The current state of the steppe vegetation classification system in the Volga region

Abstract

Steppe vegetation in the Volga region is one of the predominant types of vegetation. At present, it has survived only in areas inconvenient for human economic and recreational activities. Its research is necessary to understand the structure and composition of zonal vegetation and distribution patterns to predict changes in the modern vegetation cover. The relevance of studying the steppe vegetation of the Volga region is also due to the creation of the project “Vegetation of Russia”. We studied the steppe vegetation of the Volga region in the period from 2011 to 2020 from the standpoint of the J. Braun-Blanquet approach. Field studies covered all the diversity of the steppe vegetation represented in the region-herb-rich grass steppes, herb-grass steppes, grass steppes and desert and their psammophytic, petrophytic and halophytic edaphic variants within Ulyanovsk, Penza, Samara, Saratov, and Volgograd Oblasts, the western part of Orenburg Oblast and the northern part of Astrakhan Oblast. The syntaxonomic analysis of our own materials and literature data made it possible to establish 65 associations, 47 subassociations and 2 variants. They are assigned to the class Festuco-Brometea, the orders Festucetalia valesiacae, Helictotricho-Stipetalia, Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipetalia lessingianae and the alliances Festucion valesiacae, Agropyrion pectinati, Centaureion sumensis, Stipion korshinskyi and Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipion lessingianae.