Modelling forest ground vegetation on landscape scale

1. Modelling forest ground vegetation on landscape scale Larisa Khanina1, Maxim Bobrovsky2, Alexander Komarov2, Alex Mikhajlov2 1Institute of Mathematical Biology, Russian Academy of Science, Pushchino, Russia 2Institute of Soil Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, Russian Academy of Science, Pushchino, Russia DynamicDATA EU25+ Regional Workshop I

2. Ground Vegetation Ecosystem production Soil features Trees renewal EFIMOD

3. At the first step · an approach · an algorithm · a special software to calculate dynamics of ground vegetation diversity at a level of forest stand on a base of · Forest Inventory Data · forest simulated results

4. Our approach plant species functional groups in ground vegetation modelling ecological-coenotic species groups introduced in Nitsenko (1969) Ellenberg’s ecological indicator species values Species ordination scores (by ordination of phytosociological relevés) Multivariate analysis

5. Results of multivariate analysis ca. 1000 forest vascular species were split into the functional groups

6. To use the groups for modelling dynamics of ground vegetation · to define the dominant group at the initial step of simulation · to define rules of the group switching according to dynamics of the simulated parameters tree species composition, light supply, deadwood volume, litter, soil fertility and moisture

7. Definition of dominant species groups at the initial step Forest Inventory Data Dominant species in ground vegetation ? Database on ecological-coenotic groups of plant species Dominant group(s) in ground vegetation

8. Forest Inventory Data Dominant tree species Forest Site Index - soil fertility and moisture Regional probability tables of correspondence Tree Dominant – Forest Site Index - Dominant group in ground vegetation Definition of dominant species groups at the initial step

9. Forest type biodiversity assessment Forest Type = Tree dominant + Dominant group in ground vegetation Vegetation Sample Plots Data • Forest type biodiversity indices • Average number of plant species per square unit • Functional structure of ground vegetation

10. EFIMOD simulations Tree species composition Stand characteristics from Soil organic matter and nitrogen Deadwood Forest Inventory Data Dominant tree Dominant tree species in species in Vege - Vege - overstory overstory tation (forest) tation (forest) Dominant Dominant ecologo - coenotic ecologo - coenotic type type group in ground group in ground vegetation vegetation time 1 time n Modeling of forest groundvegetation

11. BioCalc - a software for dynamic analysis of forest ground vegetation diversity

12. BioCalc input data · tables of probabilistic distribution of the groups in ground vegetation according to the tree dominant and the forest site index · a correspondence table between a forest type and species diversity rank · a time series table of forest stand ecosystem parameters (EFIMOD runs)

13. Rules of functional groups switching User of the BioCalc software selects from the time series tables – in an interactive mode – thresholds for a number of ecosystem parameters. Reaching these thresholds causes a change of the dominant ecological-coenotic group. The user can observe all values of any ecosystem parameter displayed graphically

14. Rules of functional groups switching If the values are digital, a graphic is built where the values go in ascending order, which allows for easy detection of the thresholds

15. BioCalck outputs Dynamics of · ground vegetation functional groups, · forest types, and · species diversity ranks A link with Common-GIS (Andrienko, Andrienko, 1999) for visual exploration of ground vegetation dynamics at the landscape level

16. A case study experimental forestry“Russkii Les” 273-hectare forest lot with 104 stands Four strategies of silvicultural regimes for 200 years time span: ·natural development ·legal clear cutting ·selective cutting ·illegal clear cutting

17. Case study rules of functional group switching (i) meadow group switched to boreal group when spruce began to dominate in overstorey (ii) any group switched to nemoral when oak began to dominate in overstorey (iii) piny group switched to boreal group when deadwood overpassed the 1st threshold value (iv) any group switched to nitrophilous group when deadwood overpassed the second threshold value, and (v) nitrophilous group switched to nemoral group when deadwood fell below the 2nd threshold value

18. Case study rules of functional group switching In the scenarios with clear cuttings: after the clear cutting, a dominant group was taken from a specially designed probabilistic table of the group distribution in ground vegetation designed for the after-clear-cutting conditions

19. Tree dominant dynamics Natural development Selective cuttings Legal clear cuttings Illegal clear cuttings

20. Tree dominant dynamics 200-year dynamics Legal selective cutting Natural development The beginning Legal clear cutting Illegal clear cutting

21. Deadwood dynamics

22. Functional group dynamics Natural development Legal selective cuttings Legal clear cutting Illegal clear cutting

23. Functional group dynamics 200-year dynamics Legal selective cutting Natural development The beginning Legal clear cutting Illegal clear cutting

24. Species diversity dynamics

25. Species diversity dynamics 200-year dynamics Legal selective cutting Natural development The beginning Legal clear cutting Illegal clear cutting

26. Tree dominant dynamics – regional level 50-year dynamics 1 Pine, 2 Spruce, 3 Birch, 4 Aspen I initial state, II legal clear-cutting, III natural development

27. Functional group dynamics– regional level 50-year dynamics I initial state, II legal clear-cutting, III natural development

28. Species diversity dynamics – regional level 50-year dynamics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – ranks of species diversity I initial state, II legal clear-cutting, III natural development

29. EFIMOD parameters for ground vegetation dynamics used tree composition deadwood in progress humus amount nitrogen amount in plan light soil moisture

30. Thank you for your attention!