Evstigneev O.I., Solonina O.V.
RJEE Vol. 5 (1). 2020 | DOI: 10.21685/2500-0578-2020-1-3
Abstract | PDF (Eng) | Additional files
Receipt date 21.01.2020 | Publication date 26.03.2020
O. I. Evstigneev1, O. V. Solonina1, 2
1 State Nature Reserve “Bryanskii Les”, Nerussa Station, Bryansk Oblast, 242180, Russia
E-mail: quercus_eo@mail.ru
2 Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 84/32 Profsojuznaya street, Moscow, 117485, Russia
E-mail: caniformia@mail.ru
Abstract. The European badger takes part in creating intracenotic and intercenotic flows of plant diaspores. This is evidenced by the fact that its diet includes plant species belonging to different communities, i.e. forest, meadow, marsh and water communities. Badgers move plant diaspores in three different ways: endozoochory, epizoochory, and synzoochory. Therefore seeds of the maximum number of plant species with various adaptations for zoochory are involved in diaspore flows. It has been proved that badgers can move large amount of diaspores over a distance of one kilometer, and in smaller amounts – up to two or three kilometers. Because of the badgers’ foraging and construction activities, the species diversity of vascular plants in their settlements has increased by one and half times. Thanks to badgers, the plant species composition of the community becomes mixed. Plant species of the meadow, black alder, boreal and piny ecological-coenotic groups co-dominate in the ground cover of nemoral forests. Badgers searching for food disturb the soil cover and create a mosaic of the ground vegetation cover throughout the family’s habitat which amounts to several hundred hectares. This heterogeneity includes three types of microcommunities: 1) with a predominance of vegetatively immobile annual and biennial plants of the ruderal group (Alliaria petiolata, Geranium robertianum, Lactuca serriola, Moehringia trinervia, Polygonum convolvulus, etc.); 2) with a predominance of vegetatively mobile perennials of the ruderal group (Galium odoratum, Glechoma hederacea and Stellaria holostea), and with a significant participation of phytocenotically tolerant plants (Asarum europaeum, Polygonatum multiflorum, Pulmonaria obscura, Viola mirabilis, etc.); 3) with a predominance of the vegetatively mobile perennials of the competition group (Aegopodium podagraria, Carex pilosa, and Convallaria majalis). This sequence of microcommunities is a microsucession. Competitive species are the driving force of group development as they gradually crowd out ruderal and tolerant plant species. Competitive species can become a dominant in the ground vegetation cover for a long time. However, the badgers’ use of the community territory according to the “shift” system occasionally interrupts these unidirectional microsuccesions. The disturbances created by badgers and cyclical microsuccesions maintain the multispecies composition in the herbaceous cover of forest communities. These facts indicate that earlier the badger was an edificator (key species) in the ground vegetation of undisturbed biocenotic cover. Recently, however, due to overhunting and relentless poachers’ attacks, the badger has become a rare endangered species. This animal is not an active environment-transforming part of the community anymore and it as good as stopped active moving of plant diaspores, which is needed for coenotic restoration.
Keywords: European badger, Meles meles, zoochory, species diversity of communities, environmental transformation, mosaic of ground vegetation cover, microcommunities, microsucession, coniferous-deciduous forest.
Acknowledgments. The authors express their gratitude to V. N. Korotkov, A. V. Gornov and E. F. Sitnikova for manuscript review and critical comments as well as to N. V. Sidorchuk for advice. Particular gratitude is expressed to Alexey Subbotin, the animal painter, for his permission to use his excellent drawing “Badgers” in our article. The research by post-graduate student O. V. Solonina was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 19–34–90032) and was also carried out within the state assignment of the Сenter for Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Methodological approaches to assessing the structural organization and functioning of forest ecosystems” (the state registration number AAAA-A18-118052400130-7).
For citation: Evstigneev O.I., Solonina O.V. Phytocenotic portrait of the european badger. Russian Journal of Ecosystem Ecology. 2020;5(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.21685/2500-0578-2020-1-3