Home – Home – Jornals – Flora and Vegetation of Asian Russia 2022 number 1

Ecologically correct forest management in city forests is impossible without full inventarisation of their biodiversity. Vegetation classification by the Braun-Blanquet method could be important step in the direction of the complex data base creation about city forests biodiversity as an essential part of ecological monitoring and planning of the forest management. The main aim of this research was comparative study of two forest areas with different level of disturbances in Novosibirsk city and their classification by the Braun-Blanquet method. In course of the detailed description 42 full geobotanical relèves were made as a basis for the classification. Depending on the level of the anthropogenic disturbances six syntaxa of the association and subassociation rank were described in city forests. Four of them were described first time. Natural forest vegetation of the area is presented by the two associations from Brachypodio pinnati-Betuletea pendulae class - Calamagrostio arundinaceae-Betuletum pendulae in mesic habitats and Trollio asiaticae-Populetum tremulae in moist habitats. Growing anthropogenic pressure in the modern megapolis leads to deep changes in the forest community structure and composition. Syntaxonomically this transformation could be described in two new subassociations Calamagrostio arundinaceae-Betuletum pendulae aceretosum negundi and Trollio asiaticae-Populetum tremulae aceretosum negundi respectively. They differ by the poor combination of the class diagnostic species and the presence of ruderal and meadow species including aggressive alien species. In case of the excessive anthropogenic pressure and soil eutrophication ruderal, nitrophylous and alien species start to dominate in community composition, especially in shrub layer. Such forests were described in frame of the new association Pino-Aceretum negundi with two subassociations typicum and impatientosum parviflorae, belonging to Robinietea class - spontaneous forests vegetation in city parks. Forests of this class are described in Siberia for the first time. So, vegetation classification of city forests by the Braun-Blanquet method gives possibilities to distinguish different stages of the anthropogenic transformation and to estimate recent forest conditions and their potential of recovering.

The paper presents the results of long-term studies of the vegetation of bayrachny oak forests in the south of the European part of Russia (Volgograd, Voronezh, Rostov regions). Based on a large amount of factual material (more than 1150 geobotanical descriptions, including 777 descriptions by G.M. Zozulin), a floristic classification of mesophytic oak forest communities in the region, which are attributed to the alliance Aceri campestris-Quercion roboris Bulokhov et Solomeshch in Bulokhov et Semenishchenkov 2015, was carried out using the Braun-Blanquet method (1964). For a long time, the forests of the south of the European part of the country, due to little study, belonged to the alliance Aceri tatarici-Quercion Zólyomy 1957. New data (Goncharenko et al., 2020; Sokolova, Ermolaeva, 2021) made it possible to clarify their position in the classification system of forest vegetation in Russia. A new association was installed Ulmo minoris-Fraxinetum excelsioris ass. nov. hoc loco and the new suballiance Ulmo minoris-Fraxinenion excelsioris suball. nov. hoc loco in the alliance Aceri campestris-Quercion roboris. The new syntaxons are transitional forest communities with features of the Carpino-Fagetea Jakucs ex Passarge 1968 and Quercetea pubescentis Doing-Kraft ex Scamoni et Passarge 1959 classes. Their distinctive feature is the presence of both non-moral phagetals: Adoxa moschatellina, Aegopodium podagraria, Asarum europaeum, Campanula trachelium, Corylus avellana, Lathyrus vernus, Milium effusum, Pulmonaria obscura, Viola mirabilis, etc., and species with circumpontic distribution: Arum elongatum, Dentaria quinquefolia, Laser trilobum, Lysimachia verticillaris, Physospermum cornubiense, Scilla sibirica, Symphytum tauricum, Veronica umbrosa, Vincetoxicum scandens, which are characteristic of the recently isolated alliance Scutellario altissimae-Quercion roboris Goncharenko et al. 2020, which unites the subxerophilic oak forests of Ukraine and southern Russia, found in the steppe zone and the southern part of the forest-steppe zone. The ideas about the area of the alliance Aceri campestris-Quercion roboris, which has expanded beyond the forest-steppe zone to the central regions of the Rostov region, have been expanded.

As follows from the analysis of relevés collected in the 13 key areas in European Russia (see Table 1, Fig. 1), phytocoenotic behavior of many multizonal meadow species of vascular plants changes notably when passing from the boreal- and then the nemoral-forest zones to the subzone of meadow steppes. The constancy and cover of the 17 model species, distributed along the latitudinal zones and subzones and then the dry grassland, meadow, and steppe vegetation types (see Table 2), is influenced by warmth supply and climate continentality factors together with those of location within a particular river basin and regional specifics of the Quaternary history. Zonal trends of cover changes for Stellaria graminea and Bromopsis inermis in the series from dry boreal grasslands to steppes or from northern to southern Calamagrostis epigeios-dominated meadows, respectively, are proved by the Spearman rank correlations between the mean cover and the growing degree-days above 10 C or the Konrad continentality index (see Table 3). Xerophytization of many species, mesic in the boreal-forest zone, is observed under the steppe conditions, the process which often results in the separation of new micro-species. The anemochorous meadow plants were subject to dispersal mainly along the watersheds but the barochors were dispersed mainly by water flow or in both ways in the course of the formation of meadow-steppe coenofloras in the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. Both redwood-dry-grassland and floodplain-meadow coenofloras influence the steppe set of meadow species, and the latter can be grouped into the three ecological-historical “corteges” of vegetation, namely the watershed, the floodplain, and the combined ones.

We studied the seed set of the andromonoecious Chaerophyllum aromaticum (Broadleaf chervil), a perennial or biennial polycarpic herbaceous plant. Our survey was carried out in natural conditions of the Moscow region from 2018 to 2021 according to generally accepted methods of studying plant seed sets. We showed that the seed set of individuals depends on the degree of synflorescences branching. Broadleaf chervil has three types of individuals with double umbels on shoots of I-II, I-III, and I-IV orders. C. aromaticum has a high potential (number of ovules per individuals) and real (number of seeds per individuals) seed set (up to 3500 seeds per individual) and the proportion of perfect flowers forming full seeds (92-93 % per individual). The potential and real seed set of terminal double umbels is higher than that of individual double umbels on shoots of the following orders in individuals with the least and most branched synflorescences. In individuals with double umbels on shoots of I-III orders, the number of ovules and seeds in double umbels on shoots of II order is higher than in terminal double umbels. In Broadleaf chervil, the seed set of double umbels on shoots of the same branching order naturally increases with an increase in the branching of the shoot system. The contribution of the seed set of double umbels to the total seed set of C. aromaticum individuals also depends on the degree of synflorescences branching. With an increase in the branching of the shoot system, the share of seed set of terminal double umbels and double umbels on second-order shoots gradually decreases. These characteristics of double umbels on third-order shoots naturally increase due to both their numerical predominance and, in some cases, a greater number of ovules and seeds formed by them. A high seed set ensures successful seed reproduction of Broadleaf chervil in natural conditions.

For the first time, information is provided about the Ceiba River and its tributary Khon, which carry their waters in the state nature reserve of republican significance “Khutinsky”, located in the spurs of the southern macro slope of the Western Sayan. A list of algae is given, including 89 species and intraspecific taxa, which belong to 51 genera, 28 families, 8 classes and 4 divisions. It has been established that the basis of algoflora consists of diatoms and blue-green algae. Common dominants have been identified for two rivers: Meridion circulare and Diatoma mesodon, D. hiemale and Didymosphenia geminata. An ecological and geographical analysis was carried out, according to which algoflora is represented by benthic species, with a predominance of indifferent forms in relation to halobicity and active reaction of the environment. 72 types of water saprobity indicators were identified in the studied watercourses. The predominance of betamesosaprobionts and oligosaprobionts was noted. Cosmopolitans and Boreal species dominated geographically.