The article presents the results of multiple surveys of habitats of rare plant species in the Marmarosh Mts, Ukrainian Carpathians, and depicts their exact location and population parameters. Along with the analysis of earlier literature and herbarium data, this enabled to reveal some spatio-temporal patterns in their distribution, namely habitat characteristics and trends in population dynamics, which allowed to determine their conservation status. Numerous facts of decline and extinction, as well as examples of positive dynamics in populations of the studied species were described. Cold-dependent species (Cerastium cerastoides, Primula minima, Veronica bellidioides) proved to be vulnerable to climate change particularly at the lower limit of their distribution. Another factor of impact is decrease of grazing, which triggers vegetation succession and consequent replacement of some low-competitive rare plants (Genista tinctoria subsp. oligosperma, Koeleria macrantha subsp. transsilvanica) with shrubs or tussock graminoids. However, another group of rare species (Heracleum sphondylium subsp. transsilvanicum, Gentiana punctata, Jovibarba globifera subsp. preissiana, Veronica fruticans) benefits from the decrease of anthropogenic impact.

Keywords: climate change, extinction, population dynamics, locality, Carpathians

Full text: PDF (Eng) 2.29M

1. Arinushkina E.V. Rukovodstvo po khimicheskomu analizu pochv, Moscow: Izd-vo Mosk. Univ., 1970, 487 pp.
2. Braun-Blanquet J. Pflanzensoziologie, Grundzüge der Vegetationskunde. Ed. 3, Wien; New York: Springer, 1964, 865 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8110-2
3. Chervona knyha Ukrainy. Roslynnyi svit (Red Data Book of Ukraine. Plant Kingdom). Ed. Ya.P. Didukh, Kyiv: Globalkonsaltyng, 2009, 912 pp.
4. Chopyk V.I. Vysokohirna flora Ukrainskykh Karpat, Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1976, 270 pp.
5. Deyl M. Plants, soil and climate of Pop Ivan. Synecological study from Carpathian Ukraine. Opera Bot. Čechica, 1940, 2: 1–290.
6. Ellenberg H., Weber H.E., Düll R., Wirth V., Werner W., Paulissen D. Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. 2 Auflage. Scripta Geobot., 1992, 18: 1–258.
7. Elzinga C.L., Salzer D.W., Willoughby J.W., Gibbs J.P. Monitoring plant and animal populations: A handbook for field biologists, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 368 pp.
8. Flora Europaea, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1964–1980, vols 1–5.
9. Flora URSR (Flora RSS Ucr.), Kyiv: Vyd-vo Acad. Sci. URSR, 1950–1965, vols 3–12.
10. Frei E., Bodin J., Walther G.R. Plant species' range shifts in mountainous areas – all uphill from here? Bot. Helv., 2010, 120(2): 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-010-0076-y
11. Harper J.L. Population biology of plants, New York; London; San Francisco: Acad. Press, 1977, 892 pp.
12. Hill M.O., Bell N., Bruggeman-Nannenga M.A., Brugués M., Cano M.J., Enroth M.J., Flatberg K.I., Frahm J.-P., Gallego M.T., Garilleti R., Guerra J., Hedenäs L., Holyoak D.T., Hyvönen J., Ignatov M.S., Lara F., Mazimpaka V., Muñoz J., Söderström L. An annotated checklist of the mosses of Europe and Macaronesia. J. Bryol., 2006, 28(3): 198–267. https://doi.org/10.1179/174328206X119998
13. Klášterský I. Ad floram Carpatorossicam additamenta critica I. Preslia, 1929, 8: 9–32; – II, 1930, 9: 5–21; – III, 1931, 10: 76–87.
14. Klein J.A., Harte J., Zhao X.-Q. Experimental warming causes large and rapid species loss, dampened by simulated grazing, on the Tibetan Plateau. Ecol. Letters, 2004, 7: 1170–1179. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00677.x
15. Kliment J., Turis P., Janišova M. Taxa of vascular plants endemic to the Carpathian Mts. Preslia, 2016, 88: 19–76.
16. Kobiv Y. Cortusa matthioli L. (Primulaceae) in the Chornohora Mts (Ukrainian Carpathians): distribution, ecology, taxonomy and conservation. Fragm. Florist. Geobot., 1999, 44(2): 355–574.
17. Kobiv Y.Y. Veronica bellidioides. In: Chervona knyha Ukrainy. Roslynnyi svit (Red Data Book of Ukraine. Plant Kingdom). Ed. Ya.P. Didukh, Kyiv: Globalkonsaltyng, 2009, p. 617.
18. Kobiv Y.Y. Ukr. Bot. J., 2010, 67(3): 355–372.
19. Kobiv Y.Y. Ukr. Bot. J., 2012, 69(2): 178–189.
20. Kondracki J. Karpaty, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1989, 262 pp.
21. Krist V. O některých nových nebo kritických rostlinach na Slovensku a Podkarpatské Rusi. Spisy Přír. Fak. Masarykovy Univ., 1935, 199: 1–16.
22. Kruhlov I., Ukr. Geogr. J., 2008, 3: 59–68.
23. Lesica P., Allendorf F.W. When are peripheral populations valuable for conservation? Conserv. Biol., 1995, 9(4): 753–760. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1995.09040753.x
24. Malynovski K.A. Roslynnist vysokohirya Ukrainskykh Karpat, Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 1980, 280 pp.
25. Malynovski K., Tsaryk Y., Kyyak V., Nesteruk Y. Ridkisni, endemichni, reliktovi ta pohranychno-arealni vydy roslyn Ukrainskykh Karpat, Lviv: Liga-Press, 2002, 78 pp.
26. Micu D. Snow pack in the Romanian Carpathians under changing climatic conditions. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 2009, 105: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-009-0035-6
27. Nachychko V.O., Kobiv Y.Y., Sosnovsky Y.V., Helesh M.B., Prokopiv A.I. Typification of the name Avena laevigata, the basionym of Avenula pubescens subsp. laevigata (Poaceae). Phytotaxa, 2017, 299(2): 285–288. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.299.2.14
28. Pauli H., Gottfried M., Reiter K., Klettner C., Grabherr G. Signals of range expansions and contractions of vascular plants in the high Alps: observations (1994–2004) at the GLORIA master site Schrankogel, Tyrol, Austria. Global Change Biology, 2007, 13: 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01282.x
29. Shushman V.S. In: Fitoriznomanittya Karpat: suchasnyi stan, okhorona ta vidtvorennya: mat. Mizhnar. nauk. konf. (Phytodiversity of the Carpathians: modern status, conservation and restoration: Proc. Int. Sci. Conf.), Uzhhorod: Lira, 2008, pp. 177–180.
30. Szczęśniak E., Krukowski M., Malicki M. Pojawy i stopień zagrożenia Veronica bellidioides (Scrophulariaceae) w Polsce. Fragm. Flor. Geobot. Polonica, 2011, 18(1): 3–9.
31. Virtanen R., Henttonen H., Laine K. Lemming grazing and structure of a snowbed plant community: a long-term experiment at Kilpisjärvi, Finnish Lapland. Oikos, 1997, 79(1): 155–166. https://doi.org/10.2307/3546100
32. Zapałowicz H. Roślinna szata Gór Pokucko-Marmaroskich. Spraw. Komis. Fizjogr., 1889, 24: 1–390.
33. Zarzycki K., Trzcińska-Tacik H., Różański W., Szeląg Z., Wołek J., Korzeniak U. Ecological indicator values of vascular plants of Poland, Kraków: W. Szafer Inst. Bot., Polish Acad. Sci., 2002, 183 pp.
34. Ziman S.N., Bulakh E.V., Hamor A.F. "Hot spots" within the high-mountain floras as the sectors of the integrity of the rare species (on the model of the Ukrainian Carpathians). In: Plant, fungal and habitat diversity investigation and conservation: Proc. IV Balkan Bot. Congr., Sofia: Inst. Bot., Bulgar. Acad. Sci., 2009, pp. 555–561.