Demutation of the Volga meadow steppes in a reserve
The paper deals with the problem of restoring rare communities of meadow steppes after plowing using the example of the Volga forest-steppe state nature reserve. The author has studied 9 uneven-age deposits in three forest-steppe protected areas: Kuncherovsky 5, Poperechensky 2 and Ostrovtsovsky 2. The study of deposits of different ages was carried out by the method of periodic large-scale geobotanical mapping using modern GIS-technologies. Maps of vegetation of different scale (1:5000, 1:10000, 1:25000) have been created. Deposits areas that adjoined to the virgin steppe were studied by a method of geobotanical profiling. At the same time, profiles (out of 1025 sample plots of 4 m in size) were laid at a distance of 10 m from each other. About 500 geobotanical descriptions were made at 9 different-age deposits at different times. Restoration of meadow steppes is impossible without the introduction of elements of anthropogenic intervention (moderate grazing and regulated haying) into the existing protection regime. Restoration of the steppes in an absolutely protected mode is possible only on the slopes of the southern exposure in forest-steppe landscapes of erosion-denudation plains (Kuncherovskaya forest-steppe).