Adaptive Responses of Herbaceous Plants and Hortobiont Arthropods during the Formation of Biocenoses on Rock Dumps of Opencast Coal Mines of Kemerovo Region

Abstract

It was established experimentally that the environmental conditions of the rock dump cause morphological and anatomical changes in leaves of the common dandelion: the leaf area is reduced and its thickness is increased mainly due to the increase in the mesophyll; the number of stomata of the upper and lower epidermis and the stomatal index of the upper epidermis are reduced.

Distinctive communities of hortobiont arthropods are formed on the rock dumps with the predominance of insects of Class Ectognatha and a significant increase in their population density in comparison with the control condition. The dominant group of hortobionts includes 9 orders (Homoptera, Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Neuroptera, Lepidoptera). The main increase in the number of hortobionts on the rock dump was observed in Diptera and Heteroptera. The herbage on the rock dump is mainly populated by phytophagous insects – leaf-eating and leaf-sucking phytophages. Predators include Coleoptera (Coccinellidae, the ground beetles, Staphylini), predatory bugs and ants.

It was established that anatomical and morphological characteristics of leaves of the common dandelion significantly correlate with the complex air quality index (AQI) and dust deposition. The population density of hortobiont insects, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera insects significantly correlates with a wider range of atmospheric pollutants – AQI, deposition of dust, nitrates and sulfates. The results obtained can be viewed as a distinctive response of the biocenosis components to the environmental conditions of the rock dump.