Антропогенная динамика фитоценозов в долине реки Нальчик (Кабардино-Балкария)

The results of the ecological and floristic classification of some mderal communities of the city of Nalchik are presented. The community of Cichorium intybus (Artemisietea vulgaris) that consist of two classes of mderal vegetation, Artemisietea vulgaris and Stellarietea mediae, and the class of meadow vegetation Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, is described. The association Conyzo canadensis-Lactucetum serriolae Lohmeyer in Oberdorfer 1957 is described. Communities of associations, including those under the name Erigeronto­ Lactucetum serriolae Lohmeyer in Oberdorfer 1957, are noted not only in settlements, but аво in other biotopes in Russia and abroad.

The article presents the results of an analysis of the alien flora of the ruderal vegetation of Ukraine. A total of 325 alien species which belong to 58 families and 198 genera were identified. The total anthropogenization index of the ruderal phytocoenoses is 19.8%. It was established that the highest level of anthropogenization was found in the phytocoenoses of Polygono-Poetea annuae, Stellarietea mediae and Plantaginetea majoris. The leading families of the non-native fraction of the studied plant communities were Asteraceae, Brassicaceae and Poaceae. It has been revealed that in the biomorphological spectrum of alien plants therophytes prevailed. The ecological analysis has shown the predominance of submesophytes, acidophytes, semieutrophytes, acarbonatophytes and heminitrophytes plants. It was established that according to the arrival time the kenophytes predominate and by the degree of naturalization – the epoecophytes. Comparison of the alien species composition of the ruderal plant communities by means of Jaccard’s indices showed the most similarity between the classes Polygono-Poetea annuae and Plantaginetea majoris, Robinietea and Galio-Urticetea, Stellarietea mediae and Artemisietea vulgaris. For the separate classes the indices of archaeophytization, kenophytization, modernization and fluctuation of the flora were calculated. It has been established that there are 23 highly invasive species in the ruderal vegetation of Ukraine and among these Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Anisantha tectorum, Grindelia squarrosa, Heracleum mantegazzianum, H. pubescens and Xanthium oreintale ssp. riparium are transformers.

In the model experiment, an assessment of the role of plants in the reclamation of the bed of combustion waste from coal-based power plants fertilised with compost and sewage sludge. The bed of combustion waste was stored in cylindrical containers with a diameter of 80 cm (0.5 m2 of surface) and the height of 100 cm. The first stage of the experiment was carried out in 2006–2007. Then the bed was fertilised with four types of compost and sewage sludge, and then seeded with four species of grasses and white mustard. The second stage was undertaken in 2011–2013. In 2011, mixture of four species of grasses and white mustard was seeded on the same bed. It was assumed that the continuation of research in the second stage, whose results of are presented in this paper, will show a broader spectrum of vegetation changes, what will accurately track the process of biological reclamation of the bed of combustion waste. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation in the experiment, based on the percentage estimates of the coverage of species and crop yields. During the three-year (second stage) experiment 78 species of self-seeding plants belonging to 19 taxa in the rank of families and 11 syntaxonomic groups were recorded. The most numerous were the families: aster family, grass family, papilionaceous family, goosefoot family and cabbage family. Among the syntaxonomic groups the dominating species belonged to the class Stellarietea mediae, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and Artemisietea vulgaris. Among the forms of life hemicryptophyte and therophytes were the most represented. Highest total yields of plants were found in model containers with Complex compost and Radiowo compost and the model of sewage sludge. Based on the estimated models in each degree of coverage of species and crop yield, the highest reclamation efficiency was demonstrated in the models of reclamation of composts Complex and Radiowo, as well as in the model of sewage sludge. The lowest efficiency was demonstrated in models of composts ZUSOK and plant composts.

The purpose of this study is to characterize plant communities with Ambrosia artemisiifolia in the Kursk Region. The work is based on 32 relevés made by the author in the city of Kursk and few district centers­ of the Kursk Region in 2009–2018. Some information about natural conditions of the Kursk Region is given in Table 1. Classification is carried out according to Braun-Blanquet approach. The data were treated by IBIS 7.2 software package (Zverev, 2007). The names of the higher syntaxa follow to «Vegetation of Europe…» (Mucina et al., 2016). Synoptic tables include only species with a constancy above I. Ecological conditions (soil moisture, richness in mineral nitrogen, light) were assessed with the use of average values by H. Ellenberg et al. (1992) ecological scales while hemerobiality with use of average values by N. G. Ilminskikh (1993) ecological scale and processed by IBIS software (Zverev, 2007). 4 associations of 3 classes of vegetation were revealed. Communities with Ambrosia artemisiifolia and hygrophilous species are described in Serbia (Jarić et al., 2011) wh ere subass. Chenopodio–Ambrosietum artemisiifoliae bidentetosum Jarić et al. 2011 was recorded in abandoned fields. It is differentiated by biennials and perennials from classes Artemisietea vulgaris and Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and others (Table 10). The features of communities with Ambrosia artemisiifolia identified in this work are important for the development strategies to combat this dangerous plant.

In the vegetation of meadows and pastures, due to climate changes and an inadequate and intensive use of hydromeliorative measures, invasive species play a significant role in the degradation of biodiversity. Secondary development of ass. Trifolio-Agrostietum stoloniferae Markovic 1973 stands was observed in Backa, in periodically flooded pastures. Floristic composition of these stands consists of 117 plant species, of which 94 grow in the Danube riverbank region and 97 around the Tisa river. According to the floristic analysis, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Bellis perennis, Carduus nutans, Cirsium arvense, Eupatorium cannabinum, Linaria vulgaris, Lotus corniculatus, Lythrum salicaria, Rumex crispus, and Trifolium repens are characterized as invasive plants of the European region. Moreover, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Eleusine indica and Xanthium spinosum, included in the List of invasive species in AP Vojvodina, are also present. Lythrum salicaria is regarded as one of the 100 most dangerous invasive alien species in the world.

Changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen pool sizes, dynamics, and biochemical stability during ∼160 years natural vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau, China

Understanding responses of soil fungal community characteristics to vegetation restoration is essential for optimizing artificial restoration strategies in alpine mining ecosystems. Despite its ecological significance, current comprehension regarding the structure composition and assembly mechanisms of soil fungal communities following vegetation restoration in these fragile ecosystems remains insufficient. We used the high-throughput sequencing and null model analysis to determine the variations and environmental drivers of soil fungal community structures and assembly processes across different restoration chronosequences (natural plant sites, unrestored sites, 2-year restoration sites, and 6-year restoration sites) in a semiarid alpine coal mining region. Artificial vegetation restoration significantly enhanced the α diversity of soil fungal communities while reducing β diversity. However, with prolonged restoration duration, we observed a significant decrease in α diversity accompanied by a corresponding increase in β diversity. Moreover, artificial restoration induced substantial modifications in soil fungal community composition. Taxonomic analysis demonstrated a distinct shift in dominant specialist species from Ascomycota in unrestored, natural plant, and 2-year restoration sites to Glomeromycota in 6-year restoration sites. Dispersal limitation and homogeneity selection were the predominant mechanism governing soil fungal community assembly, with its relative contributions varying significantly across restoration stages. In natural plant communities and unrestored sites, the structure of soil fungal community was primarily governed by dispersal limitation. The 2-year restoration sites exhibited a marked transition, with homogeneous selection emerging as the dominant assembly process, primarily influenced by soil sand content, total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), and belowground biomass (BGB). This transition was accompanied by a significant reduction in the contribution of dispersal limitation. As restoration progressed, the importance of homogeneous selection gradually decreased, while dispersal limitation regained prominence, with community structure being predominantly regulated by soil clay content, soil moisture content (SMC), and TP. Our results underscore the critical role of soil texture and phosphorus availability in shaping soil fungal community dynamics throughout the revegetation process.

The study established experimental transects in undisturbed areas of the Caohai Nature Reserve in Weining, Guizhou Province. The study aims to examine complete successional transects in different landscapes: non-karst, karst, and vegetation restoration, using the spatiotemporal substitution method. It analyzes the distribution patterns of Total potassium (TK) and Avail potassium (AK) in the soil and employs a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) to investigate the effects of geomorphology, soil aggregates, and their interactions on the changes in soil potassium(K) elements. Furthermore, it explores the synergistic effects of K cycling during the vegetation restoration process in karst soils. The findings indicated that: (1) In karst areas, the overall TK content was higher than in non-karst areas, while the AK content in the topsoil was higher in non-karst areas. The TK content in the karst areas tended to approach that of the vegetation restoration zone. (2) After restoration, the dominant plants changed from Gramineae to Gramineae + Asteraceae, and the vegetation richness increased, thereby improving the soil fertility and potassium fixation capacity. (3) The GLMM showed that the karst landscape had a significant effect on the TK and AK contents of surface soil. In the early stage of vegetation restoration, the joint effect of soil and vegetation affected the TK and AK contents in soil.

Understanding the mechanisms governing plant community assembly is crucial for developing effective vegetation restoration and management strategies. However, studies examining plant community assembly during the restoration of severely degraded alpine meadows remain limited. In this study, we investigated the processes shaping plant community structure and the associated environmental drivers during the early stages of restoration in severely degraded alpine meadows. Our results showed that differences in plant community composition between mixed sowing and control treatments increased over time. Additionally, both species richness and the dominance of forb species originating from the soil seed bank progressively declined. Across all mixed sowing treatments, plant community assembly showed stochastic assembly patterns, with homogeneous dispersal increasing and ecological drift decreasing annually. By the third year of restoration, heterogeneous selection was more pronounced in the grass + legume mixture than in the grass-only and grass + legume + sedge mixture treatments. Further analyses identified under-canopy photosynthetically active radiation intensity and soil available phosphorus as the key environmental drivers of plant community composition. Therefore, we infer that the stochastic assembly observed after mixed sowing arises from the counterbalancing effects of environmental filtering and niche differentiation. This study highlights that reducing soil nutrient availability to limit the dominance of upper-layer plant communities is crucial for maintaining plant species diversity during the early stages of alpine meadow restoration. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights for improving vegetation restoration strategies in degraded alpine grasslands.

Eco–enzymatic stoichiometry offers insights into how soil microorganisms allocate resources to fulfil their energy and nutrient demands. Subtropical ecosystems are known to be limited in resources, particularly by phosphorus (P) limitation. Vegetation restoration often leads to sustained changes in the relative availability of soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and P. However, the patterns of microbial resource limitations and their driving factors during vegetation restoration remain largely unclear. Here, we used eco‐enzymatic stoichiometry modelling to investigate soil microbial resource limitations and to identify the key driving factors across five stages of vegetation restoration including grassland (GL), shrubland (SL) and early‐, mid‐ and late‐stage forests (EF, MF and LF) in the subtropical region of China. The activities of β–1,4–glucosidase (BG), β–N–acetyl glucosaminidase (NAG) and acid phosphatase (ACP) in forest stages (EF, MF and LF) were significantly higher than those in the GL and SL stages. The activities of cellobiohydrolase (CBH) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) increased consistently only across the forest stages (EF, MF and LF). Soil microbial resources wereco‐limited by C and P. Soil nutrients had the strongest overall impact, positively affecting microbial C limitation and negatively affecting P limitation, while litter biomass positively regulated P limitation. Synthesis and applications . This research provides key insights into microbial resource limitations associated with vegetation restoration and could inform the design of more effective forest restoration strategies aimed at enhancing the recovery and stability of subtropical ecosystems.

Vegetation restoration increased the diversity and network complexity of carbon-fixing functional bacteria in heavily eroded areas of southern China

Moran's I of VRPAD: A human activity-sensitive spatial pattern index for vegetation restoration evaluation.

In recent years an increasing number of streams have been restored to improve conditions for natural fen and meadow vegetation to develop in the associated riparian areas, but with modest success. Here we apply a controlled and replicated approach to investigate the role of flooding, sediment deposition, and seed addition for species recruitment in riparian areas with different types of standing vegetation. We expect that species recruitment is restricted in areas where the vegetation is dominated by fast‐growing productive species because competition for light will make the establishment of new species difficult, especially for low‐productive target species. We found that the naturally recruited species were few, mostly common, and widely distributed species. A majority of the recruited species, including target species added as seeds into the sediments, emerged in all areas independent of the characteristics of the standing vegetation. We observed significant temporal changes in compositional patterns throughout the experimental period (May to October). These changes were especially pronounced in areas with fen/fen‐meadow vegetation and were closely associated with the emergence and growth of species originating from the deposited sediments (e.g. Equisetum pratense, Poa trivialis, Urtica dioica), including the seeded target species (Lychnis flos‐cuculi and Lotus pedunculatus) and with a decline in fen‐associated mosses and small sedges. Compositional changes were also associated with shifts toward more productive species in areas previously dominated by low and intermediately productive species. We infer that flooding and sediment deposition play a limited role for recruitment of target species in riparian areas and that sediment deposition may entail a risk of losing diversity in riparian areas.

Despite the increasing prevalence and significant role of D. reticulatus in pathogen transmission, the factors influencing its distribution and activity are still poorly known. The paper presents for the first time a study of the D. reticulatus ecology in a protected area, in which the dependence of D. reticulatus occurrence and activity on the ecological habitat type is analysed. Tick collection and environmental monitoring were conducted from March - November 2012 and 2014 in five ecologically-diverse habitats in the Polesie National Park of central-eastern Poland. The study shows that the most beneficial habitats for D. reticulatus are provided by meadow ecosystems dominated by plants from the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea: Poa pratensis, P. trivialis, Festuca rubra, F. pratensis, and Alopecurcus pratensis, as well as Carex sp. sedges (64.78% of the tick collections). Less favourable conditions are offered by the fresh habitat covered by deciduous forest with dominance of Betula sp., A. pratensis, and Carex sp. sedges (15.27%), in the wet habitat dominated by Alnus glutinosa and Urtica dioica (9.00%), Betula humilis, Salix sp., and Carex sp. (8.44%), and in the subcontinental hornbeam forest Tilio-Carpinetum with poor undergrowth (2.50%). D. reticulatus avoids wet habitats with bog birch Betuletum pubescientis communities and moist pine forest Molinio-Pineteum, as well as habitats dominated by heather Calluna vulgaris. The distribution and dynamics of the activity of adult D. reticulatus depends on the biological and geoclimatic conditions prevailing in tick habitats. The structure of the flora colonising a habitat may be an indicator of the presence of this tick species.

What drives the vegetation restoration in Yangtze River basin, China: Climate change or anthropogenic factors?