Vegetation Cover Monitoring

The plant cover of the Nizhne-Koshelevsky hydrothermal field area (Southern Kamchatka) was studied 20 years after being damaged by prospecting and exploratory drilling. Siberian dwarf-pine and dwarf-alder elfin woods were replaced by secondary herb- and grass communities. Sub-alpine meadows and mountain tundra were replaced by sparse alpine herbs and dwarf-shrub heath. The duration of the vegetation cover regeneration seems to be more than 50–100 years. It depends on the primary vegetation type, the type of damage and the degree of soil disturbance. The three-layer vegetation cover monitoring system including aerial image interpretation, sample plots and transects analysis, and recurrent vegetation survey on permanent plots was elaborated.