The landscape-forming role of relief in the formation of the forest composition in the southwestern part of Moscow Oblast

Abstract

The forest cover of Moscow Oblast has been greatly changed due to the long history of agriculture and silviculture practice. As a result, the modern composition and spatial differentiation of types of forest communities do not completely depend on natural conditions, but in many respects on human activities. The question arises: did the natural landscape-forming factors persist in influencing the modern forests of the region? The role of relief in the formation of the composition of modern forest cover and differentiation of community types in the southwestern part of Moscow Oblast is estimated. Relief, being a key landscape-forming factor, determines the habitat conditions of forest communities. For lowland territories, the relationship between changes in the relief surface and forest composition has been little studied, although the terrain-dependent ecotope conditions have always been taken into account. In the paper, the relief forms are distinguished using classification of morphometric variables and are endowed with qualitative landscape characteristics. In the geomorphological region of the Klin-Dmitrov Range, five mesoforms of relief have been identified: the main surface of the watershed, the moraine hilly surface, troughs of glacier meltwaters, floodplains, and steep slopes of river valleys and streams. The interrelationship between the distribution of forest community types and relief mesoforms, which are represented by groups of associations of ecological-phytocenotic classification (16 syntaxons), is estimated. A cartographic analysis of the geobotanical map and the map of the relief mesoforms was carried out, and the occurrence of the type of forest community in the mesoform was statistically estimated. It was revealed that the spatial differentiation of half of the analyzed types of communities (groups of associations) depends on the surface forms of the relief, and the severely disturbed types of communities do not demonstrate confinement. For the first time on a statistical basis, the observations of previous researchers on the patterns of distribution of spruce and oak forests in the geomorphological region of the Klinsko-Dmitrov Ridge are confirmed.