Rare plants in the focus of the modern concept of biodiversity (on the example of Transbaikal)

• Published in: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
• Main Authors: Namzalov, B-Ts B, Zhigzhitzhapova, S V, Namzalov, M B-Ts
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IOP Publishing 2019
• Subjects: Tuva; Tundra; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/315/7/072004; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/315/7/072004/pdf; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/315/7/072004

Abstract Rare plants are endemic and relict species, and plants that are on the borders of their ranges. Only in the flora of the steppes of the Baikal Siberia, 48 endemic species are known, i.e., 7.0% of the total structure of the flora. In addition to endemics, relicts are typical for the historical phytogeography of Siberia. Twenty-seven of them belong to the oldest tertiary. It is often observed that the historical phytogeography of Siberia contains very little information about relict vegetation communities in comparison to a large volume of Pleistocene steppe relict species, for example. Logically one can assume that if species are preserved, it is likely to find islands of former vegetation, relict phytocenoses. Fragments of these communities are combined with tundra groups, forming relict tundra-steppe landscapes in the mountains of the Sayan mountains and Tuva. For the first time taking Transbaikal as an example, an approach for a holistic view of rare plant species in accordance with the concept of biodiversity is proposed. This means the disclosure of this phenomenon not only on the species, but also on the coenotic and landscape levels. As a result, rare plant species are represented in systemic integrity at three conjugate levels: 1. Characteristics of a unique species as a system of uneven-age individuals; 2. Analysis of plant communities with dominance or participation of the species under consideration; 3. Description of the original landscape with the development of rare phytocenosis. The holistic and related discovery of the biology and ecology of endemic, relict and boundary populations of plant species will serve as a basis for creating a valuable scientific synthesis, the Atlas of the unique gene pool of natural flora.