Impact of Plant Growth Regulators to Development of the Second Generation Energy Crop Miscanthus × giganteus Produced Two Years in Marginal Post-Military Soil

The impact of the plant growth regulators (PGRs) Stimpo, Regoplant, and Charkor on the production of the second-generation energy crop Miscanthus � giganteus on marginal post-military soil was investigated during two vegetation seasons. The land, previously a tank training polygon, has not been in use since 1990 and has become marginal. Biological parameters (stem, shoot, and root lengths) and dry biomass values were evaluated in relation to the applied treatments. The multivariate general linear model (M-GLM) results showed a positive influence of Charkor on M. � giganteus development; the effect was markedly higher in the second year of vegetation. The impact of Stimpo and Regoplant was less noticeable; nevertheless, certain combinations of treatments showed satisfactory results. The M-GLM approach detected the inter-influence of the main factors of the production process, i.e., PGRs, soil, and year of growing. The results showed the predominant influence of year, PGRs and combined factor PGRs � year on the biological parameters; the other studied factors and their combinations were not as effective. Further research should focus on verifying the field-scale results for the M. � giganteus plantation established in a post-military area and compare the lab and field studies

The soil aggregate structure as a marker of the ecological niche of the micromollusc Vallonia pulchel

The article discusses the role of the soil aggregate structure in quantifying the marginality and specialisation axes of the ecological niche of the micromollusc Vallonia pulchella (Muller 1774) that inhabits technosols. The experimental polygon consisted of 105 samples located within 7 transects (15 samples each). The distance between rows of sampling points was 3 m. The average density of V. pulchella was 1393 ind.∙m-2. The soil aggregate fraction of 1–5 mm was found to be predominant within the technosol. The spatial variation of aggregate fractions was characterised by a moderate level of the spatial dependence. It was impossible to choose an adequate covariance model from among the traditional ones to interpolate the spatial variation of aggregate fractions, and only the Matérn model was best suited. The axis of marginality and specialisation of the V. pulchella ecological niche projected in soil aggregate fractions was significantly different from a random alternative. The ecological niche of the V. pulchella was presented by integral variables, such as the axis of marginality and specialisation, which were the basis to build a map of the spatial variation of the habitat suitability index. The marginality of the V. pulchella ecological niche correlates with soil penetration resistance indicators at depths ranging from 0–5 to 20–25 cm, soil humidity, acidity, and aeration. The specialisation correlates with the soil mechanical impedance at 25–35 cm, nitrogen content, and the soil acidity regime

Potential Possibilities of Soil Mesofauna Usage for Biodiagnostics of Soil Contamination by Heavy Metals

The study of potential possibilities of mesofauna as bioindicator of soil contamination by heavy metals is one of the most important areas of urban ecology and soil biology. The work presents the results of ecotoxicological and bioindicative assessment of the environment and the biota of the Melitopol urbosystem of Ukraine. The dynamics of chemical properties of soils in different functional zones of the city is analysed. The complex indices of pollution of environmental components are determined. A bioindicative assessment of the ecological condition of the territory of the urbosystem on the indicators of vitality of the soil mesofauna is carried out. For the first time, regional species-bioindicators for the territory of the city of Melitopol were determined. The ecomorphic structure of soil mesofauna of various functional zones of the city was revealed

The role of soil and plant cover as drivers of soil macrofauna of the Dnipro River floodplain ecosystems

Floodplain ecosystems are hotspots of biological diversity and perform important ecosystem functions in the landscape. The key to understanding the sustainability of ecosystem function is knowledge of the relationships between ecosystem components. The article reveals the role of morphological and physical properties of soil, as well as phytoindication of environmental factors as drivers of biological diversity of soil macrofauna of protected ecosystems of the Dnipro River floodplain. The studies were conducted in the forest floodplain ecosystems of the “Dnipro-Orilskiy” Nature Reserve. The studies of morphological properties of soils allowed us to identify the representatives of two reference groups: Fluvisol and Gleysol. The soil physical property data were subjected to principal component analysis, which extracted four principal components whose eigenvalues exceeded unity and described 79.9% of the variation in traits. The principal components of variation in soil physical properties and phytoindication assessments of environmental factors were used as predictors of the community structure of soil macrofauna. These predictors were able to explain 29.6% of the community variation. Physical soil properties are most important as a driver of soil macrofauna. The morphological properties of the soil and phytoindicator assessments are able to explain a much smaller part of the community variation. The pure influence of the predictors is small, indicating that they interact significantly in influencing soil animals. The results obtained have implications for the development of optimal strategies for floodplain ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation

Plant Community Hemeroby is a Reliable Indicator of the Dynamics of Reclamation of Lands Disturbed by Mining

Reliable indicators of success are needed to monitor the process of reclaiming disturbed land in order to understand the achievement of reclamation objectives. The formation of coherent dynamics of vegetation and soil development is ultimately a crucial condition for the success of reclaiming territory disturbed by surface mining and the possibility of using reclaimed land in agricultural production. The study revealed a relationship between the phytoindicator of vegetation hemeroby and the physical properties of technosols to prove its application as a measure of the restoration of the disturbed ecosystem in the reclamation process. The plant communities were classified into beta-, alpha-euhemerobic, polyhemerobic and metahemerobic levels of anthropogenic transformation. The technosols varied in the proportion of hemeroby levels of plant communities. The hemeroby level was consistent with the physical properties of technosols. A decrease in hemeroby level resulted in increased soil electrical conductivity, decreased soil penetration resistance and altered soil aggregate structure. The hemeroby of plant communities is a dependable phytoindicator of ecosystem restoration during reclamation

Soil heterogeneity after recultivation: ecological aspect

The study subject was the soil heterogeneity at a recultivation site Nikopol manganese-ore basin (Pokrov, Ukraine). The soils at the locality are sod lithogenic soils developed on gray-green clays. The study ran by applying soil penetration resistance indices. The penetration resistance was measured across a regular grid of 7 × 15 points (21 × 45 m). The distance between the measurement points was 3 m. The parameters were recorded at every 5 cm to a depth of 50 cm. The environmental parameters were determined by phytoindication. Geostatistical analysis showed the average level of spatial dependence of soil penetration resistance. According to the features of the profile variation in penetration resistance with the depth, the measurement points have been divided into three clusters. The clusters formed morphologically homogeneous soil areas. These areas significantly differed in their soil acidity and in nitrogen content in soil

Phylogenetic Diversity of Plant Metacommunity of the Dnieper River Arena Terrace Within the ‘Dnieper-Orilskiy ’ Nature Reserve

This article presents the features of the phylogenetic organization of the plant communities of the Dnieper River terrace within the ‘Dnieper-Orilskiy’ Nature Reserve and the patterns of its spatial variation involving remote sensing data of the Earth’s surface. The research materials were collected in the period 2012−2016 from within the nature reserve. The research polygon is within the first terrace (arena) of the Dnieper valley. Sandy steppe, meadow, forest and marsh communities within the Protoch river floodplain and the Orlova ravine, as well as artificial pine plantations were the habitats present within the research polygon. The vegetation description was carried out on 10×10 m (100 m2) plots. A total of 94 geobotanical descriptions were made. Data on plant phylogeny was obtained by the Phylomatic service. Phylogenetic diversity of the communities was assessed by the Faith, Simpson and Shannon indices. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by means of a double principal coordinate analysis (DPCoA). The vegetation cover within the investigated polygon was represented by 189 species. Abundance Phylogenetic Deviation (APD) for the investigated metacommunity was evaluated to −0.53, which is statistically significantly different from random alternatives (p = 0.001). The APD negative value indicates that phylogenetic organization of the investigated metacommunity is overdispersed. The permutation procedure allowed us to establish that the eigenvalues of the DPCoA-axes obtained as a result of the real phylogenetic tree were significantly higher than their own number for the random phylogenetic trees for the first seven axes. This indicates that the first seven axes are useful for additional information on the ordination structure of the metacommunity

The effect of soil on spatial variation of the herbaceous layer modulated by overstorey in an Eastern European poplar-willow forest

The tree species composition can influence the dynamics of herbaceous species and enhance the spatial heterogeneity of the soil. But there is very little evidence on how both overstorey structure and soil properties affect the spatial variation of the herb layer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors of the soil and overstorey structure by which it is possible to explain the fine-scale variation of herbaceous layer communities in an Eastern European poplar-willow forest. The research was conducted in the “Dnipro-Orils’kiy” Nature Reserve (Ukraine). The research polygon (48°30′51″N, 34°49″02″E) was laid in an Eastern European poplar-willow forest in the floodplain of the River Protich, which is a left inflow of the River Dnipro. The site consists of 7 transects. Each transect was made up of 15 test points. The distance between rows in the site was 3 m. At the site, we established a plot of 45×21 m, with 105 subplots of 3×3 m organized in a regular grid. The adjacent subplots were in close proximity. Vascular plant species lists were recorded at each 3×3 m subplot along with visual estimates of species cover using the nine-degree Braun-Blanquet scale. Within the plot, all woody stems ≥ 1 cm in diameter at breast height were measured and mapped. Dixon’s segregation index was calculated for tree species to quantify their relative spatial mixing. Based on geobotanical descriptions, a phytoindicative assessment of environmental factors according to the Didukh scale was made. The redundancy analysis was used for the analysis of variance in the herbaceous layer species composition. The geographic coordinates of sampling locations were used to generate a set of orthogonal eigenvector-based spatial variables. Two measurements of the overstorey spatial structure were applied: the distances from the nearest tree of each species and the distance based on the evaluation of spatial density of point objects, which are separate trees. In both cases, the distance matrix of sampling locations was calculated, which provided the opportunity to generate eigenvector-based spatial variables. A kernel smoothed intensity function was used to compute the density of the trees’ spatial distribution from the point patterns’ data. Gaussian kernel functions with various bandwidths were used. The coordinates of sampling locations in the space obtained after the conversion of the trees’ spatial distribution densities were used to generate a set of orthogonal eigenvector-based spatial variables, each of them representing a pattern of particular scale within the extent of the bandwidth area structured according to distance and reciprocal placement of the trees. An overall test of random labelling reveals the total nonrandom distribution of the tree stems within the site. The unexplained variation consists of 43.8%. The variation explained solely by soil variables is equal to 15.5%, while the variation explained both by spatial and soil variables is 18.0%. The measure of the overstorey spatial structure, which is based on the evaluation of its density enables us to obtain different estimations depending on the bandwidth. The bandwidth affects the explanatory capacity of the tree stand. A considerable part of the plant community variation explained by soil factors was spatially structured. The orthogonal eigenvector-based spatial variables (dbMEMs) approach can be extended to quantifying the effect of forest structures on the herbaceous layer community. The measure of the overstorey spatial structure, which is based on the evaluation of its density, was very useful in explaining herbaceous layer community variation