The impact of recreational pressure on urban pine forest vegetation in Riga city, Latvia

 Abstract: - The article focuses on the analysis of impact of recreational pressure on Myrtillosa type pine forest vegetation in Riga city, Latvia. The composition of the plant communities, projective coverage of tree, shrub, herb and moss layer as well as the coverage of each separate species and plant strategy types has been evaluated. All urban Myrtillosa type pine forests can be divided into two groups - unimpacted and impacted pine forests. Insignificant changes of forest environment are preserved in in three plant communities 1 - Pyrola rotundifolia-Pinus sylvestris (Bulli and Mangalsala), 2 - Pleurozium schreberii-Pinus sylvestris (Bolderaja, Jaunciems and Smerlis), 3 - Calamagrostis epigeios-Pinus sylvestris (Jugla and Bikernieki). Significant changes and degradation are observed in other three plant communities of impacted pine forests: 4 - Amelanchier spicata-Pinus sylvestris (Kleisti, Katlakalns, Sampeteris and Ulbroka), 5 - Acer platanoides-Pinus sylvestris (Imanta); 6 - Cotoneaster lucidus-Pinus sylvestris (Mezaparks, Vecdaugava and Babelite. Vegetation analyses didn't confirm the predicted model of spatial distribution of forest recreational visits/year on foot. Further research is needed in order to obtain more precise results that take into consideration the missing parameters of environmental, site and social attributes.