Abstract

The successions in forests from Betula pendula Roth in specially protected natural areas are considered. Changes in silver birch stands were analyzed based on the materials of two rounds of forest inventory (1976 and 2018), and the dynamics of the birch stand on the permanent plot for the period 1981–2021 was studied. It was found that that the main period of degradation of silver birch stands in Betuletum pteridiosum and B. oxalidosum forest types in natural conditions falls at the age of 120–130 years. At the same time, isolated stands of birch older than 130 years were registered. In high-age silver birch forests, the classic change of birch to spruce is widespread. Spruce appears either simultaneously with the birch, or after one or two decades under its canopy. In stands older than 50 years, two layers are usually well separate. Birch dominates in the first layer, and spruce dominates in the second layer. Broadleaved species appears in B. oxalidosum forest types as part of stands and undergrowth. Moreover, their share in the composition of the lower layers increases over time, which creates preconditions for the restoration of spruce-deciduous forests through the stage of spruce forests.