Scientific publications

The article deals with the vertical differentiation of plant community structure investigated in the low-mountain landscape of Paanajärvi National Park, which is located in the northwest of the Republic of Karelia. Botanical research in the territory of the National Park has been carried out for more than 150 years, however, the data on the comparative biodiversity assessment of plant communities in low-mountain landscape are currently not available. The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of plant communities at permanent plots located at the foot of Kivakka mountain (499,5 m) in typical zonal northern taiga spruce forests, as well as in the southwest hillside in the open boreal of woodland and mountain tundra zones. It has been found out that plant communities of open boreal woodland and mountain tundra zones were superior to typical zonal northern taiga spruce forests in species richness and species diversity (α-diversity, Shanon-Weaver index). The same was true concerning mosaic β-diversity. These significant differences are caused by а variety of microclimatic, edaphic and hydrological conditions. The rising ecotope heterogeneity at higher altitudes brings about a complication of plant community coenotic structure. Simultaneously the share of forest species with a wide ecological range is increasing. It has also been revealed that the number of codominant species in micro communities and their abundance goes up as the altitude increases. The results of ANOVA have shown statistically significant influence of plant community altitudinal location on the projective cover of some vascular plants ( Empetrum hermaphroditum, Ledum palustre, Linnaea borealis, Melampyrum pratense and Vaccinium myrtillus ).