Impact of nitrogen deposition on understory vegetation of pine dominated forest near the nitrogen fertilizer factory

The aim of the research was to determine the species composition, abundance and amount of total nitrogen in the leaves of selected plants of understory vegetation in a pine dominated forest near nitrogen fertilizer factory JS "Achema". The investigations of the species composition and abundance in understory vegetation of pine dominated forest in the distance of 0.5-22.0 km from the JS "Achema" were done in the permanent plots in June of 2004 years. All species of herbs and mosses were recorded and their percentage cover was determined in 20 subplots. Leaves of selected plants were sampled 3 times per year and total nitrogen was determined in the laboratory using common methods. The ANOVA was used to evaluate the significance of differences between data sets on sites. It was determined no significant differences in species composition and their abundance between plots in different distance from the nitrogen fertilizers factory. The tendency of nitrogenous species (Chelidonium majus) growing near factory was observed. The highest level of total nitrogen was determined in the leaves of Chelidonium majus. The highest amount of total nitrogen in the leaves of Chelidonium majus was in April and October and significantly differed from the amount of total nitrogen in the leaves sampled in JulyVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij