[Succession caused by beaver (Castor fiber L.) life activity: II. A refined Markov model].

Abstract

The refined Markov model of cyclic zoogenic successions caused by beaver (Castor fiber L.) life activity represents a discrete chain of the following six states: flooded forest, swamped forest, pond, grassy swamp, shrubby swamp, and wet forest, which correspond to certain stages of succession. Those stages are defined, and a conceptual scheme of probable transitions between them for one time step is constructed from the knowledge of beaver behaviour in small river floodplains of "Bryanskii Les" Reserve. We calibrated the corresponding matrix of transition probabilities according to the optimization principle: minimizing differences between the model outcome and reality; the model generates a distribution of relative areas corresponding to the stages of succession, that has to be compared to those gained from case studies in the Reserve during 2002-2006. The time step is chosen to equal 2 years, and the first-step data in the sum of differences are given various weights, w (between 0 and 1). The value of w = 0.2 is selected due to its optimality and for some additional reasons. By the formulae of finite homogeneous Markov chain theory, we obtained the main results of the calibrated model, namely, a steady-state distribution of stage areas, indexes of cyclicity, and the mean durations (M(j)) of succession stages. The results of calibration give an objective quantitative nature to the expert knowledge of the course of succession and get a proper interpretation. The 2010 data, which are not involved in the calibration procedure, enabled assessing the quality of prediction by the homogeneous model in short-term (from the 2006 situation): the error of model area distribution relative to the distribution observed in 2010 falls into the range of 9-17%, the best prognosis being given by the least optimal matrices (rejected values of w). This indicates a formally heterogeneous nature of succession processes in time. Thus, the refined version of the homogeneous Markov chain has not eliminated all the contradictions between the model results and expert knowledge, which suggests a further model development towards a "logically inhomogeneous" version or/and refusal to postulate the Markov property in the conceptual scheme of succession.