Title: Phytosociological study of steppe vegetation in Mongolia
Abstract: Abstract Using phytosociological methods, vegetation data were collected from 144 stands in seven areas across approximately 800 km, covering a large proportion of the east–west axis of the Mongolian steppe. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) was used to identify trends within the complete set of vegetation data from all 144 stands. We recognized four phytosociological plant communities and seven lower units, among which three of the communities (the Stipa baicalensis–Agropyron cristatum , Stipa grandis–Achnatherum sibiricum and Chamaerhodos erecta–Artemisia scoparia communities) may be considered valuable additions to the current classification system of Mongolian steppe by Hilbig (1995 ). Three lower units of the Stipa krylovii–Cleistogennes squarrosa community were identical with associations described by Hilbig (1990 ), which named typical sub‐association of Cymbario dahuricae–Stipetum krylovii , Cymbario dahuricae–Stipetum krylovii and Amygdalo pedunculatae–Spriaeetum aquilegifolia . The present floristic composition of the community types, which showed a high density of unpalatable species, suggests that intensive grazing has become a widespread problem across the entire Mongolian steppe. On the other hand, the first ordination axis of DCA was associated with land used for cultivation. The stands abandoned over 10 years had high scores on the first axis.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-08-27
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 9
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