The Ulan-Zukha River: a Description of the Riverside Vegetation and Flora
Due to the harsh continental and arid climate, sufficiently high levels of water mineralization are typical for most of Kalmykia’s water bodies. In 2015, the brine shrimp Artemia salina L. was discovered in the biota of the Ulan-Zukha river. The ecological profile - from the waterline to the primary vegetation - comprises 4 zones. Zone one is that immediately adjacent to brine drenched mud. It is a wet solonchak covered by desert halophytes (10-20 cm wide). Zone two is 30-50 cm wide and is covered by halophyte communities especially abundant in Suaeda maritima (L.) Dumort., Halocnemum strobilaceum (Pall.) Bieb., Petrosimonia oppositifolia (Pall.) Litv., Atriplex aucheri Moq., Spergularia salina J. et. C. Presl., Salsola lanata Pall., S. soda L., Halimione verrucifera (Bieb.) Aell. Zone three - 5-6 m wide - is a multi-grass / solonchak / Artemisia community. Zone four is characterized by quite an extensive width of 5-15 m. All along the river the zone is abundant in Tamarix meyeri Boiss that grows in interrupted lines or forms groups of 5-12 plants. The article provides a list of prevailing families as well as an ecological and biomorphological analysis of the object alongside with an analysis of geographic elements of flora within the riverside.