The state and dynamics of the soil-vegetation cover on small islands of the gulf of peter the great (the Sea of Japan)

A comprehensive investigation of the current state of soil-vegetation cover has been conducted. A pattern of reconstruction of the temporal dynamics for 4 small islands in the Gulf of Peter the Great has been obtained. Sequential changes in vegetation from polydominant broad-leaved to coniferous-broad-leaved forests on Engel’m, Lavrov and Shkot Islands observed are probably bound up with climate factors in the beginning of the Late Holocene. The transition from coniferous-broad-leaved to sparse broad-leaved forest has been probably caused by recent anthropogenic influences. The coniferous-broad-leaved forests growing on podsol soils (Naumov Island) are presently dominant, what is one of characteristics of an anthropogenically transformed ecosystem.