Home – Home – Jornals – Flora and Vegetation of Asian Russia 2018 number 4

The article describes for the first time the results of the investigation of the initial stages of natural revegetation of the coal combustion ash dump (3 study sites, differing in water content) in the forest-steppe zone in the south of West Siberia (near Thermal Power Station 5, Novosibirsk, Russia). The primary succession of the vegetation on the dump is dominated by grasses and herbs, of which 38 species, alongside with 5 tree species and 7 moss species, were found. Under soil nutrients deficit soil water content is the main factor driving the dump revegetation rate. Transition from the open plant community with 80 % projective cover to the successional stages dominated by grasses and herbs is described. Grasses dominated by Calamagrostis epigeios were found to account for most of the above-ground phytomass. Synanthropic species such as Berteroa incana, Artemisia vulgaris, Lepidium ruderale and some others were also found. The vertical structure of the plant communities could be described as the ground type. Th e standing phytomass in the 10th year of revegetation of the ash dump was estimated as 150 kg/ha in the open plant community, 2800 kg/ha in the reed-smallreed community and 3770 kg/ha of the air-dried mass in the sweet-cloversmallreed community. The aboveground phytomass exceeded the belowground one in each studied dump sites.