The colonisation of newly formed territories by plants during primary succession is a crucial stage in the formation of ecosystems. Adaptations of species to withstand harsh environment allow them to survive and form pioneer communities. We analysed ten categorical and quantitative plant traits to examine their role in plant resistance to substrate instability in primary volcanic habitats. The research questions were: 1) which plant traits enable plants to persist under the most unstable ground conditions?; 2) what are the ecological strategies of species that grow under the condition of stress, such as low mineral nutrition, coupled with intense disturbance, such as unstable ground? The research was conducted on the Tolbachinsky Dol plateau in Kamchatka, Russia, on loose volcanic sediments of the 1975 eruption. At altitudes ranging from 700 m a.s.l. to 1000 m a.s.l., 40 sample plots were established along the gradients of altitude and degrees of ground instability. The species composition of vascular plants and the percentage cover of species, as well as other habitat characteristics, were assessed. Linear models were used to investigate the relationship between traits and ground instability. The principal component analysis was used to identify groups of characteristic traits. Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) had the largest explained variance. The LDMC community weighted means decreased with increasing disturbance (ground instability). A whole set of categorical traits, i.e. plant functional types, characterised the adaptation of plants to unstable ground. These characteristics include life-form (according to Serebryakov classification), density of shoots arrangement, morphology of underground organs, and, to a lesser extent, dispersal mode. The study analysed 45 species, and it was found that only four of them were adapted to perform under conditions of high substrate instability. The study showed that the mutual interaction of a suite of biomorphological traits and leaf density characteristics formed a syndrome of pioneer species adapted to unstable ground. The ecological strategies of the majority of species in the studied communities were characterised by the predominance of the stress-tolerant strategy, explained by the extremely poor mineral nutrition in the primary habitats. Under conditions of both low nutrient availability and high disturbance intensity, species with a mixed stresstolerant-ruderal strategy are favoured. In the gradient of increasing disturbance, the role of the ruderal axis increased while stress tolerance decreased. However, the role of ecological strategy may be weakened by the presence of other important adaptive traits.

A detailed geobotanical characteristic of Siberian dwarf-pine (Pinus pumila (Pall.) Regel) communities of the north of the Koryak District is presented. The vegetation classification based on 83 relevés has been elaborated using main principles and classification methods of Russian dominant-determinant approach. As the result 10 associations, 10 subassociations and 9 variants classified within 5 association groups were revealed. The peculiarities of their species composition, community structure, ecology and geographical distribution were characterized. Using soil characteristics, several types of sites were recognized. It was shown that mesophytic moss-rich dwarf-pine shrubs (Pinetum pumilae hylocomiosum) were closely connected to the mean values of soil moisture and soil fertility of the sites. Rhododendron-rich dwarf-pine communities (subass. Pinetum pumilae rhododendroso aurei–hylocomiosum) adjoined them but they usually occurred on higher altitudes. Lichen-rich dwarf-pine shrubs (Pinetum pumilae fruticuloso–cladinosum) occupied the driest and poorest sites at the upper border of dwarf-shrub altitudinal belt (350–400 m a.s.l.). The dwarf-shrub-rich Siberian dwarf-pine communities (ass. group Pineta pumilae fruticulosa) were closely connected to rather dry and poor sites. In wet sites with shallow groundwater, Sphagnum-rich dwarf-pine communities (Pinetum pumilae sphagnosum girgensohnii) were found. Cloudberry-rich dwarf-pine shrubs (subass. Pinetum pumilae chamaemori–rubosum) adjoined them but mainly occurred on the peat hillock of palsas. The variation in the species composition and structure of communities are determined by their position in the relief and the density of the dwarf-pine layer. With a similar density of dwarf-pine, Sphagnum-rich dwarf-pine communities form in the foothills, and lichen-rich dwarf-pine shrubs form in mountains. The species diversity and the abundance of the subordinate layers are significantly reduced at the maximum density of the dwarf-pine; so poor-herb dwarf-pine communities (Pineta pumilae oligoherbosa) are formed.

The All-Russian Scientific Conference “Russian geobotany: results and development prospects” was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Department of Geobotany of the Komarov Botanical Institute. The Conference was held September 26–30, 2022 in St. Petersburg (Proceedings…, 2022). 123 geobotanists from 25 cities of Russia participated in the Conference as well as our colleagues from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam. The conference activity was held in three main topics: “Vegetation diversity and conservation”, “Structure and dynamics of plant communities”, “Vegetation geography and cartography”. At the plenary session and section meetings 62 oral and 56 poster presentations were presented. Three “round-table” talk sessions were held: two of them were dedicated to the problems of vegetation classification and the last — to the issues of geobotanical terminology. A significant part of the reports at the section “Diversity and protection of plant communities” was devoted to the classification of vegetation. The most part of authors used methods of floristic classification (Brown-Blanquet approach), but general analytic surveys were presented only in some works, and the rest were devoted to regional and local prodromuses of individual unions or to descriptions of lower syntaxa. A significant part of geobotanists follows the traditional principles of the Russian and Soviet school of dominant-determinant classification; the two other approaches to vegetation classification were applied in single reports: topological-ecological and geographical-genetic. Several papers have been devoted to the classification of habitat types. A significant part of vegetation studies have been carried out on the territory of protected areas: nature reserves, sanctuaries, national parks and natural landmarks: from the westernmost — Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus) to the easternmost — the Bastak Reserve (Jewish Autonomous Region) and the Koryak Reserve (Kamchatka Region). Many of the reports at the section “Structure and dynamics of plant communities” concerned the study of vegetation dynamics after anthropogenic impacts, which are the main destabilizing factors of vegetation cover. Very few studies related to climate change have been presented. Several reports analyzed the demographic structure of populations. Few reports were also devoted to the statistical modelling of vegetation dynamics. The modern approach based on the functional characteristics of plants is just beginning to develop in Russian geobotany. Rapidly developing machine learning methods are gradually being introduced into the arsenal of geobotanical science methods — for the purposes of vegetation classification and vegetation mapping. Research in the botanical geography and cartography continues in various regions of our country, in Belarus and Kazakhstan. The positive aspects in cartographic work are the increasing use of remote sensing data and tools for their processing, as well as the compilation of applied maps based on vegetation maps to solve various practical problems. However, a small number of reports were presented in the section “Vegetation geography and cartography”, which may reflect a decrease in interest in this area and a lack of specialists. In addition, it should be noted that very few works devoted to major botanical-geographic generalizations have been carried out in recent decades. Less and less geobotanists are engaged in middle- and small-scale vegetation mapping, which would continue and develop the traditions of the national school of geobotanical mapping and zoning.

The study of the geochemical features of Vitric Andosols in the central part of the Tolbachik Dol Plateau near the Kleshnya and Alaid lava flows was carried out to determine the relationship between the elemental composition of parent rocks and the soils and vegetation forming on them. The elemental composition of the samples was determined by X-ray fluorescence analysis and ICP-AES. For statistical data processing, we used correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and non-metric multidimensional scaling (Statistica 7, R software). The distribution of elements in soils is largely determined by the relief conditions. The contents of Fe, Ca, and Ti throughout the study area exceed the regional background levels in the eastern part of the northern soil province of Kamchatka. Differences between plant communities growing on different lava flows are associated with the macrorelief and size of outcrops of lava debris rather than with the elemental composition of soils and underlying lava. However, there is a strong relationship between the distribution of Cu and P and the number of species and projective cover of vascular plants.

The history of the co-existence of human-grey wolf (Canis lupus) is an example of competition, close interaction during domestication, persecution and extermination. The amazing plasticity and adaptations of the grey wolf ensured the sustainable survival of its populations. Being at the top of the food pyramid, Canis lupus is a consumer of the highest order. It actively regulates the abundance of its main prey, i.e. large ungulates, through their selective predation. These circumstances highlight the interest to study this carnivore species inhabiting the centre of European Russia. Using craniometric methods, we studied 326 wolf skulls obtained in Tver Region, Smolensk Region, Yaroslavl Region, and Vologda Region. We revealed a high intraspecific size polymorphism, based on the analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of the craniometric characters of the grey wolf collected in the centre of European Russia. These data are originated from an area of 350 x 450 km over a 65-year period. The spatial and temporal dynamics was demonstrated for measurements characterising the length of the skull, the length of the upper and lower jaw, and odontological features characterising the size of the crown of the first premolar and second molar teeth. The sexual variation of the grey wolf skull is characterised by a generally smaller size of female skulls (3.6% in average). A feature related to the functioning of the jaw apparatus, the width of the articular head of the mandible, showed the highest sexual variation (8.1%-difference between males and females). In order of increasing influence, the polymorphism factors are arranged as follows: chronographic, spatial, sex-related, and age-related. Besides the fundamental reasons caused by the sexual selection, the sexual dimorphism in size is determined by exogenous factors associated with a certain degree of segregation in trophic niches of males and females, their different social role, determined by the species life strategy. The geographic variability of the grey wolf skull has a complex and disordered nature. It is primarily caused by social organisation and strong territoriality of the grey wolf, limiting the panmixia, as well as by the stochastic intrapopulation processes due to a generally high elimination of individuals in populations. In the study area, the obtained spatial and temporal grey wolf variability could be caused by the complementary influence of a number of factors. The nature of the variability in the size of the grey wolf skull makes it possible to associate it with the dynamic parameters of the trophic ecology of the studied species, depending on the population-demographic characters of the main prey of the grey wolf, Alces alces and Sus scrofa, in the study area. In addition, it is not excluded that the temporal variability is affected by stochastic factors caused by the intensive grey wolf elimination as a result of sum death, active emigration and immigration of animals caused by anthropogenic load. By contributing to an intrapopulation polymorphism increase, the morphological heterogeneity of the grey wolf population increases the adaptive population ability, which ultimately favours the survival of this carnivore species.

Halophytic vegetation is typical for the west of the Caspian lowland. It is confined to solonetzes and solonchaks, occupying a fairly large area in the region. The phytocenotic diversity of halophytic vegetation depends on environmental factors such as the total amount of salts in the soils, as well as on soil moisture. According to literature sources and our research, halophyte communities in the region belong to 21 formations, of which 9 are widely distributed (Artemisieta pauciflorae, Artemisieta santonicae, Camphorosmeta monspeliacae, Leymeta ramosi, Halocnemeta strobilacei, Salsoleta dendroidis, Salicornieta perennantis, Suaedeta salsae, and Petrosimonieta oppositifoliae). Communities of 12 formations are rare (Anabaseta salsae, Halimioneta verruciferae, Kochieta prostratae, Limonieta suffruticosi, Salsoleta laricinae, Frankenieta hirsutae, Petrosimonieta triandrae, Petrosimonieta brachiatae, Climacoptereta crassae, Spirobassieta hirsutae, Salsoleta sodae, and Puccinellieta distantis). Some of these formations are located on the western or northwestern border of their areas. Solonetzes dominate in the steppe zone. Euhalophytes dwarf semishrubs Artemisia pauciflora, Artemisia santonica, and Camphorosma monspeliaca and rhizome cereals Leymus ramosus communities are associated with them. Solonchaks are not as common; they are marked with the following communities: Salicornia perennans, Spirobassia hirsuta, Suaeda salsa, and Petrosimonia oppositifolia. In the desert zone, solonetzes occupy small areas only in the north. Solonchaks dominate, in which communities of hyperhalophyte dwarf semishrubs (Halocnemum strobilaceum and Salsola dendroides) and annual halophytes (Salicornia perennans, Suaeda salsa, and Petrosimonia oppositifolia) occur. Halophyte communities are characteristic of fallows and pastures on light chestnut saline soils, along irrigation channels, in pipelines, and around artesian wells.

Questions Dispersal strategies are crucial in the colonization of disturbed landscapes. This influences species expansion in early-successional areas, determines dispersal distances, and affects the structure of communities. Volcanic eruptions destroy vegetation over vast areas and trigger community assembly processes in hostile environments. The questions are (a) Which dispersal strategies are advantageous during the colonization of primary areas? (b) Which environmental constraints drive species distributions according to their dispersal strategies? (c) Which dispersal or establishment traits are beneficial in the filtering processes during the community assembly? Location The study area was located in a primary volcanic habitat formed by the volcanic eruption in 1975-1976 in Tolbachinskii Dol Plateau, Kamchatka, Russia. Methods The composition of vascular plant species along environmental gradients was recorded. The proportion of species with different dispersal strategies was analysed under various conditions to determine the most successful dispersal mode. Logistic regressions were used to investigate the relationship between dispersal modes and environmental variables. Filtering processes acting on dispersal or establishment traits were revealed using linear modelling. Results Species without appendages for wind dispersal predominated in remote exposed sites, while species with seeds adapted for effective wind dispersal were common in more vegetated habitats, which support trapping and facilitation. Endozoochorous seeds occurred in woody communities and predominated in mature forests. The results show that the determinants of species composition according to dispersal mode are woody debris, shrub layer coverage and microrelief. Dispersal modes and life-forms converged in the most severe habitats. Conclusions On the tephra plain, species without special adaptations for wind dispersal benefitted through the colonization of primary habitats, whereas anemochorous seeds were blown into natural traps. The aerodynamic characteristics of seeds and the turbulent features of habitats were important in primary succession, as well as biotic facilitation and environmental conditions. Both dispersal and environmental filters interactively shaped the community structure in early succession.

Russian Botanical Society, Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and all Russian geobotany have suffered a huge irreparable loss. On May 2 2020 after a serious illness the greatest geobotanist of Russia, Doctor of Biology, Professor Vladislav Ivanovich Vasilevich left us. V. I. Vasilevich was born in 1935 in the town of Vyatskie Polyany, Kirov Region, in the family of a school teacher. After graduating fr om high school, in 1953 he entered the Leningrad State University, wh ere he specialized in the Department of Geobotany under the supervision by Professor A. P. Shennikov. After graduating from the University and post-graduate studies, in 1960 he was enrolled in the Laboratory of Experimental Geobotany of the Komarov Botanical Institute. All his scientific life was completely connected with the Institute. V. I. Vasilevich went from a junior researcher of the Laboratory of Experimental Geobotany to the ­Institute Deputy Director of the for scientific work. He was the Head of the Laboratory of the Forest Zone Vegetation, the Head of the Department of Geobotany, and the Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Geobo­tany. For many years, he was a member of the Scienti­fic and Dissertation Councils of the Komarov Botanical Institute. He was the organizer and the leader of many geobotanical expeditions. The geography of his field research was truly diverse. Vladislav Ivanovich brilliantly knew not only the vegetation of the North-West of Russia, but also of many other regions of USSR (Kazakhstan, Taymyr, the Middle Urals, the Western Caspian, etc.). In the person of Vladislav Vasilevich, Russian vegetation science has lost an outstanding scientist, the greatest specialist in theoretical phytocoenology, vegetation classification, and the study of biodiversity (Vasilevich, 1971, 1985, 2010, etc.). He proposed the quantitative method of dominant-determinant classification (the “dominant-floristic method”) based on the analysis of the uniformity of distribution of species with similar ecology in a certain groups of plant communities (Vasilevich, 1995). Using this method, V. I. Vasilevich and his colleagues developed a detailed classification of plant communities of the North-West of Russia that has resulted in numerous publications (Vasilevich, 2000; Vasilevich, Bibikova, 2003, 2011; etc.) He had published about 300 scientific papers and two monographs “Statistical methods in geobotany” (Vasilevich, 1969) and “Essays on theoretical phytocoenology” (Vasilevich, 1983), that had a huge impact on the development of vegetation science in Russia. He was an editor of many proceedings of scientific papers and collective monographs. In 1994, he was awarded the title “Honored scientist of the Russian Federation”. He was awarded the medal of the Order “For Merits to the Motherland”. Vladislav Ivanovich greatly contributed to the training of young scientists: 5 doctoral and 15 PhD theses were defended under his supervision. For many years, he gave lectures at the Department of geobotany of Saint Petersburg University in the specialities “Biometrics”, “Vegetation classification”, “Geobotanical subdivision”, “Vegetation of the North-West of Russia”, “Special chapters in geobotany”. He led the course “Phytocoenology” for graduate students of the Komarov Botanical Institute. Numerous students of him work in various regions of Russia and abroad. Vladislav Ivanovich devoted a lot of time and efforts to the work in the Russian Botanical Society (RBO). He was a Scientific Secretary, a Member of the Presidium, and a Vice-President of the RBO, Chairman of the Section of Geobotany of the RBO, a member of the Organizing Committees of the XII International Botanical Congress and Delegates’ Congresses of the RBO. The memory of Vladislav Ivanovich Vasilevich — an outstanding geobotanist, theoretician, teacher, and organizer of science — will always remain in our hearts.

A new species list of plants and lichens of Russia and neighboring countries has been developed for Turboveg for Windows, the program, intended for storage and management of phytosociological data (relevés), is widely used all around the world (Hennekens, Schaminée, 2001; Hennekens, 2015). The species list is built upon the database of the Russian website Plantarium (Plantarium…: [site]), which contains a species atlas and illustrated an online Handbook of plants and lichens. The nomenclature used on Plantarium was originally based on the following issues: vascular plants — S. K. Cherepanov (1995) with additions; mosses — «Flora of mosses of Russia» (Proect...: [site]); liverworts and hornworts — A. D. Potemkin and E. V. Sofronova (2009); lichens — «Spisok…» G. P. Urbanavichyus ed. (2010); other sources (Plantarium...: [site]). The new species list, currently the most comprehensive in Turboveg format for Russia, has 89 501 entries, including 4627 genus taxa compare to the old one with 32 020 entries (taxa) and only 253 synonyms. There are 84 805 species and subspecies taxa in the list, 37 760 (44.7 %) of which are accepted, while the others are synonyms. Their distribution by groups of organisms and divisions are shown in Table. A large number of synonyms in the new list and its adaptation to work with the Russian literature will greatly facilitate the entry of old relevé data. The ways of making new list, its structure as well as the possibilities of checking taxonomic lists on Internet resources are considered. The files of the species list for Turboveg 2 and Turboveg 3, the technique of associating existing databases with a new species list (in Russian) are available on the web page https://www.binran.ru/resursy/informatsionnyye-resursy/tekuschie-proekty/species_list_russia/.

Craniometry was investigated in four samples of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes L. 1758) (n = 403) from Tver oblast. Factors affecting the metric polymorphism of the fox skull can be presented in the following order according to their significance: age, sex, geographic, and chronographic variability. The geographic and chronographic factors are correlated with the jaws and teeth. An analysis of the time interval from the early 1990s to the present shows a weak trend toward an increase in some cranial structures. However, the inclusion of material from the 1980s reveals a more complex trend in the chronographic variability with size fluctuations. This may be due to the high rate of mortality which determines the stochastic nature of the chronographic size variability. The spatial variability of odontological and craniometric characters can be of adaptive functional significance.

Peculiarities of the forest vegetation dynamics and the main factors and mechanisms of environmental filtering were studied on loose deposits of the Tolbachinskii Dol Volcanic Plateau (Kamchatka) by means of plant life-form analysis. It was found that, in the earlier stages of plant succession, polycarpic herbs, acrocarpous mosses, and fruticulose lichens dominated. Forest communities of 35 years old differed from the old-growth ones by the proportions of plant life-forms and the total coverage. Environmental filtering is manifested by the most successful development of plants having special morphological adaptations of belowground systems to loose unstable substrata.

Primary plant successions on volcanic deposits of the Tolbachinskii Dol Plateau (Central Kamchatka) were studied. The main factors determining the succession rate were revealed. The peculiarities of plant successions on lava flows and ash–scoria deposits differed significantly. Some common mechanisms for all volcanic regions of the world were revealed. The leading factors of plant succession on lava flows were the type of lava surface, the texture of lava, and the fine tephra accumulation rate. The main factors determining plant succession on ash–scoria deposits were wind and water erosion and the distance to the seed sources. The time of formation of a secondary permanent larch ( Larix cajanderi Mayr.) forest should take about 1500–2000 years on lava flows and up to 1000 years (but not less than 300–500 years) on ash–scoria plains.

Приведены результаты исследований приморской галофитной растительности побережья залива Корфа (Олюторский р-н Камчатского края), дана геоботаническая характеристика основных ассоциаций маршевых лугов, их экологической приуроченности и географического распространения. С использованием статистических методов разработана эколого-фитоценотическая классификация растительности. Сообщества приморских маршей отнесены к 12 ассоциациям и 10 формациям. Дана краткая характеристика выделенных ассоциаций. Проведен сравнительный анализ классификационных единиц с синтаксонами эколого-флористической классификации. Показано, что в данном случае результаты обеих классификаций во многом совпадают, так как фитоценозы приморских маршей характеризуются монодоминантностью и бедным флористическим составом.