The climate of a large city and ecocline ordination of its vegetation cover

Abstract

Large cities generate their own climate, which influences the distribution of vegetation cover and individual species population into separated ecological phytocoenotic zones ecoclines. By the example of urban ecology research conducted in the city of Lviv with a population of about one million inhabitants, the nature of this ecocline ordination has been revealed. It is the result of action of vertical and horizontal gradients on woody plants phytovitality. The manifestation of these changes is increasing scarcity in phytocoenotic structure of vegetation, water deficit in the leaves, ratio distortion of the pigment composition. There are proposed certain methods for assessing the phytovitality of the introduced species. In the I EPhZ suburban forest we deal with the “new” climatope and edaphotope. In the II EPhZ — the park, there is a forest-steppe climatope and edaphotope due to the thin vegetation and a larger area of open spaces. In the III EPhZ — in public gardens where open insolated spaces dominate — there is steppe climatope and edaphotope. In IV EPhZ, where the high dryness of air and soil in streets and squares prevails, there is a desert climatope and edaphotope. In the I, II and III EPhZ soil temperature is always lower than the temperature in the crown, which corresponds to the physiological needs of plants. In IV EPhZ the soil temperature around the tree trunk is higher than the air temperature in the tree crown.