Assessment of ecosystem functions of urban forests in terms of soil and trees

Abstract

Forests in the cities of the Angara region (Irkutsk, Angarsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye), exposed to aerotechnogenic pollution and recreational load of varying degrees of intensity, were surveyed. In pine and pine-birch forests on natural gray forest soils, 27 sample plots were studied. The current state of the urban environment was assessed by a set of morphostructural, physico-chemical and toxicological indicators of tree plantations (pine, larch, birch) and gray forest soils - the main habitat-forming components. For the first time on the basis of the obtained data and assessment of ecosystem functions of soil cover and tree plantations the results of studies on purification of atmospheric air and preservation of phyto-pedocenoses in the urban environment are presented. The study of biogeochemical redistribution of flows of aerotechnogenic pollutants in urban forests revealed the degree of manifestation of the most important ecosystem function of the soil cover - the ability to accumulate and detoxify man-made pollutants and the function of woody plants - the ability to clean atmospheric air by accumulating toxicants in the needles and leaves. The results obtained made it possible to judge about the sustainability of woody plants and soils of urban forests, about the possibility of purification and restoration of the urban environment.