PLANT COMMUNITIES FORMATION IN INITIAL STAGES OF SPONTANEOUS VEGETATION ON ASH DUMPS WITH A FERTILE LEVEL APPLIED (TPS-5, Novosibirsk)
The article presents the results of an original research on the specific of spontaneous vegetation on ash dumps in the forest-steppe zone in the south of West Siberia (Thermal Power Station 5, Novosibirsk, Russia) during the initial 9 years. The grass vegetation prevails: we detected 85 grass species, 8 tree species and 6 moss species. Th e dominating species according to the above-ground phytomass are grasses Phleum pratense , Dactylis glomerata and Agrostis gigantea ; amongst the legumes, Trifolium hybridum and T. pratense ; amongst the forbs, Artemisia dracun culus , A. vulgaris and Cirsium setosum. The vertical structure of the plant communities has the extended type. Th e air-dry phytomass was estimated as 2080 kg/ha for the bent grass-clover community, 3060 kg/ha for the forbsclover-grass community, and 5090 kg/ha for forbs-legumes-grass community with willow and sea buckthorn bushes. The above-ground phytomass exceeds the below-ground one in two communities; the values are equal for the forbs-clover-grass community.