Dynamics of vegetation on the Volga river delta fallow lands

The article presents the results of observations of restorative successions on fallow lands in the western part of the Volga River delta, located between the water divider dam and the Bakhtemir River. Large areas of fallow lands appeared in this region at the end of the last century during the transition of the Russian economy to market relations. During this period, irrigation engineering systems, mainly with rice crop rotation, were abandoned and destroyed. In the 2010s, they began to be reclaimed and reused for growing crops. Previously existing large irrigation systems are not completely reconstructed, but use separate sections of it, former rice checks. Nevertheless, large areas of fallow lands continue to persist to the present time. In the first decade, herbaceous synanthropic plant communities with tall annual and biennial plants Helianthus lenticularis Douglas ex Lindl., Cannabis ruderalis Janish., Lactuca serriola L., Tragopogon major Jacq predominate on the fallow lands. In the middle of the second decade, under conditions of increasing soil salinization and moderate pasture load, plant communities dominated by woody plants begin to develop. First, Elaeagnus angustifolia L. appears, then, if soil salinity increases, Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb. In the areas adjacent to the Baer hillocks, in the third decade of the fallow lands’ existence, plant communities close to zonal ones appear on it, with the participation of dwarf semishrubs Caroxylon dendroides (Pall.) Tzvelev and Artemisia taurica Willd.