Natural Disturbances Regime as a Factor of Korean Pine-Broadleaved Forest Stand Shaping in the South of the Russian Far East

Using dendroecological approach, the authors reconstructed disturbance history of a mixed Korean pine-broadleaved stand in the south of the Russian Far East. Their results show that during the last two centuries there were no mass disturbances, which may lead to canopy destruction and change of the tree species composition. The main drivers of natural dynamics of the stand were small- and middle-size gaps, and they determine current tree species abundance in the stand. They revealed 20-years periodicity in occurrence of trees growth releases, connected with gaps formation. The stand was formed only under natural disturbances (without fires, loggings and catastrophic disturbances) during at least 1000-1200 years.