Natural regeneration of stands in the steppe oak forests
Oakwood biogeocenoses with seed stands of natural origin have recognized advantages on biological stability, longevity, environmental performance, and other useful for forest and human qualities. Currently, however, much of the oak forests have coppice origin of high generations with bad efficiency and with poor sanitary conditions. The problem of restoring of seed oak forests today is particularly acute. This paper studies the seed regeneration of English oak in conditions of Khopersky Nature Reserve. Regenaration was studied in upland (edatopes D2 and C3), floodplain (edatopes D3, E2 and E3) and valley line (edatopes D3T and D2T) oak forests. The influence of density, species composition, ground cover and microrelief on the condition of natural regeneration of forest stands has been studied. Research has established the following: 1. Regeneration may be assessed as satisfactory only in D3P edatopes of blackberry-lily-of-the-valley oak forest. In other studied forest types regeneration is bad. 2. Most of the oak saplings is represented by seedlings, self-seeding and undergrowth with height up to 0.5 m. 3. In floodplain oak forests significant impact on the natural regeneration of has density of undergrowth and species composition of the living ground cover. 4. On average, the species composition of regeneration in floodplain oak forests – 8O1El1As, and in upland oak forests – 6O3Ash1El and in valley line oak forests – 5O3El1Ash1L.