Director: Chebotaryova Valentina Vasilyevna
Address: 12, Kornakovsky str., Gribanovsky district, Tellermanovsky village, Voronezh region, Russian Federation, 397206.
Phone: (47348) 3-47-04
The Tellerman experimental forestry in 1944 was the first to be included in the network of stations of ILAN RAS, covering the main natural forest zones of European Russia and areas of possible afforestation. This network was created to describe forest functioning in the unity of soil and climate, landscape and biocenotic factors.
The main landscape-biocenotic varieties of the Tellerman forest are compactly concentrated on the territory of the TOL: the catchment of the short Krutets gully, which opens to the southeast into the floodplain of the Khopyor River and along the upper edge of the floodplain plateau, topped by two solonetz glades. From the edges of the solonetz glades deep into the floodplain plateau, the forest grew from low-growing, and on the lower edges of the flanking shrub oaks to 30-meter trees, which are the pride of the array. The total area of the forestry unit is 2,027 hectares. Of these, non-forest lands (salt meadows, hayfields, croplands and lakes, homesteads, etc.) account for 155 ha. About 67% of the forested area of the TOL is occupied by highly productive upland forests, mainly ash-and-duber forests on dark gray forest loam, located at 150 m above sea level. Floodplain forests and talniks account for ~14%. The remaining forested area (~19%) is occupied by slope forests. All TOL forests are classified as Specially Valuable Forest Landscapes. Of these, 50 ha were designated as “Nature Monument” in 1989 (old-growth oak groves “Golden Fund”).
The main emphasis of the first studies was the study of the water regime of oakwoods, started by SV. Zonn and V.N. Mina simultaneously with the general description of the relief, soils and forests of the Tellerman massif. Particular attention was paid to comparing the water regime of the soil of neighboring forest and steppe lands. In the 1950s, an inventory of the TOL forests was completed. A soil map of the experimental forestry was created (SV Zonn). Vertical topographic survey of TOL territory was conducted (L.A. Shaposhnikova, V.F. Kharitonova). Forest types of the Tellerman Grove were described (I.N. Elagin, SV Zonn, A.A. Matveeva, A.P. Petrov). I.N. Elagin produced a map of TOL forest types. E.I. Enkova mapped the distribution of early and late forms.of oak, their relationships in oak forests.
Since the middle of the last century, the Russian school of forestry has consistently developed a view of the forest as a unity of all natural phenomena: climate-landscape-soil-vegetation-animals. The term “biogeocenosis,” coined by V.N. Sukachev, reflects this unity of living and indwelling nature. The biogeocenological direction becomes the main one in the work of the Institute and its permanent expeditionary team in the TOL. The largest volume of biogeocenotic research at TOL was carried out under the leadership of A.A. Molchanov, who described all aspects of forest functioning as a system: water balance, mass balance, energy exchange not only for individual forest types, but also for the entire landscape complex of the experimental forestry – Krutets gully watershed. Since 1952, in parallel with biogeocenological studies, an impressive cycle of silvicultural and silvicultural experiments has been developed in TOL. The experiments on thinning give excellent results.
A 10-year wave of mass desiccation of upland oak groves, which started in 1969-1972, affected the most advantageous demonstration objects of TOL. The desiccation by 1980 nullified efforts to increase the productivity of upland oak woodlands through thinning and equaled the performance of the control and experimental areas. The station lost its significance as a model demonstration site. In 1982, S. E. Vompersky, who became the director of ILAN RAS, creates a new research group to investigate the causes of the desiccation of the Tellerman oak forests. The group is headed by V.V. Osipov. A new cycle of comprehensive research into the functioning, productivity and sustainability of TOL oak forests and generally the oak forests of the Central Russian forest-steppe began.
The leitmotif of this wave of research remained the water regime of oak forests, which determined the continuity of the new stage of work. In connection with the analysis of water regime of oak trees and oak reactions to drought, ecological-physiological studies (transpiration, gas exchange, primary productivity of photosynthesis, etc.) are gaining more and more weight. A.G. Molchanov, who since 1982 headed this direction, has concentrated his efforts on exact methods of recording C02-gas exchange, transpiration and light regime of plantations. He and under his leadership (Yu.A. Gopius, N.G. Zhirenko, V.V. Mamaev) measured the intensity of photosynthesis, oak trunk and soil respiration, transpiration intensity with description of daily and seasonal dynamics of these processes. Studies of root systems, started in TOL V.N. Mina, continues V.V. Mamaev. His systematic long-term observations are aimed primarily at estimating the mass of functional (active) and thin conducting roots of woody plants, their growth, decay and distribution in the thickness of soil-forming loam. The development of the problem of oak wood desiccation led to the development of phytopathological studies. The dynamics of desiccation and regeneration of affected oak trees was traced (G.V. Lindeman, V.I. Stukalova, N.N. Selochnik, A.F. Ilyushenko), the concept of a chain of causes and consequences in the development of this syndrome was formed (A.A. Molchanov, G.V. Lindeman, N.N. Rubtsova and V.V. Rubtsov, N.N. Selochnik, V.V. Osipov). A special place among complex studies of biogeosystemic plan is occupied by the direction related to modeling of “population dynamics” of phyllophagous insects and processes of tree regeneration after injuries. Having started back in the early years of TOL (E.G. Minina, A.Y. Polozova), it is successfully continued until now. Comprehensive studies of the conjugate dynamics of phyllophage insect density, defoliation and refoliation of oak, accompanying physiological processes on the background of fluctuations of hydrometeorological parameters are led by V.V. Rubtsov.
With all the abundance and diversity of research directions in TOL, they are still united by the idea of biogeocenotic, ecosystem-based forest research. In recent years, it is again particularly relevant in connection with the study of the carbon cycle, in which the ecosystem acts as a whole, fixing, storing and returning carbon to the atmosphere.
Many scientists worked at the Tellerman Experimental Forestry, who left a notable mark in the study of forests in Russia: in forest science and silviculture, dendrology, botany, forest ecology, forest genetics and breeding, etc. According to the results of research in the TOL published 10 monographs and over 600 scientific communications. A brief overview of the main publications, which will help the reader to find the necessary literature and the names of researchers who dealt with certain issues, can be found in the work “Ecosystems of the Tellerman Forest” by a team of scientists from ILAN RAS.
