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