American Research Journal of Earth Science Volume 1, Issue 1, pp: 1-43 Research Article Open Access Insular-Arc Volcanic Ecosystems as Centres of Forming the New Parts of Continental Biosphere (by the example of South-Kuril Insular Ridge) Erland G. Kolomyts Institute of Ecology of the
[email protected] River Basin,Russian Academy of Sciences,10 Komzina str., Togliatti, 445003, Russia Abstract: The empirical statistical models of the island-arc stage of continental biosphere development in the North-West Pacific have been created by the example of regional bioclimatic system and experimental testsite near the active Mendeleev Volcano on the Kunashir Island (the South Kuril Ridge). The causal mechanisms of the known geographical phenomenon of insular extratropical Neo-Pacific, i.e., the general descent of the boundaries of altitudinal bioclimatic zones and the southward shift of natural zones on islands compared to the neighboring continents, are discussed. The phenomenal feature of bioclimatic system at the stage of insular landscape formation is the direct subordination of phytobiota to vertical hydrothermal gradients. It forms a system of future altitudinal zonality of the continent already within a frame-work of low-mountain island-arc landscape.It was shown that on this stage local geomorphological conditions created the centers of origin of diverse phytocoenological and soil structures of the higher (zonal-regional) levelat the initial stages of continental biosphere development. An exceptionally important backbone role of forest phytobiota in the establishment and development of young volcanic landscapes was demonstrated. Theoptimizingstrategyprogramfor the development of plant communities, which is aimed at the maximum biomass formation on forest island-arc landscapes, is much more marked compared to their zonal analogs on the neighboring continent.