Alien species in local floras of the Voronezh Region Nature Reserve Fund (Russia)

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of alien species in local floras of the Voronezh region Nature Reserve Fund. The Voronezh Region is located on the border of the forest-steppe and steppe zones. 16 Model Protected Areas (PAs), having a different conservation status and a various size, have been chosen for the analysis. The article attempts to assess: a) the degree of biological contamination of PAs that protect forest-steppe and steppe ecosystems; b) features of the alien fractions of the PAs' flora of various categories. The characteristics of PAs with respect to the possibilities and conditions for the invasion of alien species of vascular plants are given. The alien fraction of the PAs' flora comprises 262 taxa: 255 species, 5 hybrids, 1 subspecies and 1 variety, referring to 178 genera and 66 families. For the typological analysis, alien species were divided into groups in accordance with the time of the invasion, the way of invasion and the naturalisation level. The average proportion of invasive species in PAs floras is 11.1% (in different local floras it varies from 4.4% to 16.8%). When considering stable flora elements only (excluding ephemerophytes and colonophytes), then the PAs' local flora contamination ratio will make the average of 6.1% (from 3.5% to 8.9%). The largest number of alien species is noted in the floras of state reserves and state nature sanctuaries, regional PAs are characterised by a smaller proportion of alien plants. The analysis of the ways of alien species' invasion has shown that human activity on introduction of plants makes an important contribution to the replenishment of the alien flora in protected areas: 31.7% of alien species had left the cultivation area, 15% were deliberately planted in the PAs. Transformer plants are of the greatest coenotic significance, out of 19 such alien species 11 are xenophytes, the other 8 species are ergasiophytes. The conclusion is made about the necessity to move from the monitoring of alien species to practical work on managing the process of alien plant invasion in state reserves.Key words: alien flora, alien plant species, invasions, Nature Reserve Fund, Protected Area Introduction There has been much speculation and debate on the problem of biological pollution of floras with alien plant species (= adventive species) over the last hundred years. In recent decades, a lot of efforts have been made to create databases of alien plants and compile lists of alien species of different local and regional floras, floras of particular countries and even continents. Nowadays, the world community considers the issue of biological pollution globally acute and believes that various alien plant invasions do pose a threat to biodiversity, indigenous ecosystems, resistance of biological resources and human health (McNeely et al., 2001;Vinogradova et al., 2010). This problem is especially urgent in Protected Areas (PAs), of which the main purpose is the conservation of biological diversity. In this regard, the number of publications devoted to various as...

Invasive and potentially invasive plant species in State Nature Biosphere Reserves of the Altai Republic (Russia)

“…For example, in the Czech Republic, the proportion of alien species is less in nature reserves with high average altitude and more in reserves situated in warm climatic region (Pyšek et al 2002). Besides, existence of alien species in reserves may be caused by the use of their territories before the reserves establishment, as well as after their establishment because of activity of the reserves themselves, in particular transport links and exploitation of certain areas as vegetable gardens, pastures and hayfields for internal needs of reserves (Nukhimovskaya 1986;Starodubtseva et al 2017).…”