Hydrophilic Flora of Urbanized Territories of the Vyatka-Kama Cis-Urals (On the Example of Cities of the Udmurt Republic)

Abstract

The flora of water bodies and watercourses in urban territories rarely becomes the object of special research. In the period from 1995 to 2015, we studied the flora of aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats (macrophyte flora) of six cities of the Vyatka-Kama Cis-Urals (VKCU) located on the territory of the Udmurt Republic (eastern European part of Russia): Izhevsk, Glazov, Sarapul, Votkinsk, Mozhga and Kambarka. The studied cities differ in their history, economy, size of the territory and population. It has been revealed that the macrophyte flora of the studied cities was composed of 302 species from 135 genera and 64 families, which makes up 80.3% of the species composition of the macrophyte flora of the VKCU. Izhevsk, the largest of the studied cities, has the richest hydrophilic flora (257 species). In the flora of the water bodies and watercourses of Glazov, 197 species were identified, in Sarapul – 153, in Votkinsk – 194, in Mozhga – 122 species. Kambarka, the smallest of the studied cities, has the second largest macrophyte flora (198 species). It has been established that in the macrophyte flora of the studied urbanized territories, the proportion of hydrophytes (“aquatic core” of the flora) ranges from 13.93% to 20.2% of the species composition of the flora. This is significantly lower than that in the macrophyte flora of the entire territory of the VKCU, where hydrophytes make up 25%. The reduction in the number of species of the “aquatic core” is due to the incomplete representation of ecotopes inhabited by hydrophytes on the territory of cities, as well as the pollution and transformation of their characteristic habitats within urban landscapes. This underlines the vulnerability of the “aquatic core” of the flora. In addition, rare and protected species are represented in the macrophyte flora of cities, the growth of which is often associated with large urban water bodies – factory reservoir ponds. It is concluded that the taxonomic richness of the studied flora depends not so much on the size of urban territories and their geographical location within the region under consideration, but on the presence and diversity of ecotopes inhabited by aquatic and semi-aquatic plants.