The Polyzonality of Local Geo(Eco)Systems as a Way of Their Response to Global Climate Change

The first step towards the knowledge of the local mechanisms of global changes included methodical construction with the working title: “Empirical simulation of the regional bioclimatic trend by local ecosystems.” With this purpose, two experimental test sites characterizing zonal transitions from forest to steppe were used to reveal the regularities of refraction of zonal–regional bioclimatic background by local geomorphological and hydroedaphic factors. The above phenomenon was shown to result in the formation of regional systems of local zonality. They include vector series of flat-interfluve biogeocoenoses reflecting the zonal–regional background of the territory and extrazonal topo-ecosystems as representatives of other zonal types of environment. These spatially ordered systems of local zonality are adequate to the vector of predicted climatic changes and therefore able to simulate the main directions and scales of ecosystem reconstructions. Within each regional ecosystem, forest communities are clearly differentiated by their varied zonal affiliations, so that the functional and structural transitions of local ecosystems must adequately reflect the background shifts of the zonal–regional bioclimatic system. The changes of zonal facies groups may be a basis of assessing the extent to which local metamorphoses are able to transform the whole zonal–regional background of the given territory under the effect of this or that climatic trend.