Productivity of the Bakchar Bog Plant Communities in the Initial Stages of Pyrogenic Succession (Southern Taiga of Western Siberia)

Abstract

The results of a study on the productivity of plant communities after a crown fire in a drained oligotrophic bog in the southern taiga of Western Siberia are presented. A quantitative assessment of biological productivity in areas with varying degrees of pyrogenic disturbance is given. The reserves of the grass-shrub and moss layers in the most disturbed area in the second year of restoration amounted to 1220 g/m², production was 324 g/m² per year; in the third year, reserves increased to 1635 g/m² and production increased to 1038 g/m² per year due to the growth of blueberries, while the production in the control site with high reserves of living phytomass (2200 g/m²) amounted to 745 g/m² per year. There was a change in the structure of the phytomass, compaction of the deposit by 34%, and an increase in the mortmass of vascular plants by three times. The living mass of roots in the disturbed area concentrated in the upper layer of 0–10 cm, while it was distributed in the control area in the layer of 10–30 cm. It was found that the roots of dead pines retain the morphological characteristics of living ones during the first two years and pass into the fraction of dead roots on the third year of pyrogenic succession. Carbon losses during burning of the top layer of tow up to 20 cm amounted to 3016 g C/m², 500 g/m² of which can be buried as a layer of coal in peat.