Rare and protected species of vascular plants of the Ural orobiomes

UDC 581.9:502.7

Abstract

One of the urgent tasks aimed at preserving the phytodiversity is to study the current state of rare species populations. The Red Books of the Russian Federation and its subjects contain a significant amount of information about these species. Of interest is a comparative study of the composition of rare species in large regional ecosystems, which will serve as a monitoring tool. The purpose of the study is a comparison of the composition and distribution of rare species of vascular plants in the orobiomes of the Ural Mountains included in the Red Books of the Russian Federation (2024) and its subjects. For the first time, the composition of rare species in the regional orobiomes of the Ural Mountains, stretching from the tundra to the steppes, was considered. A total of 496 species of rare vascular plants were identified: the maximum number was found in the South Ural nemoral-coniferous-broadleaf forest and Middle Ural taiga orobiomes, the minimum was found in the Polar Ural hypartic tundra orobiome, which is due to ecosystem differences – climatic conditions, types of orobiome zonation and correlates with the number of species of vascular plants in each orobiome. The ranges of 36 species of vascular plants with federal protection status and those species from regional Red Books that are distributed in the most of the Ural orobiomes were analyzed. It was revealed that the vulnerable state of these plant species is associated either with the position in the peripheral part of the range, or near the boundaries of range disjunctions, or with an endemic range of a relict nature, as well as due to anthropogenic influence.