Assessment of Soil Quality for Biodiversity Conservation in Boreal Forest Ecosystems

*Galina N. Koptsik and Svetlana Yu. Livantsova, Soil Science Faculty, Moscow State University, Moscow 119899, Russia; Serguei V. Koptsik, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, Moscow 119899, Russia. *Corresponding author: [email protected] ABSTRACT Soil conservation has fundamental significance for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land use. Variations in soil types within the National Natural Park “Russian North”, European Russia, were analyzed to secure habitat diversity. Forest soils differed greatly in O and A layer thickness, organic C content, total elements, acidity, and exchangeable cations. Improving of soil properties in a range: podzol, podzolic soil, dernopodzolic soil, brown earth, pararendzina lead to growing diversity and changes in floristical composition of phytocoenoses, followed by changing pine and spruce forests to mixed and birch forests. The ordination of the major species diversity variables was highly related to soil pH and thickness of A horizon, suggesting that pH and organic matter content are the best soil related predictors of species diversity parameters. Evidence from the relationships between soil and plant species diversity suggests that soil quality management could be used to maintain compositional stability at forest ecosystems.