Plants and birds on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk: Balance, crisis, adaptation

Mutual relationships between sea colonial birds and plants on the northern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk are considered. The birds form huge flocks on small islands thus transforming the island landscape and providing specific vegetation at nesting sites. The intensity of ornithogenic load determines different relations between the productivity of plant communities and their species richness. As a rule, flora is depleted. The plants thriving at rookeries react to the intensive action of birds by forming specific ecobiomorphs. On the islands of the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk tussocks of pine purple grass existing on the majority of nesting colonies are of the highest significance.