Ecology of soil algae cenoses in Norway maple plantation in the recultivated territory of the Western Donbas (Ukraine)

The problem of the degradation of land ecosystems and their underlying basis – the soil – has a global character. In some regions of Ukraine, such as the Western Donbass, it becomes particularly topical. The damaged areas formed during coal mining are restored through reclamation. One of its directions is forest reclamation. Soil algae constitute an active autotrophic part of the microbiota. They are connected with all its autotrophic, heterotrophic components and with the soil. They play a great role in the accumulation and transformation of organic matter, contributing to the creation of soil fertility. This explains the importance of algae in the process of restoration of damaged soils. Algae participate in the formation of primary products for primary consumers of such soil saprophages as two-bipartite petioles, woodlice, earthworms, collembola, oribatei. These animals act as a natural soil-protecting biological factor, as well as the factor of naturalization of soils in the restoration of damaged areas. They cause redistribution of algae communities composition as a result of their selective eating, thus affecting the number of their communities. The selection of soil samples and forest litter has been carried out in the plantations of Norway maple in the experimental-production site of forest reclamation in the territory of the Western Donbas (Ukraine). The structure of the domination of algae complexes, the vital forms of the representatives of the coenoses of soil algae in the plantation of Acer platanoides L. on various stratigraphic variants of piled edaphotopes – on a variant with a potentially fertile terrain (non-humous loess loam) and on several chernozem variants with different stratigraphy has been studied. The representatives of green algae (Chlorophyta) predominate in the investigated re-cultivated area in the plantations of Norway maple. The participation of green algae in the composition of soil algae groupings shows the sylvatizative role of the tree plantations in the restored territories. In the plantations of Norway maple on the various stratigraphic variants of piled edaphotopes, an increase in the number of species from 8 in the area with the fill of loess loam up to 15 in a chernozem variant with a half-meter layer of sand has been noted. In general, for maple plantations on chernozem fills, a larger number of species (from 10 to 15) has been observed compared to the maple plantation on the loess loam fill. On the one hand, the small species variety indicates very rough conditions for the existence of soil algae flora, on the other hand, the appearance and occurring of species characteristic of forest ecosystems, indicates the processes of their naturalization in the re-cultivated territories