Horizontal form of crown and trees in cedar plantations of the suburban zone of Krasnoyarsk

Abstract

Currently, abnormal climatic processes that affect forest ecosystems are observed. One of the forms of adaptation and response of trees is their morphogenesis. The purpose of the study is to establish patterns of the change in the shape of crowns and trees in cedar plantations as a reflection of the influence of external and internal factors. The basis of the experimental material was the morphological features of cedar trees, reflecting the horizontal structure of the plantations: crown radius to the cardinal points, trunk diameter in two directions at a height of 1.3 meters. It has been established that the degree of conformity of the shape of trunks and crowns of trees is influenced by the location of the site and the degree of closing of crowns both in rows and between rows. With the growth and development of cedar plantations, both external and internal factors play an increasingly significant role. In the most shaded part of the cedar plantations (plots 3 and 4), the maximum number of trees with a circular shape of both trunks and crowns was revealed. At the same time, almost 2 times more trees with a circular shape (56 % and 32 %) were installed on the plantation “Meteostantsiya” in its left part, which indicates the influence of additional factors, such as the origin of planting material, the distance in the rows and between rows, etc. The cedar plantations in most areas have entered the stage of crown closing, when, in addition to exogenous factors, competition for resources begins to influence the growth and development of trees. In this case, morphogenesis (the shape of crowns and the shape of the cross section of tree trunks) is a reflection of the totality of both external and internal factors.