Abstract
Natural recovery of forest ecosystems after the termination of impacts caused by emissions from large industrial enterprises gives a clue to their sustainability mechanisms. However, the lack of data on different ecosystem components, natural zones, and emission sources makes it impossible to identify general patterns of restorative successions. This paper examines the distribution and abundance dynamics of macrolichens growing on birch trunks in the southern taiga forests of the Middle Urals affected for many years by emissions from the Middle Ural Copper Smelter. Two periods were compared: (1) period of intense emissions (1995–1997); and (2) period of almost ceased emissions (2014–2016). In the interval between the two studied periods, technogenic boundaries of all studied lichen species distribution have shifted closer to the smelter, and the abundance of most species increased in all pollution zones, including the slightly polluted and background zones. However, the frequency and abundance of the species still go down as the distance to the smelter decreases. The explerent species Tuckermanopsis sepincola demonstrates the opposite response: it disappears from background and slightly polluted areas reaching maximum abundance in the extremely severe pollution zone.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is grateful to D.V. Nesterkova for providing species’ distribution maps and estimating their areas and to E.L. Vorobeichik for providing data on the metal content in forest litter and helpful remarks.
Funding
This study was supported by the International Association for the Promotion of Co-operation with Scientists from the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (INTAS) (mapping of lichen communities in 1995–1997, project no. 93-1645) and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (mapping of lichen communities in 2015–2016, project no. 15-04-06828). The data collection, interpretation of results, and manuscript production were performed as part of the State Assignment of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.
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Translated by L. Emeliyanov
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Mikhailova, I.N. Dynamics of Distribution Boundaries of Epiphytic Macrolichens after Reduction of Emissions from a Copper Smelter. Russ J Ecol 53, 335–346 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1067413622050083
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1067413622050083