The regulatory role of soil in the functioning of undisturbed biogeocenoses of the southern taiga.

摘要

The results of complex investigations concerning the specific features of undisturbed southern taiga biogeocenoses' functioning were summarized for the biogeocenoses at the Central Forest State Biosphere Nature Reserve (Tver oblast). In the soils of the different topographic elements, the water and temperature regimes and the pools of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the litter and mineral horizons were studied, as well as the rate of the falloff and litter decomposition in field and laboratory tests, the microbial biomass pool and structure, the abundance and diversity of the soil mesofauna, and the microbial transformation of the nitrogen compounds. In the biogeocenoses investigated, the transformation of carbon and nitrogen compounds is shown to be controlled by the biochemical composition of the falloff and the structure of the soil biota, which, in turn, are determined by the specific features of the water regime and the acid-base soil properties.