, charcoal, and geochemistry) of a 6000-year sequence from Lake Oltina (SE Romania), combined with a REVEALS model of quantitative vegetation cover. We found the greatest tree cover, composed of xerothermic (Carpinus orientalis and Quercus) and temperate (Carpinus betulus, Tilia, Ulmus and Fraxinus) tree taxa between 6000 and 2500 cal yr BP. Maximum tree cover (~ 50 %) occurred between 4200 and 2500 cal yr BP at a time of wetter climatic conditions. Compared to other European forest steppe areas, the dominance of Carpinus orientalis represents the most distinct feature of the woodland's composition during that time. Forest loss was under way by 2500 yr BP (Iron Age) with REVEALS estimates indicating a fall to ~ 20 % tree cover from the mid-Holocene forest maximum linked to clearance for agriculture, while climate conditions remained wet. Biomass burning increased markedly at 2500 cal yr BP suggesting that fire was regularly used as a management tool until 1000 cal yr BP when woody vegetation became scarce. A sparse tree cover, with only weak signs of forest recovery, then became a permanent characteristic of the Lower Danube Plain, highlighting recurring anthropogenic pressure. The timing of anthropogenic ecosystem transformation here (2500 cal yr BP) was in between that in central eastern (between 3700 and 3000 cal yr BP) and eastern (after 2000 cal yr BP) Europe. Our study is the first quantitative land cover estimate at the forest steppe ecotone in south eastern Europe spanning 6000 years and provides critical empirical evidence that the present-day forest steppe/woodlands reflects the potential natural vegetation in this region under current climate conditions. This study also highlights the potential of n-alkane indices for vegetation reconstruction, particularly in dry regions where pollen is poorly preserved.

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Vegetation dynamics and fire history at the southern boundary of the forest vegetation zone in European Russia during the middle and late Holocene

Cited by 21 publications

References 50 publications

Post-fire fauna of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in forests of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Post-fire fauna of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in forests of the Mordovia State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Red Data Book invertebrates in a protected area of European Russia

The transformation of the forest steppe in the lower Danube Plain of south-eastern Europe: 6000 years of vegetation and land use dynamic

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