Biological Diversity of Plants in the Territory of the Protected Landscape "Razdorskie Sklony" (Rostov Region)

Abstract

The article is aimed to assess the florocenotic diversity of the specially protected natural territory of the Rostov region ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ. In the Rostov region there are 84 specially protected natural areas (PA), including the protected landscape ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ. The PA consists of three cluster sites with a total area of 1117.64 hectares. The ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ are a picturesque natural-historical landscape, typical for the right-bank slope of the Don valley. It has a long history of cultural development. Here there are feather grass steppes, the southernmost ravine upland forests, outcrops of pontic limestone-shell rocks, sands of the Yanovskaya formation and clay outcrops on the slopes, with a strip of alluvial floodplain. The vegetation of the right bedrock slope of the Don valley is distinguished by great formational variegation and mosaicism, due to the rapid and abrupt change of environmental factors in a rather limited space, which largely determines the richness and originality of its floristic complex. On the territory of the protected landscape, subzonal forb-sod grass, as well as hemipsammophytic (semi-sandy) and petrophytic steppes are present. Woody vegetation is represented by gully, floodplain forests and thickets of bushes. The vegetation cover of the ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ is distinguished by a low degree of anthropogenic destruction and is quite representative in syntaxonomic and floristic terms. The flora of the protected landscape includes 693 species of higher vascular plants, including 29 taxa from the Red Books of the Rostov Region and the Russian Federation, a total of 183 taxa from the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (93 species) and the European Red List (145 species). Forest vegetation in the gullies of the protected areas is represented by ravine, floodplain forests and thickets of bushes. In the system of zoning of the ravine forests of the Lower Don, the ravine forests of the ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ belong to one of the most southern regions – the Crimean-Donetsk region. Numerous cenopopulations of for-est ephemeroids form spring synusia in ravine forests and thickets of shrubs, being a temporary ʺcollective dominantʺ.