The vegetation on railway embankments of the Kursk region

Abstract

The present paper deals with the classification of the plant communities developed on the railway embankments in Kursk region. This type of vegetation is still poorly studied in Russia although some floristic information is available for various regions. Kursk region is located between 50°542–52°262 N and 34°052–38°312 E. Its area is 29 800 km2. Zonal vegetation is represented by broad-leaved forests on dark-gray forest soils and meadow steppes on chernozems. The vegetation of the railway embankments was being studied in Kursk region since 2003. Railway embankment sections were surveyed in the city of Kursk, the towns of Dmitriev, Lgov, Oboyan, Rylsk, Shchigry, and urban settlements of Konyshevka, Kshenskiy, Ponyri, Pristen. The upper parts of railway embankments, slopes and nearby sites, stations, and areas between roadbeds were studied. Classification according to Braun-Blanquet approach, with the use of “deductive method” (Kopeсký, Hejný, 1974), is based upon 120 relevés. The data were treated by software package IBIS 7.2 (Zverev, 2007). The names of the higher syntaxa are given according to “Vegetation of Europe…” (Mucina et al., 2016). Direct ordination of relevés by soil moisture and nitrogen content factors (scales after H. Ellenberg et al. (1992)) was conducted to distinguish ecological specificity of the communities on railway embankment and those outside railways. The vegetation of the urbanized territories under strong man impact in general and in particular around railway stations is highly diverse. The plant cover regularly destroyed by herbicides re-establishes in different ways depending on the distance from the stations. The mostly diverse are communities on the railway slopes wh ere the late successional stages are present due to the poorer pressure, These communities were compared with the undestroyed ones occurring beyond railways (Arepieva, 2015). Syntaxonomy of railway embankment vegetation in Kursk region includes 3 classes, 4 orders, 4 alliances, 9 associations, 2 subassociations, 4 variants and 3 communities. Phytocoenoses of the railway embankments are formed under specific conditions resulting in their floristic composition and structure being different from those beyond the railways due to the man impact, moisture, trophicity and substrate mechanical composition. The suggested syntaxonomy of the vegetation of railway embankments is not yet complete. New syntaxa would be established along with the data accumulation.