Paper · 2025 · БОТАНИЧЕСКИЙ ЖУРНАЛ

Rare plant communities in St. Petersburg vegetation cover

S. D. Ozerova; E. S. Derkach; E. A. Volkova

7
claims
9
verbatim quotes
0
citations
2
research areas
✓
Open access

Abstract

St. Petersburg is the largest city in the world north of 60° N. Urban areas neighbor on relatively undisturbed sites with natural south taiga landscapes (about 30% of the city area). The conventionally primary vegetation is represented by spruce, pine and black alder forests, different types of bogs, maritime meadows, coastal-aquatic vegetation. Secondary vegetation includes small-leaved forests and upland meadows. For many years, comprehensive environmental surveys of the city territories have been carried out in St. Petersburg in order to justify the feasibility of creating natural protected areas there. Currently, there are 17 protected areas of regional status in St. Petersburg with a total area of 92 km2. Another 17 territories (about 70 km2) have been surveyed and recognized as having a high conservation value. One of the tasks of geobotanical research is to identify plant communities rare in the city and needing protection. The existence of these communities is due to a number of factors related to the geographical location and history of the city’s development. The conservation value of communities The communities conservation value is based on their rarity and is determined by a number of criteria. Based on these criteria, four categories are proposed: floristic (dominance of a rare species), structural (combinations of structural components formed by species with contrasting ecological-coenotic characteristics), ecotopic (presence of rare ecotopic conditions), rare communities (encountered 1 to 3 times over the entire research). Totally, more than twenty types of rare communities have been identified. The first category includes communities with the species listed in the Red Book of St. Petersburg – Myrica gale, Viola uliginosa and Euphorbia palustris. The second category includes forest communities of Kotlin Island with structural features of the lower layers. The third, largest category includes small-leaved nemoral forb forests, maritime meadows, extrazonal broad-leaved forests and hazel bushes. Their existence is determined by rare ecotopic conditions, which depend on the coastal position and geological and geomorphological features of the city. The fourth category includes old-growth spruce forests, plant communities with rare species Equisetum hiemale and Carex brizoides, and unique for the city ridge-hollow-lake complex on the Sestroretskoye bog. The location within the city, characteristic habitats and dominants of the layers are described for each community. For many types of communities, tables with relevés are provided.

Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗

The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.

Claims 7

Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultbasis n/a

Claim · model-written summary

Four categories of rare plant communities were proposed.

Taxon
plant communitiest0
Outcome
four categoriese0
Value
four categoriese0

Verbatim

e0

“four categories are proposed: floristic (dominance of a rare species), structural (combinations of structural components formed by species with contrasting ecological-coenotic characteristics), ecotopic (presence of rare ecotopic conditions), rare communities (encountered 1 to 3 times over the entire research)”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1252–1563 · show in text ↑
t0

“plant communities”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 5–22 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

More than twenty rare community types were identified.

Taxon
plant communitiest0
Outcome
types of rare communitiese0
Value
more than twentye0

Verbatim

e0

“more than twenty types of rare communities have been identified”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1574–1637 · show in text ↑
t0

“plant communities”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 5–22 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Floristic rare communities include stands dominated by Myrica gale, Viola uliginosa and Euphorbia palustris.

Taxon
Myrica gale, Viola uliginosa and Euphorbia palustrisMyrica galeEuphorbia palustrisViola uliginosae0
Outcome
communities with the species listed in the Red Book of St. Petersburge0
Setting
St. Petersburge0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Myrica gale
Myrica gale · TaxonPhotographer and uploader was Hajotthu at de.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Euphorbia palustris
Euphorbia palustris · TaxonStanislav Doronenko · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗
Viola uliginosa
Viola uliginosa · TaxonRolf Engstrand · CC BY-SA 4.0 · iNaturalist ↗

Verbatim

e0

“The first category includes communities with the species listed in the Red Book of St. Petersburg – Myrica gale, Viola uliginosa and Euphorbia palustris”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1639–1791 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Structural rarity includes forest communities on Kotlin Island.

Taxon
forest communitiese0
Outcome
structural features of the lower layerse0
Setting
Kotlin Islande0

Verbatim

e0

“The second category includes forest communities of Kotlin Island with structural features of the lower layers”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1793–1902 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The largest ecotopic category includes small-leaved nemoral forb forests, maritime meadows and extrazonal broad-leaved forests.

Taxon
small-leaved nemoral forb forestse0
Outcome
largest categorye0

Verbatim

e0

“The third, largest category includes small-leaved nemoral forb forests, maritime meadows, extrazonal broad-leaved forests and hazel bushes”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1904–2042 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The ecotopic category also includes hazel bushes.

Taxon
hazel bushese0
Outcome
largest categorye0

Verbatim

e0

“The third, largest category includes small-leaved nemoral forb forests, maritime meadows, extrazonal broad-leaved forests and hazel bushes”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1904–2042 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Old-growth spruce forests, communities with Equisetum hiemale and Carex brizoides, and a bog complex make up the fourth category.

Taxon
plant communitiese0
Outcome
fourth categorye0
Setting
Sestroretskoye boge0

Verbatim

e0

“The fourth category includes old-growth spruce forests, plant communities with rare species Equisetum hiemale and Carex brizoides, and unique for the city ridge-hollow-lake complex on the Sestroretskoye bog”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 2198–2404 · show in text ↑