Characteristics of taxonomic structure of flora in the Middle Urals urban areas (Sverdlovsk Region)

Research in urban floras is a major field of botanical science. By now, flora of many Russian cities has been studied. At the same time the Urals flora of urbanized areas has not practically been the subject of special investigation. This paper is the first to provide a detailed description of the features of the taxonomic structure of the flora of urbanized areas of the Middle Urals within the Sverdlovsk region and to compare it with the parameters of the regional flora of the Sverdlovsk region. Urban floras of 3 cities in the southern part of the Sverdlovsk region have been studied – Yekaterinburg, Krasnoufimsk and Kamensk-Ural, which form a latitudinal catena, covering the Urals region, the mountainous part of the Middle Urals and Trans-Urals. It is shown that the flora of the urbanized areas is characterized by a high level of species richness which increases relative to the area of the city. The taxonomic structure of urban floras, compared with the regional flora, is characterized by a reduced participation of spore plants, due to the extremely poor representation of lycopsids. In the flowering plants the proportion of monocots is reduced and, on the contrary, the proportion of bipartite species is increased. The composition of the leading families of urban floras is typical of the boreal floras of the Holarctic floral kingdom, it is distinguished by the lower rank of the Cyperaceae family and by the rise of the Fabaceae family. Generic spectrum of urban floras is marked by the greater participation of thermophilic genera Atriplex and Chenopodium and very limited representation of boreal genera Hieracium and Taraxacum. Species richness of families and genera in urban floras is markedly lower than in regional boreal flora.