Ecological interpretation of higher units of steppe vegetation in the mountains of southern Middle Siberia by quantitative ordination

Abstract

An ecological ordination model of higher units of steppe vegetation in the mountains of the southern Middle Siberia was created based on indirect ordination (detrended correspondence analysis) of 326 complete geobotanical descriptions and on a correlation analysis of the values of main axes with climatic, soilground, and geographical parameters. Ecological series of coenofloras of the steppe vegetation are observed in the space of the two first leading axes of ordination. They are oriented by climatic factors of the annual and seasonal precipitation amounts, temperature, oceanity–continentality, and substrate rockiness. A syntaxonomic interpretation of the observed ecological-geographical steppe types is given, and a hierarchy of higher classification units is substantiated from ecological positions.