STRUCTURE AND DIVERSITY OF URBAN PARK STANDS AT KRYVYI RIH ORE-MINING & METALLURGICAL DISTRICT, CENTRAL UKRAINE

Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between structure (floristic composition, dendrometric parameters), diversity (diversity and evenness indexes) of urban forest park stands and the ecological (soil fertility, soil moisture), environmental factors (air pollution). The study is based on the forest park stands inventory data, performed from 2012 to 2017 in Kryvyi Rih City, Central Ukraine. The floristic compositions of the urban forest park stands are poor. There are only 23 species that belong to 14 families and 12 genera. More families were represented by at least more than 2% of taxon diversity. While Ulmaceae (2 genera, 4 species-17,39 %), Fabaceae (3 genera, 2 species-17,39 %), Aсеrасеае (1 genera, 4 species-17,39 %) were the most representative families. It was established that at forest park the values of stand density varied from 490 to 660 trees*ha-1 , stem heights were from 26 to 31 m, stem diameters were from 13 to 17 cm, stand basal area were from 32 to 49 m 2 *ha-1 , stand volume were from 200 to 415 m 3 *ha-1. the values of relative stem heights were from 0,63 to 0,82 m*year-1 , relative stem diameters were from 0,31 to 0,43 cm*year-1 , relative stand basal area were from 0,80 to 1,19 m 2 *ha-1 *year-1 , relative stand volume were from 5,45 to 10,28 m 3 *ha-1 *year-1. The varied values of the forest park stands index (Shannon-Wiener diversity index from 0,75 to 1,61, Pielou"s evenness index from 0,53 to 0,86, Simpson"s diversity from 0,24 to 0,60, Margalef"s diversity index from 0,87 to 6,97) indicate the ecological instability of these woody plant communities. Current state of the urban forest park stands determined by the combined influence of ecological (soil fertility, soil moisture) and environmental factors (air pollution).

Assessment of the ecological hybrid threat to industrial area in connection with the vital state of artificial woody plantations in Kryvyi Rih District (Ukraine)

“…An important element among the concepts of sustainable nature management is the preservation of artificial woody plantations in the Kryvyi Rih District. In this area the state of the forest ecosystem in depends on the development trend of the mining and industrial region and the complex of social, ecological and economic problems [10,11].…”

“…Alekseev [27]. The ecomorphic analysis of woody plant species was carried out according to classic and innovative approach [11]. All data were submitted to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA).…”

“…They are considered as one of the decisive factors in ensuring mankind's activities and also as an important part in the system of sustainable development of the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Mining and Metallurgical District. In addition, artificial woody plantation stands provide people with a softened microclimate in their residential areas and other positive changes in urbanized areas [9][10][11]. Local communities are slowing down the pace of global warming and generally reducing their negative impact on the microclimate by using artificial forest stands in mining districts [12][13][14][15].…”

“…Studying foreign experience in forest management and comparing typical management models will help to avoid over-evaluating them and potential implementation mistakes. It will also highlight those aspects of management that can be taken into account in the process of reforming the forest ecosystem in Kryvyi Rih District and in Ukraine [7,11,23,24].…”

Woody artificial plantations as a significant factor of the sustainable development at mining & metallurgical area

“…Also analyzed: (i) the state of forest ecosystems, as a complex of trees, shrubs, grasses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, arthropods and other invertebrates, (ii) parameters of geochemical cycles of oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, minerals and dead organic matter. At the same time, researchers claim that in forest ecosystems the natural changes can never reach equilibrium, but is constantly changing in time and space [10,11,13,23].…”