The book describes the European Russian forests located in the Russian Plain and surrounding areas covering Eastern Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, the Northern, Central and Southern Russian provinces together with the Western Slope of the Ural Mountains. These forests comprise half of the total forested area in Europe and differ from the latter in their naturalness and the absence of intensive forest management in most of the area. The book describes the forests of the boreal, hemiboreal and nemoral forest regions; floodplain forests are also characterized according to their climatic regions. The book presents a classification and description of forest vegetation, soil characteristic and assessments of plant diversity and successional status of forest plant communities. Structure and composition of vegetation in early- and late-successional forests are analyzed with emphasis on forests in State Nature reserves. Features of the historical land-use, such as slash-and-burn, forest cutting,grazing, influence of fires on forest ecosystems, etc. are discussed for each forest region. The book is based on long-term investigations of the vegetation and soil, identifying and analysing forest tracts least disturbed by man, and on studying forest history at local and regional scales. Successional series of plant communities formed after typical anthropogenic impacts have been identified and a hypothesis on the potential forest landscapes and the main causes of their transformations is presented. The book contains an analysis of the general dynamics of the forest cover in European Russia during the last two decades based on satellite image processing. The history of forest landscapes in European Russia is briefly reviewed and it is shown that the main stages of transformation of the European Russian forests in the Holocene were related to the development of the production economy of people.

Zusammenfassung

The European Russian forests are described within the boreal, hemiboreal and nemoral forest regions; floodplain forests are also characterized. The book presents a classification and description of forest vegetation, soil characteristic and assessments of plant diversity and successional status of forest plant communities. Structure and composition of vegetation in early- and late-successional forests are analyzed with an emphasis on forests in State Nature reserves. Features of the historical land-use, such as slash-and-burn, forest cutting, grazing, influence of fires on forest ecosystems, etc. are discussed for each forest region. The book contains an analysis of the general dynamics of the forest cover during the last two decades based on satellite image processing. The main stages of transformation of forest landscapes in European Russia during the Holocene are briefly reviewed in connection with the development of the production economy of people.

Inhalt
Preface.- Authors and Affiliations.- Part 1: Natural conditions and general descriptions of forest vegetation and forest soils.- 1.1. Topography and Hydrography; IS Voskresensky.- 1.2. Climate; NV Zukert, SS Bykhovets.- 1.3. General description of forest vegetation; LB Zaugolnova et al.- 1.4. General description of forest soils; MV Bobrovsky.- 1.5. Conclusion on Chapter 1; OV Smirnova et al.- Part 2: Methods.- 2.1. Study areas; OV Smirnova et al.- 2.2. Forest typology used (classification of forest vegetation); LB Zaugolnova, LG Khanina.- 2.3. Mapping and monitoring of forest cover; PV Potapov et al.- 2.4. Field data collection; OV Smirnova et al.- 2.5. Data analysis; OV Smirnova et al.- 2.6. Conclusion on Chapter 2; OV Smirnova et al.- Part 3: Boreal forests.- 3.1. Prodromus of the vegetation and forest distribution; LB Zaugolnova.- 3.2. Features of the historical land-use in the boreal region; MV Bobrovsky.- 3.3. Succession of the boreal forest after fire in the Kostomuksha State Nature Reserve (Karelia); VN Korotkov, OI Evstigneev.- 3.4. Old-growth dark-coniferous forests in the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve; AA Aleynikov et al.- 3.5. Plant diversity and soil features in old-growth spruce and spruce-fir forests in the boreal region of European Russia; OV Smirnova et al.- 3.6. Conclusions on the boreal forest region; OV Smirnova et al.- Part 4: Hemiboreal forests.- 4.1. Prodromus of the vegetation and forest distribution; LB Zaugolnova.- 4.2. Features of the historical land-use in the hemiboreal region; MV Bobrovsky.- 4.3. Typical features of the best preserved hemiboreal forests in European Russia (on examples of the Visimskiy and Sabarskiy Reserves and the Kilemarskiy Zakaznik); AI Shirokov et al.- 4.4. Post fire and post cutting successions in the east of the Kostroma region; DL Lugovaya.- 4.5. Plant diversity and successional stages of forests after cutting and plowing in the southern Moscow region; VN Korotkov.- 4.6. Conclusions on the hemiboreal forest region; OV Smirnova et al.- Part 5: Nemoral forests.- 5.1. Prodromus of the vegetation and forest distribution; TYu Braslavskaya.- 5.2. Features of the historical land-use in the nemoral region; MV Bobrovsky.- 5.3. Old-growth nemoral forests and vegetation dynamics in the Kaluzhskie Zaseki State Nature Reserve; MV Bobrovsky, LG Khanina.- 5.4. Eighty years of vegetation dynamics in the Voronezh State Nature Reserve; EA Starodubtseva et al.- 5.5. Succession in the Pinus sylvestris forest on sandy ridges on an outwash plain in the Nerussa-Desna Polesie; OI Evstigneev, VN Korotkov.- 5.6. Conclusion on the nemoral forest region; OV Smirnova et al.- Part 6: Floodplains; TYu Braslavskaya.- Part 7: Forest cover dynamics at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries; PV Potapov et al.- Part 8: Development of the European Russian forests in the Holocene; OV Smirnova et al.