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Phytocoenotic and Soil Signs of Current Global Warming on the Boreal Ecotone of the East-European Plain

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3D phytogeographic ecotone
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Submitted   Jul 15, 2025
Published   Nov 5, 2025
Issue    Vol 7 No 1 (2025)
DOI   10.25082/REIE.2025.01.007

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Erland G. Kolomyts corresponding author
Institute of Basic Biological Problems, Pushchino Science Center of Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 129290, Russia

Abstract

The current global warming, which has been going on since the mid-70s of the last century, has been confirmed by numerous factual observations. A decrease in edaphic moisture should inevitably cause the replacement of forest-steppe vegetation by northern steppe vegetation, and the latter by dry steppe vegetation. At the same time, dark-gray forest soils and ordinary chernozems still remain in the position of northern relics during this short period. However, due to the increased humification of organic matter, the predominant type of humus changes from humate-fulvate to fulvate-humate. The successional trend in boreal phytocoenoses includes the replacement of oak and/or pine by spruce, with a decrease in forest density, as well as the nemoralization of the ground cover. On the Main Landscape Boundary of the Russian Plain, a three-dimensional local phytocoenotic ecotone is developing to a certain extent, with the strengthening of the boreal vegetation type in the tree layer and sub-boreal types in the undergrowth and ground cover. The increase in the range of inter-annual fluctuations in temperatures and precipitation over the last century indicates a clear increase in climate extremes. The frequency of extreme weather increases -- abnormally cold and abnormally warm, as well as excessively humid and extremely dry. All this contributes to the development of steppe ecosystems and has an extremely unfavorable effect on the state of oak groves, causing waves of their mass drying out even at the northern borders of their habitats. In general, on the territory of the Eastern European sub-continent, the “savannization” of mesophilic broad-leaved forests should begin, with their merging with a mosaic complex of sparse forests, meadows and steppes of the typical forest-steppe.

Keywords
modern global warming, boreal & nemoral phytocenoses/soils successional trends, 3D phytocenotic ecotone, increasing climate extremes, oak forest drying

Article Details

How to Cite
Kolomyts, E. G. (2025). Phytocoenotic and Soil Signs of Current Global Warming on the Boreal Ecotone of the East-European Plain. Resources Environment and Information Engineering, 7(1), 423-431. https://doi.org/10.25082/REIE.2025.01.007
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