Effect of spring grass fires on vegetation patterns and soil quality in abandoned agricultural lands at local and landscape scales in Central European Russia

Ecological Processes

Table 1 Spatial parameters of the land type categories calculated taking account of their fire history

	No of polygons	Area,%	Area, m²				Perimeter, m				Median of shape index	Nearest neighbor index
	No of polygons	Area,%	Mean	SE	Min	Max	Mean	SE	Min	Max	Median of shape index	Nearest neighbor index
Forests	339	21.5	162,742	29,722	315	5,318,829	2207	228	73	35,569	1.67	0.68
Sparse forests	49	0.8	43,039	7316	1982	250,789	974	98	136	3164	1.31	0.53
Al1	19	0.4	60,662	12,921	7290	182,535	1225	154	399	2435	1.52	0.80
Al2	433	3.9	23,226	1417	1072	299,339	769	26	141	4483	1.46	0.48
Al3	480	6.6	35,346	2233	96	492,867	940	34	58	6389	1.46	0.50
Al4	1154	28.3	62,876	3228	595	1,908,624	1192	30	114	12,913	1.45	0.55
Arable lands	305	16.1	135,224	27,117	104	5,767,192	1522	132	74	24,005	1.38	0.35
Settlements	329	14.9	116,489	17,613	103	4,102,899	1454	104	85	18,118	1.35	0.49
Meadows	443	6.3	36,203	3313	176	875,350	1244	77	60	19,743	1.72	0.51
Water bodies	93	0.5	14,278	3158	593	209,607	573	71	107	4554	1.40	0.60
Others	21	0.6	75,336	27,758	4766	481,026	1677	523	296	10,953	1.48	0.37

Al1, Al2, Al3, and Al4 are abandoned lands which differ in coverage of woody vegetation: Al1 with a uniform tree cover, Al2 with a dense tree cover in spots, Al3 with a tree cover of small density, and Al4 without trees or with a few single trees. SE is standard error of the mean; Min and Max are minimal and maximal values of the area and perimeter, respectively