The "Flora of Russia" project on iNaturalist brought together professional scientists and amateur naturalists from all over the country. Over 10,000 people were involved in the data collection.
Within 20 months, the participants accumulated 750,143 photo observations of 6,857 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 87% of all project data, i.e. 652,285 observations, are available under free licences (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC) and can be freely used in scientific, educational and environmental activities.
The rate of plant litter decomposition depends on two simultaneous processes: the decomposition and stabilization of organic matter. To compare the rates of these processes in various ecosystems now a Tea Bag Index (TBI) is widely used. The samples of standard material (green tea and rooibos) were buried into soil at the depth of 8 cm in four herbaceous plant communities of Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve (CFSNBR) and seven communities of the Moscow river floodplain near the MSU Zvenigorod biological station (ZBS). Considering the mass losses of samples during the incubation time we calculated the values of decomposition constant and stabilization factor according to the protocol by J. A. Keuskamp et al. (2013) and estimated the links of these parameters with Ellenberg’s ecological indicator values. The stabilization factor values ranged from 0.122 g/g in Filipendula community of CFSNBR to 0.379 g/g at the natural levee of the Moscow river, and the decomposition constant values ranged from 0.0089 g/g/day in Filipendula community of CFSNBR to 0.0308 g/g/day at the slope of the high floodplain. The mean values of these parameters were significantly positively correlated. The decomposition rate was lower in the communities of CFSNBR and was positively correlated with the soil pH Ellenberg’s indicator values. The stabilization factor values did not depend on the region and decreased with the increase in soil moisture and nitrogen. The mainland meadows of CFSNBR and the meadows of the high floodplain of the Moscow river, belonging to Cynosurion cristati alliance, had the most similar parameters of decomposition.
Here we present the sampling event dataset that contributes to studying the flora of grasslands in Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve (part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves), Tver Oblast, Russia. The Reserve is located in the SW part of the Valdai Upland within the main Caspian-Baltic watershed of the Russian plain (Latitude: 56° 26' – 56° 39' N, Longitude: 32° 29' – 33° 01' E). The territory of Central Forest Reserve belongs to the subzone of subtaiga.
The dataset includes the occurrences of vascular plant species in four types of grasslands from 209 vegetation plots (8,506 associated occurrences), collected in 2013-2014. The dataset described in this paper has never been published before.
As the grasslands in Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve are relatively unstudied, we are providing a new comprehensive dataset on the vascular plant species occurrences in the grasslands of the Reserve. The dataset contains representative information on floristic composition of plant communities in localities with assigned GPS coordinates. As the vegetation of the Reserve is typical of the subtaiga subzone, the results of analysing this dataset can be useful for grassland management in the whole subtaiga subzone.
During this study, we found one vascular plant species included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation, three species from the Red Data Book of Tver Oblast, as well as 10 alien vascular plant species for the Reserve. These data, especially, the occurrences of protected and alien species, contribute to our knowledge of species composition of the grasslands of the Reserve.
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