New data on the distribution of communities of hairy feather grass steppes in the Kursk Region

Abstract

The article provides data on new locations of communities of the steppes with Stipa capillata L. in the Kursk Region. The described communities are classified as associations Gypsophilo altisssimae–Stipetum capillatae Poluyanov 2009 and Falcario vulgaris–Stipetum capillatae Poluyanov in Poluyanov et Averinova 2012. The new subassociation Falcario vulgaris–Stipetum capillatae thymetosum marschalliani subass. nov. is established. In communities of the ass. Gypsophilo altissimae–Stipetum capillatae the indicators of the projective cover of Stipa capillata have increased, while the phytocoenotic role of S. pennata, on the contrary, has noticeably decreased. The species richness of communities has decreased and the homogeneity of vegetation has increased. A group of weed and weed-steppe species, such as Conyza canadensis, Echium vulgare, Daucus carota, Poterium sanguisorba, Lactuca serriola, Stachys annua, etc., has fallen out of the coenoflora of the syntaxon. Is is caused by the cessation of grazing, which led to constant disruption of phytocoenoses, contributed to the penetration of weed species into them and an increase in floristic heterogeneity, as well as to general climatic changes leading to xerophytization of habitats and to the strengthening of the phytocoenotic positions of Stipa capillata.