Typology of territorial units of vegetation for the purposes of large-scale mapping (the Kolguev Island as an example)

2015 ◽  
pp. 94-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. A. Lavrinenko

A typological scheme of territorial units of vegetation (TUV) developed on the basis of the large-scale map of theKolguev Island is presented. Four basic rank typological units (division, class, group and type) define TUV positions in the hierarchical system of vegetation cover. The concepts of diagnostic syntaxon and combination of diagnostic syntaxa that occur exclusively or primarily within these typological units are introduced. Prodromus of the Kolguev Island vegetation consists of 42 syntaxa (association / subassociation / type of community). 38 types of TUV from 22 groups (8 homogeneous and 14 heterogeneous – serial and ecological ranks, complexes and combinations), assigned to 15 classes and 3 divisions are allocated on the vegetation map in 1 : 50 000 scale. The categories of different rank can be used as dynamic elements of the map legend. This approach gives us a possibility to combine the syntaxonomic diversity of plant communities and typology of TUV.

1995 ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
N. M. Kalibernova

The fragment of the legend of the map concerning the vegetation of flood- plains and river-valleys in the subzones of northern and southern deserts is presented in the article. The map is compiled in Department of Vegetspon Geography and Cartography of Komarov Botanical Institute by a large team of botanists-geographers of the former USSR. The nature environments determining the development of vegetation of river-valleys in arid climate are conditioned by the intrazonal factors (alluvial and flood processes) at the background of natural zonal factors. Contrasts of environments and corresponding plant communities manifest themselves first of all. Mineralization of ground waters, salinity of soils, including the alluvial ones, are of essential importance. The practice of vegetation mapping of unstable habitats, to which floodplain landscapes belong, has shown that units of phytocoenological classification is of little use for this purpose. The heterogeneity of vegetation, consisting of short-term unstable serial communities generates a need for typification of space combinations of such phytocoenoses. For this purpose it is convenient to use generalized ecological-dinamic series, including plant communities of all levels within the limits of definite segment of valley. These series are the mapping units on the map. The vegetation of the first terrace is also nessecary to include in a single series with flood-plain vegetation because it has supplementary influence of ground waters. The higher divisions of the legend are based on zonal characters: vegetation of valleys in northern, middle and southern deserts. 13 numbers are used to show the vegetation cover of flood-plains and valleys. Additional 7 numbers are used for the out-of-valley meadow vegetation. The content is enriched by using of the letters by the numbers showing the geographic variants of series and ciphers for combination of series and out-of-series communities. The text legend is supplemented by the matrix (table), showing the subordination of subtitles, zonal position and geographic distribution of divisions. The types of series in the matrix are listed with indication of the main dominant species that gives the additional information on the legend divisions. The author's conclusion is that valley vegetation reveals clearly the zonal features, correlating with zonal (desert) vegetation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
I. G. Borisova

The Norsky State Nature Reserve is located in Selemdzhinsky district of the Amurskaya oblast. Its area is 211 168 ha. Currently the flora of the Norsky Nature Reserve is studied in details. A species list has been published and an analysis of the flora has been made (Starchenko, Chuvasheva, 1993; Veklich, 2009). The vegetation cover is poorly studied; so far no geobotanical map of the Reserve has been compiled. Only the overview map (scale 1 : 2 500 000) of the vegetation of the Amur basin (1969) gives an idea of the vegetation as a whole. The climatic characteristics of the territory and the complex relief determine the diversity of plant habitats and their communities. The climate of the Norsky Reserve is continental with monsoon features and even ultracontinental (after A. I. Kaigorodov (1955). The modern relief of the Reserve includes wide floodplains of Nora and Selemdzha rivers, accumulative delta-terraces plain, Norskaya accumulative denudation plain (Geomorphologiya..., 1973) and hills. According to the latest botanical and geographical zoning of the Amurskaya oblast, the Norsky Reserve belongs to the Mamynskiy and Ulmsko-Aldikonskiy districts of the Turan-Mamyn province of the Manchurian subdistrict of the East Asian area (Borisova,Starchenko, 2018). The province belongs to southern taiga with some elements of nemoral forests (Quercus mongolica, Tilia amurensis and etc.) along the valleys of Selemdzha River and its major tributaries. The southern taiga includes different larch forests (often disturbed), derived birch-larch forests with Pinus sylvestris, Picea ajanensis and Abies nephrolepis. The presence of nemoral species in forest cenoses increases in the direction from north to south. A province peculiarity is the wide distribution of larch peatmoss forests, swamps and wet meadows. The scientific-reference typological map of vegetation on a medium scale (1 : 300 000) was compiled for the Norsky Nature Reserve for the first time. It shows spatial patterns of vegetation distribution in connection with the natural features of the territory (Fig. 5). The vegetation map legend is based on an ecologic and phytocoenotic classification. A zonal distribution of plant communities is presented in the legend. Plant communities are divided into some categories: dark-coniferous, light-coniferous and derived forests, which are represented as formations. The main cartographic units are groups of associations and their various combinations. The legend shows the vegetation of floodplains, rocks, and disturbed areas. Vegetation divisions are represented on the vegetation map by seventeen colors and one extra scale sign. All symbols have their own serial number, which is marked in the map legend. The largest areas on the territory of the Reserve are occupied by larch forests — 42 % (Fig. 6). The forested territory as a whole occupies 36.5 %, of which the largest areas are rhododendron larch (9.7 %) and floodplain (9.5 %) forests. Ledum larch and moss-shrub forests occupy 5.7 %. Larch mixed-grass-shrub forests cover some small areas (2.0 %). Sub-taiga larch forests with nemoral grasses and often with oak and black birch trees occupy 0.6 %. Pine and larch-pine forests extend 1.3 % of the Reserve’s area. Fir-spruce forests on watersheds have limited distribution — about 1 %. They are a chain of ecologic-dynamic series on floodplain occupying 2.7 % of the Reserve’s area. To conclude, the vegetation cover of the Norsky Nature Reserve reflects the zonal and provincial features of the territory.


2019 ◽  
pp. 57-67
Author(s):  
T. A. Sokolova

During an ecological expertise the vegetation of Tuzla Spit and Tuzla Island, located in the middle part of the Kerch Strait (Fig. 1), was studied. This area is unique in terms of biological diversity and a presence of rare species (Ermolaeva et al., 2018). The study is based on 150 geobotanical relevés. Field data, topographic maps, and high-resolution satellite images were used in the vegetation mapping. The total area of the study is 383 hectares. There are the following hierarchical levels in the legend to the vegetation map: types of vegetation and classes of associations. A mapping unit is an association described according to the Braun-Blanquet system (Braun-Blanquet, 1964). The highest divisions of the legend are the types of vegetation: aquatic, coastal-aquatic, halophytic, psammophytic, steppe; they are given according to the ecological-phytocoenotic classification. Within the types of vegetation, classes of associations are given according to the ecological-floristic classification. 26 main numbers of the legend display the vegetation cover on the map. Geobotanical map reflects the state of vegetation in 2015 (Fig. 2). The vegetation of the island is heterogeneous. Plant communities as narrow stripes replace each other depending on the degree of moisture, salinity and orography. The sea currents have a great influence on the vegetation. In the southern part of the Taman Bay, suspension flows are directed from the South to the North and round the island, which leads to the “washing-up” of the southeastern part of the island represented by shallow waters and estuaries. It is occupied mainly by halophytic vegetation, the main dominants of plant communities are Juncus maritimus, Phragmites australis, Puccinellia distans, Bassia hirsuta, Salicornia pe­rennans, S. prostrata, Suaeda salsa, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Elytrigia elongata, Tripolium vulgare. The northwestern part of the strait is occupied by the area of jet streams of suspensions coming from the North to the South from the Sea of Azov. This caused the accumulation of sand-shell material in the northern and northwestern parts of the island forming raised areas co­vered by psammophytic and steppe communities. The main dominant species here are Crambe maritima var. pontica, Cakile euxina, Eryngium maritimum, Lactuca tatarica, Salsola tragus, Leymus sabulosus, Artemisia arenaria, Gypsophila perfoliata. As a result of the transport crossing construction, the vegetation cover was heavily transformed. The vegetation map of Tuzla Spit and Island for 2019 shows the changes that have occurred — the drainage of the territory and the reduction of the vegetated area (Fig. 3). Distribution of weed species, in particular Ambrosia artemisiifolia, is noted. The remained vegetation in the southern part of the Tuzla Spit and the southern part of the Tuzla Island has a great nature conservation value; there are unique plant communities and rare plant species listed in the Red books of different ranks (Red..., 2007, 2008, 2015): Cakile euxina, Crambe maritime, Glaucium flavum, Euphorbia paralias, E. peplis, Eryngium mari­timum, Astrodaucus littoralis, Asparagus maritimus, Centaurea arenaria, Argusia sibirica, Astragalus varius, Verbascum pinnatifidum, Leymus racemosus subsp. sabulosus, Secale sylvestre. There is an obvious need to organize a specially protected natural area in these areas.


2019 ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Volkova ◽  
V. N. Khramtsov

The article is devoted to the vegetation mapping of the “Levashovskiy les”— a large forest-mire massif located in the northern part of St. Petersburg (Fig. 1). It continues a series of articles on the vegetation of existing and proposed specially protected natural areas of St. Petersburg (Volkova, Khramtsov, 2018). Large-scale map of modern vegetation (Fig. 2) is presented; the map legend includes 67 main numbers, the signs and numeric indexes at the numbers made it possible to show 93 mapping units (associations and their variants). Brief description of the main types of plant communities (spruce, pine, birch, aspen, gray alder and black alder forests; raised bogs, transitional mires and fens, floodplain and upland meadows) reveals the content of the legend. Vegetation cover is characterized by the dominance of secondary communities. The main anthropogenic impacts on modern vegetation are following: drainage reclamation, deforestation and former agricultural use, forest fires, gas pipelines, highways. Most of the forest communities are secondary ones; they have grown under the pressure of various anthropogenic factors and at different time. Nowadays an active process of natural regeneration of conife­rous (mainly spruce) trees goes in the forests. Plant community structure and species composition were taken into account as well as their dynamic state. To assess the degree of disturbance of plant communities and the potential for their restoration, the analysis of all mapped vegetation categories with respect to their position in the ranks of restorative successions was made. Then an assessment map “Dynamic state of plant communities” (Fig. 3) was compiled. The map shows following categories of dynamic types of communities: conventionally primary; relatively long-term secondary and stable long-term secondary (Sukachev, 1938; Isachenko, 1964; Karpenko, 1965; Gribova, Isachenko, 1972); short-term secondary that were divided into 3 categories representing different stages of restorative series. Present state of the vegetation cover of the “Levashovskiy les” can be determined by the ratio of the areas of conventionally primary and secondary communities. Areal analysis of dynamic categories of plant communities showed that only a bit more than 20 % of the territory is occupied by conventionally primary communities and about 60 % – by short-term secondary ones with good restorative potential. Without strong anthropogenic and natural disturbances, a significant part of the disturbed plant communities will be able to self-restore to their natural state. The establishment of a specially protected natural area as well as the regulation of conservation regime will support restoration process of nature ecosystems.


2018 ◽  
pp. 120-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. A. Volkova ◽  
V. N. Khramtsov

Rather large forests, typical of the southern taiga subzone are preserved within the boundaries of St. Petersburg. They include a wide variety of plant communities with some rare species. This article is devoted to the area located in the southern part of the city and designed as a nature reserve. A large-scale map of actual vegetation of the projected reserve was composed; it shows the diversity of plant communities and their distribution. The map legend consists of 75 main units; and the usage of supplementary symbols helps to map 122 units. Areal analysis of all types of plant communities is carried out on the basis of the vegetation map. Typical and the most valuable vegetation objects were identified.


This article is devoted to study the characteristics of ecological-cenotic structure and directions of vegetation cover transformations in riparian and coastal zones of forest swamps within the forest-steppe zone (north-western part of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine). The survey has been conducted in 2013–2018 in the territory of the Slobozhansky National Natural Park. Plant communities were surveyed both in phanerophyte and grass biotopes types, having different genesis and degree of disturbance (from terrestrial to aquatic, from native to artificially created forest plantations). A number of regionally rare plant species were identified in their composition (Dryopteris carthusiana (Vill.) H.P.Fuchs, Majanthemum bifolium (L.) F.W.Schmidt, Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull, Equisetum sylvaticum L., Potentilla erecta (L.) Raeusch., Rubus saxatilis L., Eriophorum angustifolium Honck., E. vaginatum L., Drosera rotundifolia L., Nymphaea candida C.Presl, Utricularia vulgaris L.) and U. minor L. – a species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Route and stationary techniques of field surveys were used for clarification the general features of horizontal vegetation structural organization, as well as for studying the effect of environmental factors on state and stability of plant communities. Usage of mobile GIS applications in geodata collection and their further processing in ArcMap project allowed us to develop a large-scale geobotanical map (1:1500) as an area of permanent botanical survey (1.9 ha). According to the results of phytoindication, indicators of 7 environmental edaphotop regimes in 25 plant communities studied (objects of mapping and further monitoring) have been identified. Based on the geobotanical map, integration of data on the intensity of vegetation transformation have been conducted. It was found that plant communities ІV (the highest) and III degrees of transformation cover an area more than 0.6 hectares (one third of the total plot area). These communities were occurred mainly in phanerophyte-type biotopes (aspen, willow, birch, and, partly, pine), which have been affected by pyrogenic and biogenic factors. The GIS-project created as a result of the study serves as a geo-information base that can be further improved and used to solve other applied problems.


2019 ◽  
pp. 18-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Grummo ◽  
R. V. Tsvirko ◽  
N. A. Zeliankevich ◽  
E. Y. Kulikova ◽  
O. V. Sozinov

In 2013–2018 studies of phytocoenotic diversity were carried out in the territory of the National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha” (Belarus). As a result, a classification scheme of vegetation was developed based on the floristic approach (Braun-Blanquet method) and a large-scale (1 : 100 000) geobotanical map was made. The map is compiled on the basis of the field data, analysis of remote sensing data, literary and cartographic sources, land and forest inventory materials. The compilation of this geobotanical map was consisted of 4 stages. 1) The pre-field (cameral) stage included: collection of archive data about the investigated territory, selection of space imagery, primary processing of digital images and data visualization, interpretation, automatic non-controlled classification, preliminary map compilation. 2) Field studies provided for surface interpretation of vegetation based on satellite imagery.In total, 1851 complete geobotanical relevés were made during field studies, including 743 forest, 452 mire, 576 meadow, segetal and ruderal plant communities. 3) The post-field (cameral) stage, including the preparation of the cartographic base; the systematization of field materials; the development of the final legend; the systematization of image standards for creating cartographic models; the controlled classification of images with preliminary segmentation by the method of superpixels (SNIC-Simple Non-Iterative Clustering); assessment reliability of classification results; geometric and geographical generalization; making an original map. 4) Field check (verification) of geobotanical map. During the 2018 field season a vegetation map of the protected area was checked with the compilation of the final reliability protocol. The main unit of the map legend, a syntaxon of the floristic classification of vegetation, is the association, however, along with the association, to display the typology of the vegetation cover, syntaxons of as a higher hierarchical rank (union) and lower (options, facies), as well as rankless communities are used. In establishing the names of associations and subassociations and in comparative analysis various regional works were taken into account (Matuszkiewicz, Matuszkiewicz, 1954; Czerwiński, 1978; Faliński, 1991, 1994а, b; Kwiatkowski, 1994; Bulokhov, Solomeshch, 2003; Semenischenkov, 2014; Lądowe ekosystemy…, 2016; Dubyna et al., 2019;). In the legend, the mapped units reflecting the restoration stages of the association are marked with letter indices. Heterogeneous areas consisting of regularly and repeatedly alternating plant communities are presented on the map as complexes (phytocoenoses-complex). In total, the map legend contains 75 mapped vegetation units, including forest — 40, shrub — 4, mire — 13, meadow and wasteland — 11, ruderal and segetal vegetation — 6, deforestation and disturbed forest habitats — 1. Separate units reflect other lands (water, residential development, etc.) The practical application of the geobotanical map for identifying key (important for biodiversity conservation) habitats and developing a science-based approach to the functional zoning of protected areas is shown.


1996 ◽  
pp. 16-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. B. Namzalov

The standard sample area of 50 km2 for large-scale vegetation mapping has been taken on the water-shad of Bagan and Karasu rivers. Relief of the region is formed byelongate hills («griva») and depressions between them. The hills are occupied by arable land whereas the depressions are covered by natural vegetation. The main reguliarities of vegetation cover are presented on the vegetation map at 1 : 100 000 scale (fig. 1). 25 of the 31 numbers of the legend represent heterogeneous vegetation; these are territorial units, combinations sensu S. A. Gribova and T. I. Isachenko (1972) or phytocoenochoras after V. B. Sochava (1979). All the heterogeneous territorial units are subdivided into two categories – microcombinations and mezo-combinations. While the formers include complexes and microzonal series, the latters include ecological series and combinations. The inner diversity of territorial units is reflected in more details on the key plot of 100 x 100 m showing the vegetation of a small interhill depression with salt-rich soils. Through the comparison of different scale schematic pictures – 1 : 1000 (fig. 2a), 1 : 10 000 (fig. 2б), 1 : 50 000 (fig. 2в) – the process of generalization of territorial unit structures is illustrated, starting from the complexes, proceeding to microzonal series and, finally, to mezocombinations. The main territorial unit for large-scale and middle-scale maps is mezocombinations.


1995 ◽  
pp. 22-41
Author(s):  
V. N. Khramtsov ◽  
P. P. Dmitriev

In 1989–1990 participants of the joint Soviet-Mongolian Complex Biological Expedition conducted the works on the estimation of the present-day state of nature ecosystems in Mongolia. The anthropogenic dynamics (transformation) of steppe ecosystems was studied in the East Steppe Stationary in the territory of state-farm Tumen-Tsogt in the Sukhebator District. During these works the series of maps was compiled for the territory of state-farm and for separate key plots (S. 1 : 1 000 000; 1 : 200 000; 1 : 100 000) showing the anthropogenic change of vegetation of animal populations, of soils and of ecosystems as a whole. The article represents some results of the investigations on transformation of vegetation cover under grazing the leading anthropogenic factor in Mongolia. The basic map is the vegetation map in scale of 1 : 100 000 (fig. 1, fragment). The legend of this map reflects the relations between vegetation and relief and soils. The highest divisions of the legend represent the vegetation of major forms of relief: «Vegetation of low mountains», «Vegetation of flat alluvial-deluvial plains», etc. These divisions subordinate the subzonal and altitudinal-subbelt types: «Rich in forbs grass meadow steppes on the mountain chernoziom soils», «Forb and forb-bunch grass steppes on the dark-chestnut soils», etc. The communities and their combinations, belonging to the definite edaphic variants of zonal vegetation, are taken as mapping units. 7 edaphic variants are distinguished in the whole. In the legend the concrete series of transformation of vegetation cover are given. Numbers 1–17 represent the undisturbed communities. The figure indices at the numbers (for instance: 10'–104) differentiate communities of the same digression serie - fr om less to most degradated ones. In the case of fallow lands such indices indicate the stage of reconstruction – from less to the most reconstructed vegetation (18–185). It has been paid attention to the heterogeneity of vegetation that is reflected in the map legend in characterizing the map divisions. The attention has been attracted also to the pattern of the horizontal structure of these complexes. The classic complexes of plant communities are not characteristic of the steppe zone of Mongolia, especially of its central and eastern regions as they are characteristic, for instance of the Kazakhstan steppes wh ere their distribution and development are caused by the processes of salt accumulation and salt removing from soils. In Mongolia the heterogeneity of vegetation and soil cover is conditioned by the burrow activity of rodents. The patterns of horizontal structure of phytocoenotic complexes appeared to be diverse and peculiar of definite landscapes depending on animal population and environmental conditions. It was ascertained that at grazing not only the phytocoenotic parameters (species composition, coverage, abundance, etc.) are transformed but also community dimensions, their proportion in complexes and the pattern itself of these complexes. It was interesting to reveal the transformation series of these patterns in complex biogeocoenoses. Fig. 2 shows the fragment of map representing the horizontal structure of biogeocoenoses, s. 1 : 1 000 000. The legend of the map is given in the table form (see table). The map shows both the reconstructed and the actual structure of vegetation cover. The undisturbed and slightly disturbed structural types are given by the main numbers (1–12) with figure index 1 (V–12'). The structures disturbed in various extents are shown by figure indices at the main number (for instance, 22–24). The indices correspond the degree of disturbance: 2 – middle disturbed, 3 – strongly disturbed, 4 – the most disturbed. The schematic drawings of horizontal structure of the natural and transformed complexes of plant communities are given in figure 3. Figure 4 proposes the fragment of analytic map of horizontal structure of biogeocoenoses. This map shows the actual pattern of plant community complexes. The last map (fig. 5) represents the percentage contribution of zoophytochoras in background undisturbed vegetation in various landscape elements.


2018 ◽  
pp. 40-65
Author(s):  
A. V. Razumovskaya

The territory of the Kenozersky National Park (Arkhangelsk region) is complex area due to diverse geologic and geomorphologic conditions and long history of agricultural practices. Heterogenic vegetation cover is typical for the whole territory. Five maps of key plots in a scale of 1 : 10 000 were made and the typological units (associations, subassociations and their variants) were shown. To show the vegetation cover on a generalized map in a scale of 1 : 200 000 the types of combinations of plant communities were used. These combinations are characteristic for the particular landscape patterns. Differentiating, characteristic and associated syntaxa of the combination types were revealed. The legend to the vegetation map (scale of 1 : 200 000) got two hierarchical levels. The highest hierarchical unites are represented by 7 types of combinations of vegetation; large mire systems are unified into two types according to prevailing combinations of mire vegetation. Types of vegetation combinations are divided into plakor and alluvial variants; they have three variants of transformation degree distinguished by a present state of plant cover and the land use history. Thus, each type of combinations got up to 6 variants that are the basic mapping units. The obtained territorial units of vegetation cover are largely the same as mapping units of the landscape map of the Kenozersky National Park. But they represent the original botanic-geographic data and their contours borders are different.


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