Use of soil biota in the assessment of the ecological potential of urban soils

In assessing the ecological conditions and classification of urban soils, data about soil biota should be taken into
account. The environment of urban territories is characterized
by significant changes compared to their surrounding
environments. It is established that the algal flora of urban soils lose their zonal features and features associated with th
e
edification influence of higher plants. Specific biotopes with a definite s
pecies structure are formed in urboecosystems.
Fifty 50 algae species have been recorded in the soils of the Henichesk urboecosystems (Kherson region, Ukraine):
Cyanoprocaryota
– 21, Chlorophyta –
13, Charophyta –
2, Eustigmatophyta –
1, Xanthophyta –
11,
Bacillariophyta
– 2.
Among dominant and subdominant species were Cyanoprocaryota and Chlorophyta. The other phyla were represented
by
Klebsormidium dissectum
,
K. flaccidum
,
Hantzschia amphioxys
,
Eustigmatos magnus
,
Botrydiopsis eriensis
.
Compared with the
surrounding environment, the urbanized flora of Henichesk has a low species richness, and is
characterized by prevalence of Cyanoprocaryota and Chlorophyta species. The coefficient that takes into account the
percentage of preservation of species richness
in a particular urban area compared to the background indicators of
species richness can be used to evaluate the urban transformation of soil biota. The degree of degradatory changes in the
composition of living organisms and the direction of these changes
depends on the specificity and intensity of
exploitation of the territory of the urban ecosystem. The most diverse composition of algae species within the the city of
Henichesk was noted in the recreational, residential,
and transport zones, in comparison
with the industrial zone and the
zone of special use. Different functional areas of the city are distinguished not only by the algae species richness, but
also by the composition of dominants. Among the dominants and subdominants of the recreational and t
ransport zones
were species of different phyla. The dominants and subdominants of the residential and industrial zones were
Cyanoprocaryota species, in the zone of special use
–
representatives of Chlorophyta. The distribution of species
richness of algae
along the soil profile in the city acquires an atypical character. The species richness increases not in the
most superficial layers of soil, but in the lower, aphotic parts of the soil profile.
The soil biota, on the one hand, depends
on the ecological co
nditions of soil, and on the other as a result of its life activity, changes the ecological functions of
the soil, strengthening or weakening them. The reduction in the species richness of the soil algae of the urboecosystem
Henichesk shows the limitations
of ecological functions of urban soils.
It is established that changes in the composition
of algae in soils of urban ecosystems are one of the indicators of the presence and severity of transformation processes.
These processes occur with the soil biota and soil as a whole under the conditions of urban ecosystems and can be used
as indicators in the environmental assessment of urban soils, in the development and subsequent examination of ways to
reduce negative expression of urbanization