Архив метки: desert zone

COMMUNITIES OF HYPERHALOPHYTIC DWARF SEMISHRUBS FORMATIONS IN THE DESERT ZONE OF THE NORTHWESTERN CASPIAN LOWLAMD

Arid Ecosystems

Goryaev I.A. COMMUNITIES OF HYPERHALOPHYTIC DWARF SEMISHRUBS FORMATIONS IN THE DESERT ZONE OF THE NORTHWESTERN CASPIAN LOWLAMD // Arid Ecosystems. 2025. Vol. 31. № 2 (103). P. 91-100. | PDF

Hyperhalophytic dwarf semishrubs communities in the desert zone of the Northwestern Caspian Lowland are confined to solonchaks along the shores of saline lakes, stretching from north to south and southeast, from N47° to N45°. The local cenoses have poor species composition (1-10 species). However, there is an exception which is a formation with 42 species formed by Artemisia santonica. The communities of Caroxylon dendroides, Kalidium foliatum, and Anabasis salsa formations are located at the northwestern limit of their range, mostly located in the vast Iranian-Turanian Desert. The cenoses of Halocnemum strobilaceum have a wider range in the Mediterranean, spreading from North Africa to Middle and Central Asia. Communities of Halimione verrucifera, Artemisia santonica, Frankenia hirsuta, and Limonium suffruticosum are distributed from the Black Sea Region to the Caspian Lowland (Lavrenko, 1980). The communities of these hyperhalophytes are confined to a certain type of soil salinity and a certain range of the groundwater level position. In the northern part of the region, the sodium sulfate type of salinity predominates mainly in the upper meter, and communities formed by Artemisia santonica, Caroxylon dendroides, and Anabasis salsa are associated with these conditions. In the southern part, chlorine ions dominate in the salt composition of soils, and the cenoses of other formations are associated with these conditions (Goryaev, 2019; Goryaev, Korablev, 2020). The novelty of our work is in its ecological and phytocenotic classification of hyperhalophytic dwarf semishrub communities that was performed for the first time, as well as in ordination and cluster analyses of salinization and soil moisture, all based on the data collected in 2017-2024 in the Northwestern Caspian lowland located in the desert zone.

Keywords: hyperhalophytes, dwarf semishrubs formations, solonchaks, desert zone, Northwestern Caspian lowland.

DOI: 10.24412/1993-3916-2025-2-91-100

EDN: GUDQXT

THE ACTUAL VEGETATION MAP FOR THE TERRITORY OF DISTRIBUTION OF SAIGA TATARICA TATARIC L. POPULATION IN THE NORTH-WESTERN CASPIAN REGION

Arid Ecosystems

UDC 581.527.2; 581.527.5

Safronova I.N., Stepanova N.Yu.,  Karimova T.Yu., Kalmykova O.G., Ulanova S.S., Fedorova N.L., Goryaev I.A., Polyektov S.A., Polyakov D.G. THE ACTUAL VEGETATION MAP FOR THE TERRITORY OF DISTRIBUTION OF SAIGA TATARICA TATARIC L. POPULATION IN THE NORTH-WESTERN CASPIAN REGION // Arid Ecosystems. 2023. Vol. 29. № 3 (96). P. 46-56. | PDF

The map of the current vegetation on the territory of the present and expected distribution of the saiga population in the North-Western Caspian region is presented. The map was created under an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) at a scale of 1:200,000 in the ArcGIS. Its legend contains 61 numbers, combined into 11 groups according to the dominant formation. In the steppe zone, fallows and pastures of different ages on slightly undulating and undulating plains with light-brown soils (Kastanozem by WRB) are represented by Stipa sareptana, Artemisia lerchiana communities on loamy and sandy loam soils in complex with Artemisia lerchiana and Leymus ramosus, Poa bulbosa, Agropyron desertorum on solonetz (I); Stipa sareptana, S. lessingiana, Festuca valesiaca, Agropyron desertorum, Poa bulbosa, Artemisia lerchiana, Tanacetum achilleifolium communities on loamy and sandy loam soils in complex with Artemisia lerchiana, A. pauciflora, Tanacetum achilleifolium on solonetz (II); Festuca valesiaca, Agropyron desertorum, Stipa sareptana, Leymus ramosus, Artemisia lerchiana communities on loamy and sandy loam saline soils in complex with Artemisia lerchiana, A. pauciflora, Tanacetum achilleifolium, Poa bulbosa, Leymus ramosus on solonetz (III); Poa bulbosa, Agropyron desertorum, Stipa sareptana, Leymus ramosus, Artemisia lerchiana, A. taurica, Tanacetum achilleifolium communities on loamy and sandy loam saline soils in complex with Artemisia taurica, A. lerchiana, A. pauciflora on solonetz (IV); Artemisia lerchiana, A. austriaca, Festuca valesiaca, Agropyron desertorum, Leymus ramosus and Festuca valesiaca, Poa bulbosa, Artemisia austriaca communities on loamy and sandy loam saline soils in complex  with Artemisia pauciflora, A. santonica on solonetz (V). In the desert zone, pastures on  hilly sands, undulating plains with brown desert (Calcisol by WRB) sandy and sandy loam soils are represented by Artemisia lerchiana, Poa bulbosa and Poa bulbosa, Artemisia lerchiana communities (VI); Artemisia lerchiana, Poa bulbosa communities on brown desert saline soils of light granulometric  composition in  complexes with Artemisia pauciflora, Poa bulbosa on solonetz (VII); complexes of Artemisia lerchiana, Poa bulbosa and Artemisia taurica, Poa bulbosa communities on brown desert saline soils of light granulometric composition (VIII); complexes of Poa bulbosa, Artemisia lerchiana and Poa bulbosa, Artemisia taurica communities on brown desert saline soils of light granulometric composition  (IX); Artemisia lerchiana, Poa bulbosa communities on undulating sands, Calligonum aphyllum on hilly sands (X); Poa bulbosa, Stipa sareptana, S. caspia, Agropyron fragile, Sporobolus cryptandrus, annual (Ceratocarpus arenarius, etc.) communities on intensive  pastures with brown desert sandy soils (XI).

Keywords: vegetation map, modern vegetation cover, steppe zone, desert zone, fallows, pastures, saiga antelopes.

Financing. The work was carried out under the research agreement No. 1/71 (30/04/2021) of the V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the World Wildlife Fund “Assessment of Saiga Habitats of the Northwestern Caspian Sea”; the grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No. 15-05-06773 “Vegetation Cover of the Caspian Lowland in the System of Botanical and Geographical Zoning”; on the topic No. 121032500047-1 of the Laboratory of General Geobotany of the V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute “Vegetation of European Russia and Northern Asia: Diversity, Dynamics, Principles of Organization”; under the state task No. 122042700002-6 of the N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences; on the topic of the Institute of the Steppe of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences No. AAAAA21-121011190016-1; on the topic of the state task No. AAAAA18-118042490055-7 (0089-2021-0010) of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Fundamental Problems of Wildlife Conservation and Rational Use of Biological Resources”; on the topic of fundamental research plsnned for 2022-2024 of the Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Research of Geoecological Processes in Hydrological Systems of Land, Formation of Surface and Groundwater Quality, Problems of Water Resources Management and Water Use in the Conditions of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts” (No. FMWZ-2022-0002), State registration No. AAAA-A18-118022090104-8; on the topic of the state task of the Institute for Integrated Research of Arid Territories “Monitoring the Current State of Pasture Resources of the Republic of Kalmykia Using Geoinformation Systems”. It was also supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Central Research and Development Center “Herbarium of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (No. 075-15-2021-67).

DOI: 10.24412/1993-3916-2023-3-46-56

EDN: QSGELU