The structure of higher aquatic vegetation in the genetic series of floodplain reservoirs

Abstract

Abstract The statistical analysis was carried out on the material collected from the Vorskla River (a first-order tributary of the Dnieper River) and the system of connected water bodies in the territory of the Getmanski National Nature Park (Sumy region, Ukraine). The methods of cluster analysis has enabled us to, first, isolate groups analogous to those obtained with the use of the method of dominants and, secondly, to compare the degree of their coincidence. From the comparison of the associations with the groups of the aquatic vegetation’s species, a minimal overlapping could be seen in the composition of associations and clusters. In contrast, the groups identified by the hierarchical clustering method and by the k-means method showed significant similarities in the composition. For the objective assessment and classification of plant associations, it is most productive to use several methods with the coincidence of the results of which, it is possible to assert with more confidence that these combinations of species in nature are in fact not random.