• • • Steppe flora as affected by anthropogenic factors and plant transformation
Paper deals with biodiversity investigation of phytocenoses, formed under high anthropogenic effect. Steppe areas of the Akmola region experience high level of anthropogenic degradation of natural landscapes due to long period of agricultural practices. The experiment took place in 2015 in the first and second growing seasons on the territory of Semenovka village, Tselinogradskiy rayon. The territory is located in the dry steppe zone. Analyses were conducted on the north, south, west and east transects. Species composition was determined by studying herbarium samples in the laboratory. Cutting happened close to soil under maximum plant growth.
Plants were divided into botanical groups, dried to air-dry form and weighed. 26 plant species related to 11 families. Edificators were Artemisia absinthium and Agropyron cristatum. Plant number averaged to 58.5 pcs m-2 northward and 145.4 pcs m-2 southward. Top productivity varied within 23.8 and 61.3 g m-2 in the first half of the growing season. The second half of the growing season showed decrease in phytomass of 66% (27.4 g m-2). Phytocenosis consisted mostly of Artemisia austriaca and other Сhenopodiaceae spp., poorly eaten by cattle due to their bitterness.
Source: https://kormoproizvodstvo.ru/en/archive/7-2017/, p. 7
You can order translation of the full text into English (kormoproiz@mail.ru).
