A. P. ABAIMOV AND HIS SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE (CELEBRATING 75^th BIRTHDAY, 18.08.1947-14.07.2006)

The article analyzes the scientific achievements and heritage of Anatoly Platonovich Abaimov, a well-known dendrologist and forester, who have made a great contribution to the study of larch Larix Mill. species in Siberia and the Far East, larch forests in the permafrost zone, as well as the features and patterns of the forest formation process in them. Anatoly P. Abaimov has substantiated the quantitative and qualitative morphological signs to distinguish larches Gmelin ( Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen.) and Cajander ( L. cajanderi Mayr), described their ecological specialization and clinal geographical variability of morphological features, proved an introgressive hybridization between these larch species. He characterized in detail the forestry and taxation specificity, ecological functions and dynamics of Siberian larch formations under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors. Anatoly P. Abaimov has marked the beginning of long-term Russian-Japanese cooperation in the field of assessing the global role of the permafrost forest ecosystems in the emission and absorption of greenhouse gases. The public and pedagogical activity of Anatoly P. Abaimov is characterized. A list of scientific papers and a list of dissertations defended under his supervision are given.

Gmelin and Cajander larch species, systematic, geography, variability, ecologic features, forest formation process, cryolithic zone of Siberia