Keywords
forage resources
landscape structure
plant communities
reindeer herding
spatial heterogeneity
tundra
How to Cite
Abstract
Winter reindeer pastures in the tundra are spatially heterogeneous systems in which vegetation patterns are closely associated with landscape structure. This study characterises the spatial organisation of vegetation within a tundra winter pasture in southern Yamal using landscape units (urochishches) as the basis for mapping and geobotanical analysis. The study area corresponded to an actual winter grazing territory used by Nenets herders. Landscape mapping on a scale of 1:100,000 covered approximately 200 km², and detailed field studies were conducted within a ~37 km² key site of 37 km2, where 50 geobotanical relevés were completed. We identified 25 types of urochishche and 10 types of plant community. For several urochishches, a relatively consistent association was recorded with a single community type, while others contained two or more community types, reflecting the fine-scale mosaic structure of tundra vegetation. The grass-moss communities occupied the largest proportion of the study area (~51%), followed by the dwarf shrub–moss tundra (13.2%) and the lichen-dominated moss–lichen tundra (12.5%). Although the lichen-dominated communities occupied a relatively small area, lichens occurred within plant communities in approximately 77% of the pasture, while other winter forage plants were also widely represented. The landscape framework therefore provides a spatial basis for relating vegetation composition and potential winter forage components to the landscape structure of an actively used tundra winter pasture.
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