METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE STATE OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS USING A TEST OBJECT

To study the assessment of the state of forest ecosystems on the level of biodiversity of mosses and vascular plants in the Voronezh upland oak grove, a transect from the watershed to the reservoir was laid. The influence of geomorphological factors on the spore component – mossy and vascular plants-is considered. Taxonomic, ecological-biological, and geographical analyses of the flora were carried out. Geobotanical survey methods were used to assess the state of phytocenoses. The regularities in the ecotopic distribution of plants are revealed, taking into account the score and the projective coverage, and the parameters for assessing the biodiversity of ecosystems are proposed and used in research. Mosses and vascular plants manifest themselves differently in different phytocenoses, often without reflecting the features of landscape and ecological conditions. But, as the results showed, the majority of plant species (from 55.9% and above) belong to mesophytes. As a result, low indicators of species richness, species density, and generic.

Structure of forestry fund plots of the green belt of Zhytomyr city

The city of Zhytomyr is one of the settlements of Ukraine with large areas of green forestry. Due to the lack of up-to-date integrated information on the characteristics of the city's suburban forests, the forestry fund of three enterprises was analysed, the forests of which actually form a green belt. According to the results of the analysis of forest management information, it was determined that about 58% of the area of suburban forests belongs to the forestry-based part. Accordingly, the share of areas of parklands of the green belt of the city is 42%. For each of the parts, the area of plots was divided into categories, predominant species, age groups, forest types, the presence of features in the sections. Areas of forest parks are mostly covered with forests, the share of which reaches 91% against 89% in the forestry part. By age, the forest stands in parklands are slightly older. It is established that the species and typological structure of forests of both zones differ. Forest vegetation conditions in the forestry part of the green belt forests are richer, which has led to the allocation of more forest types, more diverse species composition of plantations, the predominance of oak forest stands. In the suburban forests, due to the drying up of hayfields and more than half of the swamps, over a third of their area was found to be overgrown with trees and shrubs. The areas of hayfields and swamps were divided according to their types and uses. Areas with important features for recreation include areas with species, drinking water sources, monuments, landscaping elements, age-old trees, small lawns, biotechnical facilities, as well as tracts that constitute monuments of landscape art, places of memorable events, settlements of rare animals and birds. It is discovered that in the forests of the green belt of Zhytomyr, there are significant areas with actual berrying grounds (430 ha) and medicinal plants of industrial importance (179 ha). Berries are represented only by blueberries and strawberries, the projective coverage of which varies from 5% to 35%. In the future, the studies on determination of the level of recreational use of sites that have features valuable for recreation, improvement elements and berry fields are considered to be promising

Phytodiversity of the Irgiz Floodplain nature monument

The Bolshoy Irgiz River is 375 km long and has a catchment area of 24 thousand km, including the Orenburg Region and the Samara Region. The flora contains 64 species of plants: 14 belong to the class of monocotyledons (Liliopsida) and 48 belong to the class of dicotyledons (Magnoliopsida), the most numerous families by the number of species are Lamiaceae (5), Cyperaceae (5), Potamogetonaceae (5), Polygonaceae (4), Poaceae (4). The ecological spectrum of the flora is represented by hydrophytes (20 species), helophytes (8), hygrohelophytes (5), hygrophytes (19) and mesophytes (12). These are mainly broad-area species of the Eurasian (23), Holarctic (23) and pluriregional (11) ranges. There are only 7 species of plants with narrow range borders. In economic terms the flora consists of 28 species of medicinal plants, as well as forage (23), tanning (15), food (14), dye (13), honey (12), ornamental (11) and poisonous (8) plants. Vegetation is represented by 17 formations and is represented by the coastal-aquatic vegetation type and two subtypes: coastal and aquatic vegetation. The first subtype contains formations: Phragmiteta australis, Typheta angustifolitae, Scirpeta lacustris, Sagittarieta sagittifoliae, Persicarieta amphibii, Alismateta plantago-aquaticae. The second subtype contains: Nymphaeeta candidae, Nuphareta luteae, Potameta lucentis, Potameta perfoliati, Potameta crispus, Lemneta minori, Salvinieta natantis, Hydrocharieta morsus-ranae, Spirodeleta polyrhizi, Lemneta trisulcae, Ceratophylleta demersi. Coastal plant communities are characterized by a 23-tier structure, a high degree of projective coverage, and a relatively high abundance of species (from 15 to 26). Water phytocoenoses are poor in species composition, have a spotty character of overgrowth and 12 tiered structure. The Irgiz Floodplain nature monument requires compliance with the stipulated protection measures in order to preserve the habitat of rare plant populations Nuhar luteum L., Nymphaea candida J. et C. Presl., Salvinia natans L. (All.), Cicuta virosa L., Najas major All. Descriptions of phytocenoses were carried out according to the generally accepted method of geobotanical research in the summer of 2018, while tiering, abundance, projective cover and vitality were noted as well as all species included in plant communities were registered.

Species and coenotic composition of phytocoenoses in Jurassic clay dumps of the Callovian layer of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant of Kursk Magnetic Anomaly

The paper presents the results of research on overgrowth rate in Jurassic clay dumps of the Callovian layer of the Mikhailovsky mining and processing plant of the Kursk magnetic anomaly with herbaceous and woody-shrub vegetation. The authors have revealed some features of dumps overgrowth of different dumping times (5, 15, 25 years) and the nature of various exposures of dumps overgrowth. The study has shown that by the age of 5 a pioneer grouping is formed on the Callovian clay, where the dominant species are the coltsfoot Tussilago farfara L. and the meadow horsetail Eguisetum pratense Ehrh. By the age of 15 a thicket-group community is formed, belonging to the category of simple, since it is represented by single species or has a bed character of overgrowth with a small number of weeds and meadow species. The authors have established that by the age of 25 the predominant types of overgrowth are group-thicket communities, where edificant species (the silver birch Betula pendula Roth and the common pine Pinus sylvestris L.) have a sparse distribution. It was found that the areas occupied by grassy vegetation on 25-year-old dumps in general have a bed character of overgrowth and are represented by monodominant communities of medicinal melon, which has a two-year period of development. At intervals of a year, with a dominance of the coltsfoot and the dandelion medicinal Taraxacum officinale L., the projective coverage reaches one hundred percent. A number of ruderal and meadow species (yarrow Achillea millefolium L., coltsfoot, narrow-leaved cypress Chamerion angustifolium L., forest parsnip Pastinaca sylvestris Mill., dandelion medicinal, sagebrush Artemisia compestris L., meadow bluegrass Poa pratensis L.) have a relatively sparse distribution. Additionally, the distribution of species depending on the exposure of slopes is described. The authors present species composition, projection coating and the number of plants and species per 1 m for all dumps. The dependence of the coenotic composition of vegetation on the age of dumps is established.

Underwater landscapes condition assessment in the Nakhodka bay (sea of Japan) port water area

The diversity of natural resources and favorable economic and geographical location have always ensured a high degree of the coastal zone development. This is particularly pronounced in port areas, where there is not only a high concentration of production facilities, but also a high population density, leading to conflict situations and social tensions. Underwater landscapes monitoring results in the coal terminals area are presented. Contamination of bottom grounds by oil products and heavy metals has been noted. Marine bottom sediments are an active accumulator of contaminants which, when entering the marine area either independently or as a result of sorption on suspended particles of organic and mineral origin, gradually settle to the bottom. This makes them a potential source of secondary contamination of the water body. Excess of the maximum permissible concentrations for such indicators as easily oxidizing organics, phenols, petroleum products, and suspended substances in the bottom water horizon has been detected. Comparing the research results both in the bay head and at its outlet, it is necessary to note slight differences. The content of contaminating components in the tested biota samples has been found to correspond to the technical mariculture. An important parameter of the sustainable state landscape is not only the presence and diversity of biota, but also the concentration of major pollutants in it. Unstable dynamics of heavy metal concentration in hydrobiont tissues has been observed. It should be noted that the concentration of some pollutants, such as copper, chromium and cadmium, are slightly higher in biota living at the exit from the bay, than the one at the bay head. There is a change in the structure of landscape complexes: the control points are characterized by a high variety of benthos but decrease in the projective coverage by algae. The underwater landscape result analysis has showed that port facilities operating in the area under consideration have an impact on the environment corresponding to the production and technological process

Ecological and biological properties of lawn coverages of city of Nikopol (Dnepropetrovsk area)

The value of lawns shows up completer in all, when they occupy 40 – 90 % of the areas of green plantations. However in industrial cities their part is less, they have the mainly unsatisfactory state, contain the ruderal species. Therefore an ecological ground of creation of proof lawn phytocenosis in cities with high technogenic pressure, and also development of research and practice measures of their arrangement in the conditions of certain anthropogenic landscape taking into account the ecologic and biologic features of turf-forming species and terms of the urbanized environment is the scientific issue. The aim of our research is: on the basis of ecologo-phytocenotic researches to set the phytocenotic features of lawns and coverage of lawn type of the urbanized ecosystems on the example of Nikopol for development of ecological bases of creation of proof cenosis in municipal habits and decision of questions of optimization of environment. The trial areas under study were located among grasses of grass type and ornamental lawns in the city of Nikopol. The administrative and residential areas of the city were covered. In total, thirty test sites of size 1m2 (metrics) were described, divided into 120 areas of size 0,0625 m2. Characteristics were studied on each test area: illumination, species composition, percentage of projective coverage of each species found, percentage of free plant area. In the 30 trial sites covered by our research, 44 species of plants belonging to 15 families were identified. Species saturation of investigated test areas (1m2) varied from 10 to 17 species. Among the families, the primacy of the species composition was occupied by Asteraceae and Poaceae.Taking into account the instructions of V.V. Tarasov, the spectrum of the first percentages of the occurrence of families reproduces the composition of the regional flora with the dominance of cereals and herbs. The analysis of herbaceous vegetation was carried out taking into account the prevalence (in the event of a species) and the quantitative role in the formation of grass (projective coverage). This made it possible to find out the potentialities of species in a certain growth area, that is, competing ability.The triumphal triumph in the whole spectrum of the species we found among the grasses are Trifolium repens L. (occurrence of 93%), Polygonum aviculare L. (90 %), Taraxacum officinale Webb. ex Wigg. (83 %), Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (80 %), Achillea submillefolium Klok. et Krytska (70 %), Convolvulus arvensis L. (70 %) etc. These are representatives of weed vegetation, for the most part – ruderal species, and even those that are quarantine and undesirable for urban lawn phytocoenoses.Of the Poaceae family, Poa angustifolia L. (87%), Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevsky (77%), Lolium perenne L. (70%) have high incidence. The indicated plants are representatives of both steppe flora, and ray and even forest, which speaks of a wide range of ecological conditions of location among studied lawn phytocoenoses. Typical species that are able to form the most decorative grass cover (according to the classification of O. Laptev) are represented by the species Poa angustifolia, Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis L., Festuca valesiaca Gaud. Their prevalence in the herb is quite variable: from the presence on most of the test areas - Poa angustifolia, to those who met quite rarely – Festuca valesiaca.Most of the investigated test areas form a thin-grasshopper and pyrite-grass-mixed grass group, which corresponds to the specific structure of meadow lawns and conventional urban grasslands. The ecological and phytocenotic composition of the investigated vegetation groups of the lawn type reflects the system formed by certain representatives that make up the botanical and ecological basis for the creation of stable long-lived grass coverings in the urban agglomeration of the steppe zone, is an objective benchmark for targeting the corresponding phytocoenic processes in the desired direction.Correlations analysis of projective coatings was performed to find out the relationship between Ambrosia artemisiifolia and other representatives of the lawn flora. The calculation is based on data from the area of ​​0.25m2 (120 sites). The obtained materials allowed to reveal a mutual correlation of quantitative indicators with a high degree of statistical probability. Thus, a probable negative correlation between the parameters of the projective cover of the plants of the family Fabaceae and Ambrosia artemisiifolia was found.

THE STATE OF VEGETATION AROUND THE TOBOLSK INDUSTRIAL SITE

The article presents the results of the study of the phytocenoses in the suburbs of Tobolsk, which are in close proximity to industrial enterprises. The state of herbaceous vegetation has been studied. The species composition of vascular plants was being defined at the geobotanical sites at the time of the description. The description included: the total projective coverage of the phytocenosis, the projective coverage of individual tiers, the species composition of the community and abundance/ covering of each species on a Brown-Blank seven-point scale. The selection of sites with anthropogenic impact was done, a description of the herbage composition was completed, and counting the number of all plants on specially designated sites was carried out as well as collecting of plant samples and cameral and statistical processing of pollen fertility data. The percentage of fertile grains was determined, which varied in the range from 74-80% (site No.1), 78-82% (site No. 2), 65-100% (control site). The productivity of phytocoenosis was determined. The average value of wet and dry phytomass in the sites. The saturation and density of phytocenoses were also determined. The obtained results can be used to estimate the degree of anthropogenic load on phytocenoses and to predict the degree of their probable changes. The forecast of the results will allow developing the necessary system of measures aimed at increasing the stability of plant communities. Experimental data are of interest in terms of assessing the anthropogenic effect on vegetation.

Ростові ознаки Trapa natans L. s. l. у різних еколого-ценотичних умовах водойм басейну Десни

Trapa natans L. s. l. is a typical representative speciesof the ecological group of attached higher aquatic plants with floating leaves. It is included to The Red Book of Ukraine. Despite the presence of diverse information on the main features of the structure of the vegetative and generative organs of Trapa natans, its ecological properties, distribution and significance, population and growth characteristics of this species remain virtually unexplored. We evaluated 10 morphometric and five allometric parameters, which characterize the growth of Trapa natans and found out the influence of leading ecological-coenotic factors on them: the thickness of water, its transparency and the overall projective coverage of phytocoenosis. Four old lakes, which located in the flood plain of the Desna River are covered by our studying. Grouping represented in these lakes are significantly different by degree of their rarity, as well as by the specific gravity and role of T. natans plants in their composition. The association Nuphar lutea subpurum is one of the typical for the region and the most common, the other three (especially Nuphar lutea + Nymphaea candida variant with Trapa natans) are comparable rare. The results of the studies showed that the water column factor significantly affects the values of all 15 dynamic morpho-parameters. The transparency of water factor did not show a statistically significant effect on the values of two morpho-parameters, and the projective coverage - at the value of three. For most morpho parameters, the power of influence on them of water levels are in the range of 45-75%, transparency - 25-60%, and projective coverage - 20-60%. It is shown that the greatest values of dynamic morphological parameters belong to the coenopopulation from the group Trapa natans subpurum, and the smallest to Nuphar lutea subpurum. Trapa natans better growth in reservoirs with a water column about 145 cm and its transparency about 80 cm, no current and muddy bottom sediments. It is noted that the effective natural inhibitors which are regulating the growth of Trapa natans are the reduction of water levels in the water column and the occurrence of successional processes that are accompanied by an increase the number of species of Nymphaeaceae in phytocoenoses.<br /><br />

Changes in consortial links of aphyllophoroid fungi and Quercus robur L. in the recreational forests of the green zone of city

Recreational degradation of forest ecosystems of the green zone of the town Uman was described on the example of the forest array «Belogrudivska Dacha». The vitality and health conditions of Quercus robur L. and species, systematic, trophic, spatial compositions of xylotrophic fungi were investigated. Changes in the compositions of xylotrophic fungi and Q. robur were indicated an intensification of degradation processes in fresh maple oak. However, the entwinement between the development and distribution of xylotrophic fungi with the degree of damage and drying of trees, the intensity of recreational load did not found. This effect was indirect. The consorts links of Q. robur and xylotrophic fungi essentially depend on the amount of available substrate and evaporation from the soil surface, density of canopy, the projective coverage of herb stratum, in general, the forestry and mensurational characteristics of the stands. These components determine the development of forest ecosystems, the formation of myco-horizons of trees, the rate of accumulation of wood of various categories of substrates, which favorable for the settlement and development of xylotrophic fungi, certain levels of organization of consorts. The deterioration of the conditions of growth and development of Q. robur in fresh maple oak, drying and degradation of canopy cause changes in the composition of the consorts of these trees and xylotrophic fungi due to violation of the conditions of the forest environment, changes in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the substrates, their distribution in time and space. Recreational impact was essentially neutralized due to the complex composition and large buffer capacity of the forest ecosystem, a large number of mechanisms for its sustainability, and the ability to quickly restore degraded elements and links of the forest. Highly productive young and medieval medium-attractive woodlands of Q. robur of recreational forests of the woodland part of the green zone of city Uman, affected a moderate and medium recreational impact. The territory of the tract has the first (75 %) and second (25 %) stage of recreational degradation. This was primarily due to the close location of the city, suburban villages, main transport networks and the availability of forest for the population. Species diversity of investigated fungi in all experimental plots acquired rather high values. Such indicators testified to the stability of xylomycocenosis to the existing recreational impact, unlike other, more vulnerable structural and functional components of the forest ecosystem: herb stratum, underbrush, undergrowth, soil surface. At all studied experimental plots of the tract, the best development of xylomycobiota was in the trees of the highest Kraft classes. According to the state categories in the investigated plots, weakened and strongly weakened trees were prevailed, in which the maximum number of species and findings of fungi was detected. The findings of xylotrophic fungi on the recently dead stands was minimal. The analysis of the vegetation under ombraregime has shown that subaridophytes and subomorophytes were predominated. In the medium- and low-transformed experimental plots, the magnitude of the ecological amplitude under ombraregime is slightly higher than that of the highly transformated experimental plot. This indicates a greater evaporation from the surface of the soil with an increase in the degree of recreational transformation. A significant change in the forest environment and substratum fund due to the intense degradation of the ecosystem may limit the development and spread of xylotrophic fungi.

Resource Assessment of “Pasvik” Natural Reserve (Murmansk Oblast) Phytophagous Water Birds Forage Grounds in Terms of Aquatic Plants Biomass.

“Pasvik” Natural Reserve first-order consumers (water birds) and producers (aquatic plants) trophic connections have been identified. Amount of aquatic plants raw biomass has been assessed on average, in terms of the projective coverage classes in phytocenosis, and resource-significant species if aquatic flora have been identified.