Structure of the areas of boreal plant species within European Russia (case study of north twinfl ower and two-leaved mullet)

The results of studying the structure of the areas of two plant species of the boreal forests’ ground cover, namely Maianthemum bifolium (L.) F. Schmidt. and Linnaea borealis L., within the East-European part of their range are discussed. Data on their presence in the geobotanical descriptions were used as an indicator of the species activity within the area. More than 7000 geobotanical descriptions from scientific publications and original surveys were analyzed; data were grouped into 109 subsets by geographic location. Constancy indicators were calculated for each subset, namely, the proportion of descriptions in which the studied species were present. Based on the use of geostatistical methods (ordinary kriging), models of the spatial distribution of the constancy index of each species within the East-European part of the range were constructed. Checking the quality of constructed models by the cross-validation method and assessing the reliability of regressions between the initial and predicted values of constancy gave satisfactory results. Analysis of the relationship between the constructed models of the distribution of constancy indicators and bioclimatic characteristics showed a relatively weak correlation with indicators of heat and moisture supply. This indicates the complex nature of the mutual influence of climatic, orographic, lithological and phytocenotic factors on the distribution of plant species under study. Moreover, the distribution of Linnaea borealis shows closer correlation with forest-forming species, while Maianthemum bifolium is associated with a wider number of formations and to a greater extent depends on a certain level of heat supply and the amount of summer precipitation. The area of maximum constancy of Maianthemum bifolium in European Russia is the central and western parts of the Ladoga-Vychegda southern taiga and Smolensk-Volga deciduous-coniferous biomes, where it mainly grows in spruce, coniferous-deciduous and small-leaved forests. According to the model, the areas of maximum constancy of Linnaea borealis are the central part of the Ladoga-Vychegda middle taiga and the west of the Urals taiga biomes, where the species predominantly grows in the ground cover of spruce forests. The revealed results could be used to display the structure of a species range on a map, to identify inner biome differentiation of the vegetation cover, and to monitor the biodiversity of boreal forests in European Russia under environmental changes.

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