Vascular plant occurrences in grasslands of Central Forest Nature Reserve (Russia): a dataset

Here we present the sampling event dataset that contributes to studying the flora of grasslands in Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve (part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves), Tver Oblast, Russia. The Reserve is located in the SW part of the Valdai Upland within the main Caspian-Baltic watershed of the Russian plain (Latitude: 56° 26' – 56° 39' N, Longitude: 32° 29' – 33° 01' E). The territory of Central Forest Reserve belongs to the subzone of subtaiga. The dataset includes the occurrences of vascular plant species in four types of grasslands from 209 vegetation plots (8,506 associated occurrences), collected in 2013-2014. The dataset described in this paper has never been published before. As the grasslands in Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve are relatively unstudied, we are providing a new comprehensive dataset on the vascular plant species occurrences in the grasslands of the Reserve. The dataset contains representative information on floristic composition of plant communities in localities with assigned GPS coordinates. As the vegetation of the Reserve is typical of the subtaiga subzone, the results of analysing this dataset can be useful for grassland management in the whole subtaiga subzone. During this study, we found one vascular plant species included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation, three species from the Red Data Book of Tver Oblast, as well as 10 alien vascular plant species for the Reserve. These data, especially, the occurrences of protected and alien species, contribute to our knowledge of species composition of the grasslands of the Reserve.

Contribution to the "Atlas of the Russian Flora": Twelve local floras of European Russia

The purpose of this dataset is to deliver to a wider audience in the form of GBIF-mediated data vast floristic materials collected by the author across various localities of European Russia from 2001-2019 (Arkhangelsk, Tver, Vladimir, Tula, Lipetsk, Voronezh Oblasts, Krasnodar Krai, City of Moscow and Komi Republic). Taxonomic data on vascular plants for ten locations were mobilised from the papers and technical reports published in Russian and standardised. Floristic treatments for two locations (Yasnaya Polyana and Tsaritsyno) have never been published before. The newly-prepared dataset includes 5,309 species records, i.e. one species record per each local flora. These are either native or alien (fully naturalised and casual) species. All records within one local flora have the same centroid coordinates and coordinate uncertainty in metres. Floristic inventories from the following locations were mobilised: 01. Ustya, Arkhangelsk Oblast (543 species, 1,500 km2); 02. Zaseki, Tula Oblast (593 species, 60 km2); 03. Polibino, Lipetsk Oblast (553 species, 70 km2); 04. Khrenovoye, Voronezh Oblast (665 species, 200 km2); 05. Troyeruchitsa, Tver Oblast (501 species, 10 km2); 06. Man-Pupu-Ner, Komi Republic (182 species, ca. 300 km2); 07. Middle Lyaga, Komi Republic (143 species, ca. 300 km2); 08. Utrish, Krasnodar Krai (933 species, 195 km2); 09. Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Oblast (236 species, 2.2 km2); 10. Bogolyubovsky Lug, Vladimir Oblast (289 species, 1.7 km2); 11. Tsaritsyno, City of Moscow (359 species, 5.3 km2); 12. Patakino, Vladimir Oblast (312 species, 1.1 km2). According to the GBIF taxonomic backbone, the dataset covers 1,806 species, 669 genera and 127 families of tracheophytes.

Trends and factors of the demographic development of Tver oblast in the 20th — early 21st centuries

The article summarizes the reproductive and migration development of one of the most demographically-disadvantaged regions of Russia — Tver oblast, where depopulation has been taking place for more than 50 years. Thus, in 30 years, from January 1989 to January 2019, the population of Tver oblast, as well as its population in working age, decreased by 1.3 times, the number of women of the most active reproductive age (20-39 years) — by 1.5 times. The factors of this negative process are substantiated in the article. First, during the War of 1941-1945 this territory was occupied for three years and became the site of some of the bloodiest battles of this war, including the Battle of Rzhev. Second, from the region in the pre-revolutionary and post-war Soviet times actively went the settlement of the rear and suburban regions, first of all, North European and Asian Russia. Third, the region is on the way between the two main migration recipients («magnets») of Russia — the Moscow and Leningrad macroregions, and its population is steadily decreasing due to outflow to two capitals. The article reveals the extent of demographic, including migration, losses of the region in the later Soviet and post-Soviet times. The circle of the closest migration partners of Tver oblast and the nature of population exchange with them are identified. Changes in the direction and closeness of the region's migration links over the past fifty years have been investigated. The origin of structural waves in the sex-age pyramid of Tver oblast for a century has been substantiated. It is argued to what demographic structural and socio-economic consequences such development of the region has led to. It is concluded about the place and prospects of Tver oblast and its population in modern market economy Russia.

Materials for Studying Traditional Karelian Culture in the Collection of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Collections and Collectors

The Kunstkamera, founded by Peter the Great as a collection of various rarities in St. Petersburg in 1714, over the time acquired rich collections of ethnographic materials from different parts of the world and became the largest depository of artifacts of traditional cultures of the peoples of Russia. This article examines the history of some of the most important collections of ethnographic materials of the Karelians of the Olonets and Tver regions and of the Russians from the territory of the modern Republic of Karelia and Tver oblast. Most of these materials were gathered at the beginning of the 20th century by the professional photographers M. A. Krukovsky and A. A. Belikov, as well as by some littleknown local historians, such as D. T. Yanovich and M. V. Mikhailovskaya. One of the main objectives of this research was to collect biographical data about these people and to study their activities as collectors of the ethnographic materials preserved in the Kunstkamera collections. These collections contain materials pertaining to everyday life and folk art that reflect changes in the mainly rural folk culture of the Karelians and Russians. The collections can be used for studying these cultural changes and for reconstructing some issues of the past.

Diderma fallax. [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].

A description is provided for Diderma fallax, a myxomycete commonly observed on dead branches and/or twigs in the litter of Apiaceae, Cytisus sp., Gramineae [Poaceae], Prunus spinosa and Vaccinium myrtillus. Some information on its interactions and habitats, economic impacts, infraspecific variation, dispersal and transmission, and conservation status is given, along with details of its geographical distribution (Morocco, Canada (British Columbia), USA (California, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming), Chile, Philippines, Russia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug), Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Russia (Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Tver Oblast), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK).