ACCUMULATION OF ORGANIC CARBON UNDER WOODY PLANT COMMUNITIES IN URBAN FORESTS OF ROSTOV-ON-DON

Abstract

The paper provides an analysis of the vegetation state and soil cover of the "Temernitskaya Roscha" and the "Schepkinsky Les" artificial recreational forests which located in the Rostov-on-Don city. Geobotanical descriptions were carried out according to the standard method to species diversity assessing. The “Temernitskaya Roscha" recreational forests has been affected by anthropogenic pressure, but its grass cover was more diverse than in the "Schepkinsky Les" recreational forests where tree plant species was dominated. The study of the soil cover revealed a statistically significant increase of the organic matter content in the AUrz surface horizon. This increase was noted in soils under woody vegetation, in comparison with steppe zones which are typical for our region. In the underlying AU horizons, the accumulation and distribution of Corg, in turn, has a similar character for all studied soils. There are no significant differences between the chernozems of the forest park zone and fallow territories in the accumulation and distribution of Corg. The calcium carbonates profile distribution under woody vegetation is characterized by a decrease in the carbonated depth, visual blurriness of the presence of carbonates and the presence of rarely encountered lime nodules in the lower part of the profile.