Vascular plants occurences of the Southern Urals industrial cities (Sterlitamak and Salavat)

Yaroslav Golovanov, Larisa Abramova, Mikhail Drap, Maria Lebedeva

Salavat and Sterlitamak are important industrial cities in the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia). The population of Salavat is more than 159,000 people, Sterlitamak - 279,000. These towns are included in the Southern Bashkortostan urban agglomeration and are located in the Southern Urals on the border of the steppe and forest-steppe zones. The Urals are a mountain range that runs almost continuously along the 60°E meridian from the Arctic Ocean coast to the Ural River and north-western Kazakhstan. The Urals are an important botanical and geographical boundary of Northern Eurasia.

The study of the flora and vegetation diversity of Salavat and Sterlitamak was carried out from 1999 to 2019 by Ya. Golovanov using route observation and sample plots. The main results and analytics were published in number of papers (Golovanov and Abramova 2017, Golovanov et al. 2017, Golovanov 2018). The datasets were prepared according to the data of field research (releves and species lists). Some species are deposited in the herbarium of South-Ural Botanical Garden Institute and Institute of Biology, Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UFA). These datasets include information on the occurrence of 292 species from 185 genera and 48 families. The total number of occurences is 5,462.

This work was supported in project no. АААА-А18-118011990151-7 of the Ufa Federal Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The datasets include 5,462 occurrences of vascular plant species in Sterlitamak and Salavat, industrial cities of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The study of the flora and vegetation of Sterlitamak was carried out in 2014-2015 (May-August). During this period, 360 releves of the main types of anthropogenic and natural vegetation were made within the city boundaries. The main studies of the flora and vegetation of Salavat were carried out from 2008 to 2011 (May-August). Some types of communities were described later in 2016. During this period, 500 releves of anthropogenic and natural types of vegetation were made. The regions are located in the Southern Urals on the border of steppe and forest-steppe vegetation zones. The datasets contain information on 292 species, 185 genera, 48 families and two classes (Liliopsida and Magnoliopsida).

Comprehensive studies of the flora and vegetation of cities were carried out in anthropogenic and natural habitats. Research routes covered all areas of the cities, as well as adjacent territories. Typical anthropogenic habitats include: railway stations, slopes of roads and railways, wastelands, construction sites, abandoned gardens, anthropogenic reservoirs, city yards and lawns. Such habitats are characterised by a high concentration of alien plant species. In these territories, releves of the main anthropogenic types of plant communities were carried out. The locations of individual alien plant species were recorded outside the sample plots. Routes were also mapped in the areas of natural vegetation: meadows, steppes, forests and their edges and banks of water reservoirs. In these territories, releves of plant communities were carried out, rare species of plants were recorded additionally. Releves were carried out on sample plots of various sizes (4-100 m²) depending on the boundaries of phytocoenoses in accordance with the methods of ecological-floristic classification of Braun-Blanquet. The scientific names of plants were adjusted in accordance with the International Plants Names Index (http://www.ipni.org).

The identification of plants was carried out according to "Flora of the European part of the USSR" (1974-1994) and "Flora of Eastern Europe" (1996-2004). All releves are included in the database of anthropogenic vegetation of the Urals and adjacent territories (http://www.givd.info/ID/00-RU-008), implemented using the TURBOVEG software (Hennekens and Schaminée 2001). Herbarium materials are stored in the South-Ural Botanical Garden Institute, Ufa Federal Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Science and Ufa Institute of Biology, Ufa Federal Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Science (UFA).

The main habitats and types of anthropogenic, semi-natural and natural plant communities in cities are identified. For each type of vegetation, at least 10 geobotanical releves are made on 10 m * 10 m plots or within the boundaries of phytocoenoses. Additionally, spots of the alien species sightings outside the plots were recorded. The releves are compiled in the Turboveg electronic database and are presented in the semi-restricted access mode in the European vegetation archive (EVA). Then, species occurrences data are collected as datasets. The dataset fields’ names were chosen according to Darwin Core (Wieczorek et al. 2012) and include the following: «occurrenceID», «basisOfRecord», «kingdom», «phyllum», «class», «order», «family», «genus», «scientificName», «taxonRank», «countryCode», «recordedBy», «eventDate», «day», «month», «year», «identifiedBy», «decimalLatitude», «decimalLongitude», «stateProvince».

The geographic coverage of the study included two cities, Serlitamak and Salavat, which are located in the Southern Urals on the border of the steppe and forest-steppe zones.

Sterlitamak - a city in the Republic of Bashkortostan, the administrative centre of the Sterlitamak District (since 1930), is located 121 km south of Ufa. Sterlitamak is located in the floodplain of the Belaya River, as well as its medium and small tributaries - the Ashkadar, Sterlya, Seleuk and Olkhovka Rivers. The population is 279 thousand people (as of 2016). The area of the city is 108.52 km², the population density is 2577.33 people/km². The city is a major junction of the Ufa-Orenburg railway and republican and federal highways and one of the centres of the South Bashkortostan polycentric agglomeration. This territory has a powerful production potential with a total population of about 600 thousand people. Sterlitamak was founded in 1766 as the Ashkadar salt marina on the Sterlya River and was, at that time, in the territory of the Orenburg Province. In 1919-1922, Sterlitamak was the capital of the Autonomous Bashkir Soviet Republic, from 1920 - the centre of the Sterlitamak canton. With the discovery of oil near Ishimbay, the city became one of the strongholds for the development of oil fields. Now, Sterlitamak is a large centre of the chemical industry. In the territory of the city, there are large chemistry enterprises, as well as enterprises in the machine building industry.

Salavat was founded on 30 June 1948 as the village Novostroyka due to the construction of the petrochemical plant. In 1949, Salavat received the status of an industrial township and, in 1954, the status of a city. Currently, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat is a major centre for the oil refining and petrochemical industries. In addition, there is a large glass factory (Salavatsteklo), as well as a plant for reinforced concrete and mineral wool products (Zykina 1998). Salavat is the third largest city of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The population is 156 thousand people. The length of the residential territory of the City along the Belaya River is 5.5 km, in width - 2.7 km. In addition to the residential part, the large territory of the City is occupied by industrial and economic buildings. The area of the City together with industrial territories is 111.4 km². Communication routes significant for the Republic of Bashkortostan pass through the City of Salavat: the Ufa-Orenburg highway and the Salavat railway.

The main climatic characteristics of the cities are the following. The average annual air temperature here is 3.2°C, the average January temperature is -13.9°C, July is + 19.4°C, the sum of positive temperatures above 10°C is 2376°C. The average annual rainfall is 498.9 mm (Salavat) and 576 mm (Sterlitamak). The average precipitation equals 285 mm and 169 mm during the growing season and during the winter, respectively, snow cover height reaches 41 cm, soil freezing depth is 61 cm. The final spring frosts are observed in the second or third decade of May, the first autumn frost occur in the first or second decade of September. The frost-free period averages 128 days (Taichinov and Bulchuk 1975, Yaparov 2005).

53.361651 and 53.630403 Latitude; 55.924681 and 55.930825 Longitude.

The datasets include records on natural and alien species belonging to Magnoliophyta, 48 families, 185 genera and 292 species. The largest number of species (197) belong to the families Asteraceae, Poaceae, Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Rosaceae, Lamiaceae and Polygonaceae. Additionally, Asteraceae (1705), Poaceae (641), Amaranthaceae (522), Brassicaceae (474) and Fabaceae (361) account for the highest number of occurrences. Twenty families are characterised by just a a few occurrences (less than 20). The families Alismataceae, Amaryllidaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Hypericaceae, Polemoniaceae and Rhamnaceae were represented by only one species and one occurrence (Table 1).