ECOLOGICAL FEATURES AND ANTHROPOGENIC TRANSFORMATION OF WETLANDS AS PART OF URBAN FLORAS OF UKRAINE

Abstract

Living conditions of plant species and their communities are changing due to urbanization. This affects the composition of urban flora and vegetation, especially those species and communities that grow in excessively wet habitats. The article considers the anthropogenic transformation of vegetation cover of wetlands in such cities of Ukraine as Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and the Donetsk-Makiyivka agglomeration. There is a tendency of increasing the drought-resistant species in studied wetlands. At the same time, the presence of adventive species in the vegetation cover of wetlands indicates that the urban flora is gradually adapting to coexistence with humans. Ecological analysis of hygrophytic plant communities indicates the process of changing them by ruderal coenoses. The plant communities with wide ecological amplitude and the participation of adventive species form the wetlands’ vegetation of studied cities.