Dynamics of the range of Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link (Fabaceae) in Eastern Europe (Ukraine and Belarus)

Regularities of dynamics of geographical didstribution of Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link., Fabaceae) in the East European plain (Ukraine, Belorus) over the past 200 years are established. This species absent in floristic reports of XIX century, so for at that time it was not the component of native flora of this region. It was a cultivated species in forestries for wild animals forage. From places of cultivation C. scoparius was penetrated to natural ecosystems, occupying the niches in outskirts of forest massives, forest openings, forest cultivated coenoses, in ecotons between forests and ploughed fields, along forest rouds and paths. The rate of migration of C. scoparius increase in XX century and especially in XXI century in connections with getting warmer of climate and intensive anthropogenic change of environment (wood felling on a mass scale, absence of treatnunt on a vast places of ploughed fields, presents of many open pits and dumps of rocks, where C. scoparius found suitable habitats). Strong frost and drought are slow down, but do not stop migrating of C. scoparius in East. Inclution C. scoparius in Red Date Book of former Soviet Union was mistakenly

Neophyte invasions in European grasslands

Questions The human‐related spread of alien plants has serious environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Therefore, it is important to know which habitats are most threatened by invasion and why. We studied a wide range of European grasslands to assess: (a) which alien species are the most successful invaders in grasslands; (b) how invasion levels differ across European regions (countries or their parts) and biogeographical regions; and (c) which habitat types are the most invaded. Location Europe. Methods We selected 97,411 grassland vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) and assigned a native or alien status to each of the 8,212 vascular plant species found in these plots. We considered only neophytes (alien species introduced after 1500 AD), which we further divided according to their origin. We compared the levels of invasion using relative neophyte richness in the species pool, relative neophyte richness and cover per plot, and percentages of invaded plots among regions and habitats. Results Only 536 species, representing 6.5% of all grassland vascular plant species, were classified as neophytes. These were mostly therophytes or hemicryptophytes with low habitat specificity. Most of them were present in very few plots, while only three species were recorded in more than 1% of all plots (Onobrychis viciifolia, Erigeron annuus and Erigeron canadensis). Although invasion levels were generally low, we found more invaded plots in the Boreal and Continental regions. When considering only non‐European neophytes, the Pannonian region was the most invaded. Among different grassland habitats, sandy grasslands were most invaded, and alpine and oromediterranean grasslands least invaded. Conclusions In general, natural and semi‐natural European grasslands have relatively low levels of neophyte invasions compared with human‐made habitats or alluvial forests, as well as with grasslands on other continents. The most typical neophytes invading European grasslands are species with broad ecological niches

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities

"Flora of Russia" on iNaturalist: a dataset

The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people are involved in the data collection.Within 20 months the participants accumulated over 750,000 photo observations of 6,853 species of the Russian flora. This constitutes the largest dataset of open spatial data on the country’s biodiversity and a leading source of data on the current state of the national flora. About 85% of all project data are available under free licenses (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities