Biodiversity of high-mountain woody plants in the East Carpathians in Ukraine

Abstract

The highest parts of the European mountain massifs are covered by subalpine and alpine vegetation, with rich flora containing many relic woody plants adapted to cold temperatures and relatively short vegetation periods. In the Ukrainian Carpathians, only several highest mountain massifs form environmental conditions suitable for high mountain plants. The aim of the study was the detection of the centre of biodiversity of the high mountain plants in the East Carpathians in Ukraine. We expected the largest number of high mountain woody species in the Ukrainian East Carpathians would occur in the Chornohora, the largest and most elevated mountain chain in the country. To solve this problem, the geographic distribution of 16 woody species was analysed cartographically. We gathered georeferenced data of 919 localities of taxa, which occur in the subalpine and alpine vegetation belts, and prepared maps of their distribution using QGIS software. Additionally, we analysed vertical distribution and occurrence on different expositions of every taxon. Most of analysed subalpine and alpine species occur in the highest and the largest mountain massifs. The high mountain woody species occur in the Ukrainian parts of the East Carpathians mainly in the largest mountain massifs, the Chornohora, Svydovets, Chyvchyny, Marmarosh, and to a lesser extent, also in the Gorgany. The vertical distribution and predominant occurrence on the northern or close to northern expositions of most subalpine and alpine species indicate their demands for the relatively high level of humidity of the soil and high level of precipitation. These condition point to the relic character of most of analysed species, which origin from the glacial periods of the Pleistocene. Most of the taxa, which have centres of their distribution in the alpine and sub-alpine vegetation belts of the East Carpathians in the Ukraine territory are valuable but threatened elements of the Ukrainian flora.

The Perspective of Arctic–Alpine Species in Southernmost Localities: The Example of Kalmia procumbens in the Pyrenees and Carpathians

“…A climate-change-caused reduction in the potential niches of K. procumbens at their southern limit of realized ecological niches in the mountains of Central Europe could be predicted and even expected, as in the case of other subalpine and alpine plants [10,28,29,38,41,48]. In that context, the drastic reduction in potential niches in the Carpathians in general, and the quite complete disappearance of suitable niches in the East Carpathians, is not surprising.…”

“…The East Carpathians do not possess massifs exceeding an elevation of 2500 m, which are the main centers of occurrence of alpine and subalpine plants [47,86]. It should be stressed that the process of the disappearance of the area of potential niches detected in the case of K. procumbens in fact concerns more or less entire alpine and subalpine flora in the East Carpathians [24,48].…”

“…The differences in the altitudinal maxima of the subalpine and alpine plants between the Carpathians and Pyrenees surely result from the higher elevations of the latter. The Carpathian arc is composed predominantly of medium-sized mountain ridges, with only three or four massifs being sufficiently well revealing, and several others with only a fragmentary developed alpine vegetation belt [47,48]. Inversely, in the Pyrenees, this type of vegetation is more frequent and covers a broader area [28,[49][50][51].…”

“…Additionally, the average annual temperatures at the elevation of 1000 m in grass plant communities reach 2.6 • C, but in the rock coenoses dominated by K. procumbens, they reach 3.6 • C [19]. Nevertheless, K. procumbens does not reach its potential altitudinal maximum in most of the Carpathian ridges, as was determined for some other alpine shrubby plants in the East Carpathians [48].…”

Metabolic niches in the rhizosphere microbiome: dependence on soil horizons, root traits and climate variables in forest ecosystems

“…Forest ecosystems, which cover one-third of the world's land area and encompass more than 24.6 million square kilometers, are crucial for global ecosystem services and carbon cycling, particularly under the influence of climate change (Viet et al, 2022). These ecosystems, predominantly temperate and boreal forests, consist of diverse deciduous and coniferous trees that are well-adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions, especially in terms of temperature and precipitation (Tasenkevich et al, 2023). The soils of these forests support a rich array of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities, including bacteria and fungi.…”