Evolutionary Characteristics of Morphogenetic Types of Moss Litter in Swamp Spruce Forests

Abstract

We identified five types of moss litter in a green moss–hypnum spruce forest during alloevolution (metamorphosis) according to the habitat: peat, peaty, reduced peaty, high-ash peaty, and reduced high-ash peaty litters. During the self-development (autoevolution) of the litter, the transformation of plant matter occurs in four stages: (1) leaf (background) stage, (2) peat- and peaty-fermentative stage (browning, destruction of the litter fall and formation of platy macroaggregates), (3) humified-fermentative stage (formation of colloidal humus plasma and granular organogenic macroaggregates), and (4) the black mold humus stage (formation of colloidal humus plasma and organo-mineral humus nutty and granular macroaggregates). It was found that peat litters undergo only the initial stages of plant substrate transformation (1 and 2). The genetic profile of peaty litter is formed by three unidirectional processes (1, 2, and 3). High-ash peaty litter undergoes all the stages of plant matter transformation. The reduced analogs of peaty and high-ash peaty litter bedding were found to bypass the transitional stage 2.