The effects of large herbivore grazing on meadow steppe plant and insect diversity

Trifolium rubens is a Central European forest-steppe plant species reaching its eastern distribution limit in Ukraine and listed in the Red Book of Ukraine (2009).Our study was carried out in 2016–2020 and aimed to analyze the distribution of T. rubens in Ukraine, to identify the composition of phytocoenoses with T. rubens, and to evaluate the current state of its populations in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. The distribution of this species was analyzed based on data obtained from the field surveys, literature, online resources, and herbaria. In total, 78 localities of T. rubens were analyzed. Trifolium rubens was found to be distributed in Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine. Two of these regions (Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi) were not mentioned before in the Red Book of Ukraine. The presence of T. rubens in Volyn, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions is doubtful and not confirmed by recent data. Most localities of this species are known from Zakarpattia and Lviv regions.Three new localities were found in the Beregovo district of the Zakarpattia region in the foothills of the Volcanic Carpathians. The floristic compositions of the plant communities and ontogenetic structure of T. rubens populations in Beregovo and Mukachevo districts of the Zakarpattia region were investigated. Investigated populations are isolated with a dispersed disposition of plants on large areas. Trifolium rubens occurs here in meadow-steppe and meadow areas, on hillsides, and also participate in mesoxerophilous secondary (semi-natural) shrub communities in anthropogenically transformed areas. Often such populations are situated along pathways, on forest edges and fallow lands, and associated with ecotones of Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei class. All studied populations were incomplete with the domination of generative shoots.

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Comparative assessment of Western Podolia meadow steppes (Ukraine) based on the synphytoindication method

Hacquetia ◽

10.2478/hacq-2020-0018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 197-216

Author(s):

Henadii M. Lysenko ◽

Ivan M. Danylyk ◽

Svitlana M. Iemelianova ◽

Liubov M. Borsukevych ◽

Svitlana V. Sosnovska

Keyword(s):

Soil Acidity ◽

Ecological Factors ◽

Carbonate Content ◽

Numerical Classification ◽

Meadow Steppe ◽

Differential Impact ◽

Steppe Communities ◽

Steppe Plant ◽

Study Sites ◽

Steppe Plant Communities

Abstract The aim of our study is to establish the determinant ecological factors that have the greatest differential impact on the distribution of meadow steppe plant communities of Western Podolia (Ukraine) on the base of a synphytoindication analysis. There were 8 study sites within the study area in the L’viv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. To determine the coenotic affinity of the studied species, 48 relevés were analyzed. Numerical classification based on the Modified TWINSPAN algorithm divided the dataset into five clusters, which have been identified as the associations Pastinaco sativae-Arrhenatheretum elatioris, Geranio sanguinei-Trifolietum alpestris, Inuletum ensifoliae, Jurineo calcareae-Stipetum capillatae and Lembotropio nigricans-Potentilletum arenariae. The results of gradient analyses indicate that the distribution of meadow steppe communities in the Podolia Upland closely correlates with a number of climatic (thermoregime and continentality of climate) and especially edaphic (soil humidity, soil acidity and carbonate content) ecological factors.

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Resource-mediated effects of grazing and irrigation on insect diversity in a meadow steppe

Insect Conservation and Diversity ◽

10.1111/icad.12304 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 29-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hui Zhu ◽

Wenhui Wang ◽

Yekuan Qu ◽

Jun Fu ◽

Siqi Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Insect Diversity ◽

Meadow Steppe ◽

Mediated Effects

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Large Herbivore Ecology, Ecosystem Dynamics and Conservation

10.1017/cbo9780511617461 ◽

2006 ◽

Cited By ~ 61

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Dynamics ◽

Large Herbivore

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Insect diversity for ecosystem services — Indian perspective

10.1603/ice.2016.105595 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Kailash Chandra

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Insect Diversity ◽

Indian Perspective

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Effects of land use and plant diversity on insect diversity and consequences for ecosystem functioning

10.1603/ice.2016.90841 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Wolfgang Weisser

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Ecosystem Functioning ◽

Insect Diversity ◽

Effects Of Land Use

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Syntaxonomic changes in the plant cover of meadow steppe in the «Mikhailovskaya Tselina» reserve (Sumy Region, Ukraine)

Vegetation of Russia ◽

10.31111/vegrus/2006.09.43 ◽

2006 ◽

pp. 43-57 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

H. N. Lysenko ◽

I. A. Korotchenko

Keyword(s):

Nature Reserve ◽

Plant Cover ◽

Ecological Factors ◽

Single Species ◽

Meadow Steppe ◽

Total Species

Changes in the set of syntaxa have been traced for the plant cover of the «Mikhaylovskaya Tselina» meadow-steppe (an isolated part of the Ukrainian Steppe Nature Reserve, Sumy Region, Ukraine) with the help of the Braun-Blanquet approach. The area vegetation syntaxa prodromus includes 2 classes, 2 rders, 3 alliances, 9 associations, and 6 subassociations, 2 of the latter described anew. The plant cover is highly dynamic and undergoes expressed mesophytization, especially within the area where strict protection has been maintained since 1961. Amplitudes of the principal ecological factors and also peculiarities of their shift under exogenic regulation are determined with the help of the method of synecological phytoindication (i. e. not single species but total species sets of communities serve as indicators). The essential transformations of the reserve meadow steppes are probably caused by the «insular» character of the reserve, its small size, also by the poorness of the set of natural grazers and hence the inadequacy of regulation by means of mowing.

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