-
Article
Impact of Litter Burning on Alpine Festuca varia Grasslands of the Northwestern Caucasus
Fires play an important role in structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, but their long-term impact on the composition and structure of plant communities in humid high mountain regions remains poorly ...
-
Article
Chemical Composition of Plant Leaves as a Functional Trait of the Formation of Alpine Plant Communities
Contents of C, N, and P and N : P and C : N ratios in plant leaves have been studied in four alpine phytocenoses of the northwestern Caucasus to find out whether the species encountered in these areas differ i...
-
Article
Organic Matter Content and Standard Material Decomposition Rate in Soils of High-Mountain Plant Communities of the Teberda National Park
Soils of high mountains significantly differ in the soil organic matter (SOM) content, but the factors of such diversity are still not completely known. We have studied physicochemical and microbiological soil...
-
Article
Open Access15N Natural Abundance of Soil Microbial Biomass in Alpine and Tundra Ecosystems
Isotopic composition of nitrogen in soil microbial biomass (δ15Nmicr) is connected with the transformation of nitrogen compounds and with the balance of carbon and nitrogen availability for microorganisms. We hav...
-
Article
Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation by Legumes in Alpine Ecosystems: a Vegetation Experiment
The natural nitrogen-15 abundance method does not always make it possible to calculate the rate of symbiotic nitrogen fixation by legumes and needs to be improved. Five legume species typical for the alpine be...
-
Article
Soils and Nitrogen Nutrition of Plants in Alpine Ecosystems of the Northwest Caucasus under Long-Term Increase in Availability of Biogenic Elements
An experiment with the enrichment of acid organic-rich mountain-meadow soils (Umbric Leptosols) of alpine ecosystems with mineral nutrients has demonstrated that the contents of organic carbon, total nitrogen,...
-
Article
Dependence of Soil Properties under Alpine Lichen Heath Community on the Soil Water Content and the Presence of Vaccinium vitis-idaea
An increasing participation of dwarf shrubs and shrubs in plant communities of alpine meadows and a tendency to a decrease in summer precipitation in mountain regions determine the relevance of assessing the r...
-
Article
The Effect of Ericoid Mycorrhizal and Ectomycorrhizal Plants on Soil Properties of Grass Meadow in Tundra of the Khibiny Mountains
The study of the effect of plants with different type of mycorrhizal symbiosis on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus transformation in soils is important in view of the necessity to predict changes in nutrient c...
-
Article
Isotopic Composition of Carbon in Humus Acids of Albic Retisols and Luvic Chernozems
Carbon isotope ratios in soil organic matter are often used in paleoecological research for reconstructing climate and plant communities (type of photosynthesis). The difficulties in interpreting isotopic data...
-
Article
Nitrogen Nutrition of Plants in an Alpine Lichen Heath under the Conditions of Soil Enrichment with Biogenic Elements
The results of a long-term experiment on the enrichment of the soil (Umbric Leptosol) of an alpine lichen heath with biogenic elements have shown that calcium addition and reduction of soil acidity do not chan...
-
Article
Nitrogen Isotopes in Soils and Plants of Tundra Ecosystems in the Khibiny Mountains
The isotopic composition of nitrogen in soils and plants may be an indicator of transformation of its compounds and sources of N nutrition of plants. Natural 15N abundance (δ15N) was determined in soils (the tota...
-
Article
Isotopic Composition of Nitrogen and Transformation of Nitrogen Compounds in Meadow-Alpine Soils
Isotopic composition of nitrogen in soils can be an informative indicator of N transformation processes and sources of N nutrition of plants, but data on δ15N of labile N compounds are scarce. It is shown that N ...
-
Article
The Effect of Vaccinium vitis-idaea on Properties of Mountain-Meadow Soil under Alpine Lichen Heath
Abstract—The study of the effect of mycorrhiza symbiosis on the transformation of carbon and nitrogen compounds in soils is important in view of the necessity to predict variations in the cycles of nutrients unde...
-
Article
Transformation of Nitrogen Compounds in Soils of Mountain Tundra Ecosystems in the Khibiny
The content of nitrogen compounds and processes of nitrogen mineralization and nitrification were studied in the soils of four tundra ecosystems in the Khibiny Mountains. The results obtained demonstrate the d...
-
Article
Effect of the storage conditions of soil samples on carbon and nitrogen extractability
Concentrations of carbon and nitrogen extractable by 0.05 M K2SO4 (Cext and Next, respectively) in 14 soils of different ecosystems vary from 16 to 205 and from 4 to 53 mg/kg, respectively. The portion of Cext in...
-
Article
Determination of carbon and nitrogen in microbial biomass of southern-Taiga soils by different methods
The results of methods for determining microbial biomass carbon vary in reproducibility among soils. The fumigation-extraction and substrate-induced respiration methods give similar results for Albic Luvisol a...
-
Article
Freeze-thaw effect on the processes of transformation of carbon and nitrogen compounds in alpine meadow soils
Freezing-thawing of alpine meadow soils results in a 1.5- to 2-fold increase in the contents of extractable organic and inorganic nitrogen and organic carbon compounds, whereas the contents of microbial biomas...
-
Article
Influence of drying of the samples on the transformation of nitrogen and carbon compounds in mountain-meadow alpine soils
The drying of samples of mountain-meadow soils characterized by their permanently high moisture under natural conditions fundamentally changes the concentrations of the labile nitrogen and carbon compounds, as...
-
Article
Solubility of the labile forms of soil carbon and nitrogen in K2SO4 of different concentrations
The general pattern of the changes in the solubility of the labile carbon and nitrogen compounds with the changes in the concentration of the salt extractant (0.05 and 0.5 M K2SO4) has been determined for soils d...
-
Article
Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the alpine community of a lichen heath of the Northwestern Caucasus Region (the Teberda Reserve)
The symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by leguminous plants in the alpine community of a lichen heath at the Teberda State Biosphere Reserve is well adapted to low soil temperature characteristic for t...
