Features of Vegetation Restoration after the Eruption of 1907 Ksudach Caldera in the South of the Kamchatka Peninsula

The flora and vegetation of the hard-to-reach Ksudach caldera complex (Kamchatka) was first studied by S.Yu. Grishin with colleagues in the early 90s of the 20th century. After 25 years, complex routing studies were completed, supplemented by interpretation of aerial photographs. It was established that the formation of vegetation within the caldera Ksudach (Kamchatka) after 109 years after the catastrophic eruption of the Shtubel cone in March 1907 is extremely uneven. The slowest recovery is in the territories where the layer of fallen tephra is maximal, the active movement of the pyroclastic cover continues under the influence of reliefforming processes – erosion, deflation, lahars and landslides and landslips forming, etc., there is a moisture deficit and there are no nearby sources of primordia plant. One of these sites is the western part of the caldera, represented by pumice desert, sparsely populated pioneer plant species and some shrubs, which still passes the initial stage of primary succession. In the rest of the inner part of the caldera Ksudach and slopes of the Shtubel cone tested active demutational processes that mark continuous step primary succession to form vegetation folded various embodiments of integrated meadow and mountain-tundra shrub communities with inclusion bush forms Alnus fruticosa and, to a lesser extent, Betula ermanii. In these processes Pinus pumila does not play a significant role.

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