Climatic Factor Impact On the Height Growth Of Lapland Pine in The Northwestern Russia

• Published in: International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife
• Main Authors: Elena Popova N., Anna Koukhta E., Igor Popov O.
• Other Authors: The authors express their gratitude to the heads of the surveyed specially protected natural territories (Reserves) for their help and assistance in the fieldwork. The study was carried out in the framework of the state assignments of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences no. АААА-А19-119021990093-8 (FMGE-2019- 0007) “Assessment of geographical, hydrological and biotic environmental changes and their effects for the development of a basis for stable environmental management” - data processing and analysis of the results, and АААА-А19-119022190173-2 (FMGE-2019-0009) “Climate Change and Consequences for the Environment and Population Life and Activities on the Territory of Russia” – climate data analysis, and the themes of Roshydromet no. 3.2 for 2020–2024 “Monitoring of the Global Climate and the Climate of the Russian Federation and Its Regions Including the Arctic: Development and Modernization of Monitoring Technologies” - climate data processing, and no. АААА-А20-120013190049-4 - data collection from Lapland pine stand
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Russian Geographical Society 2022
• Subjects: Lapland pine; height growth; climatic factors; soils; cluster analysis; Pechora; Lapland
• Online Access: https://ges.rgo.ru/jour/article/view/2332; https://doi.org/10.24057/2071-9388-2021-055

Lapland pine (Pinus sylvestris var. lapponica Hartm.) is a geographical and climatic ecotype and subspecies of Pinus sylvestris L. It is widespread in the north of Eurasia. Its height growth is interconnected with both climatic parameters and the state of the habitat of pine trees. Long-term data on height growth indices of Lapland pine from various humid biogeocenoses of three specially protected natural territories of Northwestern Russia were studied. Also, sixteen basic climatic parameters averaged over the growth period of the examined trees were calculated for these regions. The comparison of different climatic parameters and pine stand height growth in various biogeocenoses was made using cluster analysis. It was established that the mean daily average temperature in January (-9.4°C, -10.4°C, -16.1°C in the Kivach, Polar Circle and Pechora-Ilych Reserves respectively) and the amount of precipitation in spring and early summer periods have a primary influence on the cluster similarity of the Lapland pine height growth in Northwestern Russia. The similarity of soil and biocenotic conditions also influenced the similarity of Lapland pine height growth indices, but had a lower rank within the two main clusters distinguished by climatic values. Our studies showed that it is possible to identify the rank influence of the most significant climatic factors and biogeocenotic conditions on the pine height growth using cluster analysis.