Participation of apomictic cereals in composition of steppe and ecotone phytocenoses in the north of the Lower Volga region
O. I. YUDAKOVA1, E. I. KAYBELEVA1, E. A. NYUshchenko1, T. M. LYSENKO2,3,4, M. Yu. VORONIN1
1Saratov State University, Saratov, Russia
2Komarov Botanical Institute of RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia
3Samara Federal Research Scientific Center RAS, Institute of Ecology of the Volga Basin of RAS, Tolyatti, Russia
4Tobolsk complex scientific station Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tobolsk, Russia
Keywords: apomixis, amphymixis, phytocenosis, plant communities, cereals, Poaceae
Abstract
A geobotanical analysis of 160 steppe and ecotone plant communities with the participation of cereals in the north of the Lower Volga region (within the Saratov region) was carried out. The species diversity of apomictic cereals is significantly inferior to the diversity of their amphymictic relatives in the flora of the region and in the studied phytocenoses (24 apomictic and 109 amphymictic species in the flora; 17 and 34 species in the phytocenoses, respectively). At the same time, the dominants of the studied communities are equally represented by both amphymictic (14 species) and apomictic cereals (9 species). It was established that cereals with amphymictic mode of reproduction dominate in 64 phytocenoses, apomictic cereals dominate in 48 ones. The number of phytocenoses in which apomicts are codominants significantly exceeds the number of plant communities with amphymicts codominance (46 and 22, respectively). The studied plant communities are similar in species richness and evenness. The obtained data indicate successful competition between apomictic cereals and amphymicts and their significant contribution to the composition of steppe and ecotone phytocenoses in the northern Lower Volga region.
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