Plant Life-Forms and Environmental Filtering during Primary Succession on Loose Volcanic Substrata (Kamchatka, Russia)

Abstract

Peculiarities of the forest vegetation dynamics and the main factors and mechanisms of environmental filtering were studied on loose deposits of the Tolbachinskii Dol Volcanic Plateau (Kamchatka) by means of plant life-form analysis. It was found that, in the earlier stages of plant succession, polycarpic herbs, acrocarpous mosses, and fruticulose lichens dominated. Forest communities of 35 years old differed from the old-growth ones by the proportions of plant life-forms and the total coverage. Environmental filtering is manifested by the most successful development of plants having special morphological adaptations of belowground systems to loose unstable substrata.