Meadows and pastures in the agricultural landscapes of the Karelian province of the Middle Taiga zone of the North-West of Russia

In order to take into account the territorial differences of natural and economic conditions, to identify biological and ecological patterns, the agro-landscape and ecological zoning of natural forage lands (NFL) of the North-Western natural and economic region of the Russian Federation has been developed. The Karelian province occupies 23% of the area in the north of the Leningrad region, bordering Karelia and Finland. The Karelian province is located in the western part of the Middle Taiga zone, which is characterized by Eastern European Middle Taiga plains. Most of the area of the province (65%) is covered by forests. Agricultural land occupies only 4% of the total area of the province. Including arable land – 2%, hayfields and pastures – 1% each. The territory of the province is significantly moistened and swampy. Swamps occupy 11% of the area, under water – about 11%. Shrubs occupy 3% of the area of the province, other land – about 6%. The structure of NFL is dominated (53%) by normally moistened dry-grass grasslands on sod-podzolic soils. Fine-grained sweet-scented and finegrained grasslands with a large participation of various grasses are common. The yield of hay is 9–13 c/ha, feed is 70 c/ha. Grass-mixed grass and grass-sedge-mixed grass lowland and swampy meadows on swamp-podzolic soils occupy 44%. Grass stands with the dominance of the sod pike are common. Swampy depressions are occupied by large-seeded grass stands. The yield of hay is 10–15 c/ha, feed is 9–11 c/ha. The ecological state of the province's landscapes is satisfactory-tense.