Moscow

Abstract

The city, as part of the cultural landscape, is a mobile and highly dynamic system, the changes of which are related to a variety of economic and social factors. Periods of stabilisation alternate with periods of fast changes and development of the city. Vegetative cover as an element of urban environment is directly or indirectly affected by all these factors and phenomena. Species of natural communities are of special concern. The reduction in the population size and frequency of many native species can adversely affect their survival. It is ­possible that many rare species will disappear from the city, primarily those of wet and dry meadows, forest edges, meadows and marsh communities. There is also another danger, which is generally overlooked – the loss of native genotypes and their replacement by alien genotypes of the same taxon. These negative processes can also affect non-native species, for example, plants of old parks and “relics of cultivation” such as Chenopodium bonus-henricus, Luzula luzuloides, Phyteuma spicatum and Poa chaixii.