ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES OF PLANTS IN THE PROCESS OF RESTORATION OF DISRUPTED NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS OF UKRAINIAN POLISSIA

Abstract

Tasks related to the restoration of disturbed natural ecosystems are of theoretical and practical importance. Traditional approaches to remediation are often utilitarian. We often observe that the natural processes of ecosystem restoration occur faster and with better quality than those carried out by humans under similar conditions. The purpose of our work is to investigate the role of plants that have different ecological strategies during the process of restoration of disturbed ecosystems. The following tasks were outlined to achieve this goal: to identify groups of plants with different ecological strategies involved in the restoration of natural vegetation; develop models of vegetation restoration using plants with different ecological strategies. The materials of our research are standard geobotanical descriptions made on the territory of Ukrainian Polissia in the period from 2004 to 2023. We consider environmental strategies more broadly than R. Whittaker, L. H. Ramensky, J. Grim and E. Pianki in their classic works. The ecological strategies of plants differ in the way of spreading and reproduction, as well as in the signs of fixation on the soil; by methods of energy reservation; changing the environment around itself. The rate of restoration of natural ecosystems, as well as their characteristics, depend on the configuration of the disturbed area, the substrate of its surface, and the adaptive strategies of the plants that fall on it. The classification of adaptive strategies of species that affect the process of restoration of natural ecosystems is formed on the basis of the variety of methods of reproduction and distribution of fruits and seeds of autotrophs, as well as the peculiarities of their energy distribution in the reproduction process. The change in ecological strategies of species is because ecosystems are dynamic systems, therefore, during primary successions; disturbed ecotopes are most successfully populated by patient species, and during secondary ones by explerent species and violent species. Plants penetrate the primary substrate with the help of seeds, spores, or vegetative organs (most often rhizomes). In the early stages of primary succession, the seeds and spores of patient species are the most successful – those with low competitiveness and can achieve reproductive and vegetative success outside the communities. The balance of the amount of energy of Polissia pioneer patients is often shifted from supporting the vegetative part of the body to its seeds. Species that spread to pioneer substrates using rhizomes do not have such a limitation because they share a common distribution of matter and energy with the pioneer part of the community. Those species on the primary substrate, having no competitors, actively photosynthesize and share carbohydrates, while those on the formed substrate and have many competitors for solar energy share water and mineral nutrients. Global climate changes, which lead to xerophytization of Polissia and warm winters with little snow, are becoming an obstacle to the rapid natural restoration of pine forest ecosystems in large areas of disturbed areas.