Peculiarities of Heavy Metals Accumulation by the Plants of Meadow Phytocenosis

This work is devoted to studying of the accumulation peculiarities of heavy metals (HM) by the meadow phytocenosis plants and also plants phytomeliotating properties at various levels of soil contamination. The system “cespitose-podsol soil – meadow vegetation” has been chosen as a research object. Heavy metals as a kind of industrial waste-galvanic slurry enriched by zinc amounting 79.7% of all HM detected in the slurry-was introduced into the soil. Heavy metals content and redistribution in soil at various amount of galvanic slurry, quantitative and specific content of phytocenosis, heavy metals accumulation in the meadow vegetation crop at various contamination layers have been studied during research. Among the researched phytocenosis the groups of plants with high and low heavy metals accumulation capacity have been defined. Cirsium arvense, Capsella bursapastoris, Artemisia vulgarus and Rumex confertus belonged to the group accumulating several heavy metals in considerable amounts without significant phytomass loss. The majority of these plants possess developed phytomass and their ability to accumulate heavy metals in large amount allows using them as phytomeliorants for soil decontamination at the final stages of reclaiming.

The vertical structure of the vegetative canopy of the brown algae Cystoseira(Black Sea)

In the coastal ecosystems of the Black Sea,macrophytobenthos and,in particular,the association of Cystoseira crinite,C.barbara,Cladostephus verticillatus,and Corallina mediterranea,with its thick vegetative canopy(VC),is the key contributor to primary production(PP).Though the vertical structure of the canopy,formed by the algal association,is of principal importance to the PP level,this subject has been long-neglected by researchers.The goal of our work was to compare vertical structures of the vegetative canopy of Cystoseira brown algae under diverse hydrodynamical conditions of the Crimean Peninsula coast.Samples were collected using the 50 cm×50 cm counting frame at eight stations positioned in shallow(55-60 cm deep)sites of Sevastopol Bay(Crimean Peninsula).Dry weight biomass of the VC was determined for all algae assemblage and for each algal species individually,per horizontal surface unit,at each height(Z).The study shows that:1)the VC is characterized by unimodal vertical distribution of biomass,with maximum estimate in the lower part,where the biomass increases to 85%of the total biomass;2)a series of single-peaked curves reliably describes the unimodal distribution of the biomass;thalli of different age groups are found along the canopy profile;and 3)algae found in epiphytic synusia prefer inhabiting the upper part of the VC.The role of environmental factors(seawater turbulence and solar radiation)is discussed in reference to the formation of the vertical structure,made up of the associations of the brown algae Cystoseira.

Status of Mountain Pastures, Including Geobotanical Description of the Main Vegetation Associations in Western Pamir-Alay

The article gives a brief description of the vegetation cover of the Western Pamir-Alai range, as well as a method of describing the phytocenosis of the vegetation of the studied region.