Analysis of the meadows flora at the Ashit River Floodplain (Tatarstan Republic)

Abstract

This paper deals with the multilateral analysis of the flora of floodplain meadows in the valley of one of the small rivers of the Republic of Tatarstan - the Ashit River. A complete floristic survey of the flood plain of the Ashit River conducted in 2012-2015 revealedthe local flora of vascular plants on the floodplain meadows and allowed us to make a list of species of flora with a brief description of each species of plant.As the result of analysis of the meadow flora, we identified 247 species of vascular plants. The taxonomic analysis showed that the flora refers to arctic-boreal East Asian Cyperacea type. The dominant elements of this flora, based on the arealogical analysis, are Euro-Western Asian, Eurasian and Holarctic geographical elements. According to the ecobiomorphic analysis, the main species composition of flora is represented by perennial herbs, mainly summergreen hemicryptophytes, and to a lesser extent cryptophytes, mainly long-rooted, tap-rooted, short-rooted, and loose-bunched. Ecological analysis of the flora revealed the overwhelming predominance of light-loving plants in the meadow herbage. Megatrophyc and mesotrophic plant specieswere the most numerous, which indicates the prevalence of rich enough soil in the territory of the floodplain meadows. In relation to soil humidification, mesophytic and to a lesser extent hygrophytic floral components were abundant, which indicates a sufficiently high level of soil humidification in the studied meadows.