SOIL MESOFAUNA OF COMPOUND SPRUCE FOREST AND ITS CHANGES CAUSED BY FOREST CUTTING AND ALTERNATION OF SPECIES
Three groups of invertebrates - Insecta, Myriapoda, Lumbricidae (placed in dominating order) - inhabited the mesofauna of compound spruce forests and places of cutting. The regeneration of the forest in the places of cutting is followed by the changes of tree and plant species. The undergrowth of spruce, oak, linden appearing on the paces of cutting, stimulates the growth of necessary stands. Species and their complexes were defined in different groups of soil mesofauna which may serve as quantitative and qualitative indicators of changes of soil and forest conditions that occur during forest devastation and further regeneration of cutover stands. It is directly connected with the problems of protection and regeneration of the ecosystems. Understanding of such processes allows to determine the term of planting, to choose species, to predict perspective depredators and to schedule of silvicultural and forest-protection procedures.