Ecological and Biological Characteristics of the Flora of “Cape Martyan” Nature Reserve (Southern Coast of the Crimea)
Nataliya A. Bagrikova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Department of Natural Ecosystems
Nikita Botanical Gardens — National Scientific Center RAS, Yalta, Russia, nbagrik@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2305-4146
Abstract
This article summarizes long-term studies of the flora of Cape Martyan Nature Reserve. The dynamics of its composition, its current state, and the degree of its adventization are considered. Taxonomically, the flora belongs to the southern, Mediterranean Fabaceae-type and Brassicaceae-subtype. This transformation of the flora is due to the spread of alien species into the nature reserve area, which account for more than 12% of the species. The geographical composition confirms the high heterogeneity of the flora with the dominance of species of Mediterranean origin in both autochthonous (34.8%) and allochthonous (40.0%) elements. The biomorphological and ecological spectra correspond to the xerophytic conditions that form in the lower forest belt of the Southern coast of the Crimea. Compared with the flora of the Crimean Peninsula, in the spectrum of life forms in the reserve, with the dominance of polycarpic grasses (40.7%), the share of winter annuals increases (to 30.0%), which is associated with a significant participation of ephemerals and ephemeroids growing in the late summer-autumn period (34.2%). Xerophytic conditions determine the dominance of species with a taproot system with deep root penetration (37.2%), as well as xeromesophytes (59.6%), growing under conditions of temporary moisture deficiency. The predominance of forest communities on the territory of the Reserve determines the decrease in the proportion of heliophytes (from 61.4 to 51.6%) compared to the peninsula’s flora.
Acknowledgments: This work was completed under a state assignment “Ecology, dynamics and resource significance of natural and transformed ecosystems of the southern regions of the European part of Russia”. Registration number FNNS-2025-0006
For citation:
Bagrikova N. A. Ecological and Biological Characteristics of the Flora of “Cape Martyan” Nature Reserve (Southern Coast of the Crimea). Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2026, no. 2 (58), pp. 19—31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2026.58.2.
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