Effect of the Rooting Activity of Wild Boar Sus scrofa on Plant Communities in the Middle Taiga of Western Siberia

Wild boar is an ecological engineer whose feeding activity can significantly influence the structure and composition of plant communities. The purpose of this study was to analyze the restoration of plant cover on wild boar rootings in areas recently colonized by wild boar in the north of Western Siberia compared to other parts of its range. The data were collected in four types of plant communities typical for the middle taiga subzone in Western Siberia. The rooting activity of wild boar led to a decrease in the projective cover and species richness of the herbaceous–dwarf-shrub and moss–lichen layers in the forest communities in the middle taiga of Western Siberia. The plant cover on the rootings was regenerated only by species that are typical of the original plant community. Unlike most other parts of the range of wild boar, in our study area we did not observe an increase in floristic species richness due to colonization or rootings by explerent plant species. This probably resulted from the initial low species richness of the northern plant communities.