Domnich A. Ungulates as a structural-functional element of island ecosystems on preserved areas of south-east of Ukraine.

The object is the population of wild ungulates. The aim is to study the ungulates as structural and functional elements of island ecosystems with security status in the South East of Ukraine. The methods are field, laboratory and statistical. The scientific research is focused on the analysis of ungulates during their acclimatization and naturalization under the conditions of island ecosystems with conservation status. The quantity, biomass and ungulate performance were estimated. The main consortium biotopical and functional links with autophytic groupings are characterized. These links describe the ungulate interrelations in the use of ecosystems as feeding and conservative habitats, and direct links with functional autophytic elements, such as photosynthetic, vegetative and reproductive. The role of ungulates in the soil is discovered. It is connected with the forming of physical and chemical processes of soil, which became the important factor in the optimization of ecological conditions for the development of vegetational associations in the steppe, where the hold point of mineralization and the depletion of soil were evidenced. The materials on the role of ungulates in biotic energy transformation are presented. There is presented the complex of actions for conservation and rational use of ungulates in the optimization of soil processes and restoration of the part of steppe ecosystems on the south of Ukraine.