Spatial variability of the soil properties of the uneven-aged pine forest stands of the landscape garden of the Arkhangelsk Estate

The objects of the study are lime-pine and pine-lime park communities of different age at the Arkhangelsk Estate situated near Moscow. In this research, we study spatial variability of the soil properties depending on the type of studied soil cover parcels and with regard to areas under the crowns and near the trunks. The article shows the influence of the grass cover parcel structure on the properties of the soil. The humidity, the content of carbon and nitrogen, and basal and substrate-induced soil respiration are higher in the 120-year-old pine forest stand than in the 80-year-old one. This is explained by the fact that with the increasing age of the pine phytocenoses, we can observe an increase in diversity of species composition, complication of volumetric-spatial structure due to the overgrowth of undergrowth and understory, changes in the volume of the crown, and dying out of old trees.