Assessment of Rarity Category for Higher Aquatic Plants

Abstract

A spatiotemporal analysis of higher aquatic plant flora in the water bodies of the city of Kyiv (Ukraine) has been used to develop local protection criteria for 22 rare and protected species. These criteria differ considerably from the regional ones due to the significant transformation of the environment in an urban landscape. The rare component of macrophyte flora in the water bodies of the city have become poorer over the past 40–50 years; two species have disappeared from the urban flora, seven species are characterized as critically endangered, five species are endangered, four are vulnerable and at a high extinction risk, and four more species are characterized by a low risk of extinction.