A.V. Dimitriev1, M.P. Shilov2
1Cheboksary Branch of the Main Botanical Garden named after N.V. Tsitsin of the Russian Academy of Science, prosp. I. Yakovleva, 31, Cheboksary, 428027, Russian Federation
2Ivanovo State Agricultural Academy D.K. Belyaev, ul. Sovetskaya, 45, Ivanovo, 153012, Russian Federation
Abstract. It was generalized and analysed information about semicultures (half-cultures) as an effective agro-potential of Russia. We processed the results of our own expedition observations of semicultures in 1970–2018 in the central part of Russia and in the Far East, of experimental studies in the meadows of Vladimir and Ivanovo regions, as well as the results of experiments on the introduction and acclimatization of plants. Database materials of the Russian State Library on the history of the formation and use of semicultures were analysed. Semicultures are considered as consciously or spontaneously developed natural communities, or artificially created populations of economically valuable plants, which successfully function for a long time and give sustainable yield without care (or with minimal care and costs). It was established that mankind effectively utilized semicultures from the earliest times, and they continue to play an important role in the agoindustrial complex. It was revealed that ecological plasticity, habitat versatility, drought and frost resistance, the ability to optimize the habitat, high seed production, a large supply of seeds in the soil, etc. are typical for semicultures. It was shown that semicultures are energy-efficient, highly diverse populations and communities (by life forms, species composition, structure), used primarily in extensive forms of management. For Russia, three-quarters of the territory of which is located in extreme conditions for agriculture, with its 40 million hectares of fallow land, semicultures are becoming relevant. The future of civilization is seen not in the full transition of the biosphere into the noosphere, as usually noospherologists interpret, but in the harmonious combination of the biosphere, the noosphere and the transition zone – tonospere, presented by semiculture communities. With the optimal combination of cultures and semicultures high efficiency in the economy of the agroindustrial complex and in harmony with the biosphere will be achieved; in the case of violation, costs of production, environmental violations, problems in the biosphere and conservation of biodiversity will be inevitable.
Keywords: semicultures; half-cultures; classification of semicultures; meadows; forest-garden; biosphere; noosphere; tonosphere.
Author Details: A.V. Dimitriev, Cand. Sc. (boil.), director, (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.), M.P. Shilov, Cand. Sc. (boil.), assoc. prof. (e-mail: Этот адрес электронной почты защищён от спам-ботов. У вас должен быть включен JavaScript для просмотра.).
For citation: Dimitriev A.V., Shilov M.P. Semiculture: History, Distribution, Types, Technology, Role in the Agroindustrial Complex, Biosphere and Noosphere. Dostizheniya nauki i tekhniki APK. 2018. Vol. 32. No. 9. Pp. 12–16 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.24411/0235-2451-2018-10903.