Influence of Vegetation on the Lability Characteristics of Sandur Areas of the Bryansky Les Nature Reserve

Abstract

We have assessed the influence of vegetation on the labile characteristics (acidity, total carbon and nitrogen content, and available nutrients) of automorphic soils of polydominant coniferous–broadleaf forests and dwarf-shrub–green-moss pine forests of the Bryansky Les Nature Reserve. Despite the comparable gross and grain size compositions of soil-forming rocks, the differences of soils of these forest types are determined by the influence of vegetation, mainly by its ability to form litters of different quality and to regulate the amount of precipitation percolating through the forest canopy and contributing to the nutrient removal. Soils of pine forests have a higher acidity and lower contents of total nitrogen, organic carbon, and available nutrients than do soils of coniferous–broadleaf forests. The stand of pine forests has a low crown density, which leads to more intensive nutrient removal by atmospheric precipitation infiltrating through the soil.