Ecological and physiognomic vegetation types of Zhetysu Alatau mountains

Abstract

The article presents the studying outcomes from 2014 to 2019 of vegetation cover of Zhetysu Alatau mountains, and also it summarized types of compiled ecological-phytocenotic classification. The main methods of compiling environmental classifications are briefly represented, and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are described: dominant and determinant. While creating of vegetation classification, the dominant approach to the allocation of taxa is adopted. The taxonomic hierarchy includes units: vegetation types, class formation (ecological-physiognomic type), group association. The vegetation cover of Zhetysu Alatau belons to 6 types of vegetation: forest, shrubby, meadow, swamp, steppe, deserts. Each type includes ecological and physiognomic vegetation categories (20 in total): forests – dark coniferous, small-leaved, floodplain; shrub thickets – petrophytic, halophytic, mesophytic and mesoxerophytic along river valleys, evergreen elfin woods; meadows – high-mountain low-herb alpine, high-mountain mid-herb subalpine, mid-mountain high-herb, steppes, halophytic, floodplain (swamp, typical); swamp grass; steppes – wormwood-grasses (deserts), grasses (true), rich forb-grass (meadow), high-mountain; deserts – halophytic semi-shrubs, psammophytic shrubs. Phytocenotic characteristics of species diversity for each type of vegetation and its association with high-altitude zones are given. Key words: Zhetysu Alatau mountains, vegetation classification, ecological physiognomic approach, plant communities, phytocoenotic characteristics.