Structure and Diversity of Urban Park Stands at Kryvyi Rih Ore-Mining & Metallurgical District, Central Ukraine

Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between structure (floristic composition, dendrometric parameters), diversity (diversity and evenness indexes) of urban forest park stands and the ecological (soil fertility, soil moisture), environmental factors (air pollution). The study is based on the forest park stands inventory data, performed from 2012 to 2017 in Kryvyi Rih City, Central Ukraine. The floristic compositions of the urban forest park stands are poor. There are only 23 species that belong to 14 families and 12 genera. More families were represented by at least more than 2% of taxon diversity. While Ulmaceae (2 genera, 4 species–17,39 %), Fabaceae (3 genera, 2 species–17,39 %), Aсеrасеае (1 genera, 4 species–17,39 %) were the most representative families. It was established that at forest park the values of stand density varied from 490 to 660 trees*ha-1, stem heights were from 26 to 31 m, stem diameters were from 13 to 17 cm, stand basal area were from 32 to 49 m2*ha-1, stand volume were from 200 to 415 m3*ha-1. the values of relative stem heights were from 0,63 to 0,82 m*year-1, relative stem diameters were from 0,31 to 0,43 cm*year-1, relative stand basal area were from 0,80 to 1,19 m2*ha-1*year-1, relative stand volume were from 5,45 to 10,28 m3*ha-1*year-1. The varied values of the forest park stands index (Shannon-Wiener diversity index from 0,75 to 1,61, Pielou‟s evenness index from 0,53 to 0,86, Simpson‟s diversity from 0,24 to 0,60, Margalef‟s diversity index from 0,87 to 6,97) indicate the ecological instability of these woody plant communities. Current state of the urban forest park stands determined by the combined influence of ecological (soil fertility, soil moisture) and environmental factors (air pollution).