Conjugate occurrence of species at Geranium–Hedysarum meadows of alpine zone Northwest Caucasus

The conjugate occurrence of species was studied on a transect of 16 50×50 cm plots divided into 1600 5×5 cm squares on Geranium - Hedysarum meadows of the alpine belt of the Malaya Khatipara ridge of Teberda National Park. For each square, the number of shoots of the species over 5 years and the average soil depth obtained from 5 measurements were taken into account. The conjugate occurrence was studied by analyzing the Spearman correlation matrix, the occurrence of all species among themselves and the soil depth. The community has two dominants: Geranium gymnocaulon DC. dominates in wetter areas and in depressions, Hedysarum caucasicum Bieb. - in drier areas. The community is inhabited by the bush vole ( Pitymys majori Thom.), which creates numerous permanent small-scale disturbances of the vegetation cover in years with a large population. All species recorded on the transect are divided into three pleiads: the pleiad of Geranium gymnocaulon , the pleiad of Hedysarum caucasicum and a large pleiad of light-loving species. The third pleiad includes groundcover species with horizontally lying rhizomes in the soil, densely turf and long-rhizome grasses, rosette species and an annual. The large pleiad does not break up into parcellas due to numerous small disturbances overgrown with explerents.