Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2019 number 5

The article is devoted to the ecological problem of effective urban landscaping and increasing the role of green plantings in environment stabilizing. The paper summarizes the material on the complex bio-ecological assessment of functionally different urban green areas of Vladivostok. There are six types of urban plantings: ordinary plantings, squares, intra-quarter gardening, old city public gardens, city parks, intra-urban recreational forests. The questions of specificity of their species composition, conditions of growth and the intensity of influencing anthropogenic press are considered. It is noted almost fourfold increase of environmental stress in following series: city parks → intra-quarter gardening → intra-urban recreational forests → old city public gardens → ordinary plantings → squares. The greatest attention is paid to the comparative analysis of tree-shrub species and plantations accumulation of heavy metals - the main markers of technogenic pollution of the urban environment. The correlation regularities in the accumulation of heavy metals by plants in the conditions of Vladivostok urban ecosystems were found out and the geochemical association of the main metal-pollutants was established: Fe_4.1 Zn_2.0 Pb_1.9 Cu_1.4 Ni_1.3. It is shown that the intensity of heavy metals transformation by green plantings increases 3 times in a ranked series: intra-urban recreational forest → city parks → old city public gardens → intra-quarter gardening → squares → ordinary plantings. On the basis of the conducted researches and attraction of the received earlier results the complex assessment of a functional condition of city green plantings is performed. For its practical solution the author offers the functional status index (IFS) of plantings as an integral indicator of ecological condition of vegetation and soils of green plantings, their ability of heavy metals transformation in the conditions of the urbanized environment. The high functional status of ordinary plantings and squares, caused mainly by the active accumulation of heavy metals by soils and plants, is noted. This index is one and a half times lower for old city gardens and intra-urban recreational forests. In conclusion, the author recommends using the obtained results in the organization of a rational system of urban landscaping and differentiated measures of care for plantations of various functional purposes.