Features of the flora of the anthropogenic disturbed territories of the Volga river delta

By the 1970s, most of the Volga River Delta was covered by engineering irrigation systems. The natural vegetation cover in the vast majority of the delta has been disrupted. In the 1990s, during the transition to a market economy, a significant part of the irrigation systems was abandoned and destroyed. Huge areas of collapsed lands, deprived of flooding during floods, have turned into biotopes completely atypical for this region, on which successional processes are taking place, the final result of which is unknown. In a few cases, after the destruction of dams in the western part of the delta, the restoration of the cover is observed. However, no one has yet seriously studied the processes occurring in the flora and vegetation in these territories. As a result of our floristic and geobotanical studies of anthropogenic disturbed phytocenoses in the Volga River Delta (Astrakhan region) 190 species of vascular plants have been identified, including 15 alien species.