THE VEGETATION OF THE RAILWAY EMBANKMENT IN THE NATURE RESERVE "BOLSHAYA KOKSHAGA"
The overgrowing of the railway embankment within the territory of the nature reserve “Bolshaya Kokshaga” has been carried out. 48 areas homogenous in vegetation were distinguished within the embankment. The aggregations are mostly grassy communities that indicates initial overgrowing stage of these areas. The number of plant species varies between 7 and 52 within the distinguished areas, with general projective cover from 5 per cent to 95 per cent. All the areas under study are characterized by various floristic composition: Jaccard's similarity coefficient varies from 0 per cent to 86.4 per cent. Koch coefficient of biotic variance amounts to 13.3 per cent. All the distinguished areas revealed 166 plant species of 51 families and 117 genera. The most abundant families are the Compositae Asteracea, graminoids Poaceae, the rose family Rosaceae, the carnation family Caryophyllaceae, and Fabaceae accounting for 44.2 per cent. According to C.Raunkiaer's life forms, hemicryptophyte were found to be the most abundant, with the dominance of annual and perennial herbaceous plant according to I.G. Serebryakov, among which taproot and long root plants account for over 38 per cent. Meadow-steppe eco-coenotic group and mesophytic ecological group account for the most part (40.4 per cent and 88 per cent respectively), according to soil moistening. The overgrowing of the railway embankment is influenced by the near-by vegetation. Areas of the embankment close to birch and pine forests differ in their floristic composition.