Molozhon K. Influence of the reconstruction of the city park on the vegetation cover

The phenomenon of the city in modern science has numerous interpretations.One of them is the interpretation of the city as a land use system that forms the material and spatial prerequisites for human activity and through which they are realized.Parks and forest parks are the main link in the network of mass recreation areas, which bear the main recreational load in large cities.Protecting, restoring and optimizing ecosystem services in cities requires the development of adequate management procedures, including the reconstruction of parks.This process is quite significant, as it significantly changes the ecological regimes of the artificial ecosystem, affects the soil cover and plant communities.To study the mechanisms of interaction between these components of urban park ecosystems, I chose the recreational area of the Botanical Garden of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. Reconstruction work has been carried out on the territory of this facility, but the issue of the impact of anthropogenic load on the interconnection of the main components of the urban park ecosystem has not been studied. The problem of determining the impact of the city as a socio-ecosystem on plant life is in the initial stages of solution. Studying, on the one hand, structural and physiological-biochemical changes in plant organisms under the influence of specific conditions of the urbanized environment, and, on the other hand, the prospects of plant influence on improving the sanitary and hygienic state of urban ecosystems are the most important tasks of modern ecological research. That is why conservation and effective management are crucial for preserving urban parks, increasing the functional value of forest plantations in the city, and ensuring their sustainability. Thus, determining the impact of park reconstruction on vegetation cover is an urgent scientific problem. The purpose of the study is to establish the regularity of the impact of measures for the reconstruction and improvement of urban parks on vegetation, to study the conditions of reconstruction and its impact on the vegetation of the city park. The object of study is the recreational area of a city park. The subject of the study is the transformation of the vegetation cover of the urban park area under conditions of recreational load. The study was conducted in the public green spaces of the Botanical Garden of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University during 2021-2023. As a result of the work, the consequences of the impact of the reconstruction of the city park on changes in the physical properties of the soil cover and on the transformation of the vegetation cover were established. Reconstruction causes a number of negative changes in the physical condition of the soil. The combination of the blowing of the area due to the reconstruction with an increase in the content of the dusty fraction increases the risk of crusting, which slows down gas exchange and accelerates water erosion. Such changes cause soil colmatization with further deterioration of water and air regimes of soils, which explains the transformation of the ecological structure of the vegetation cover. An increase in soil compactness in terms of soil penetration resistance was found as a result of the impact of technological processes during the park's reconstruction and soil drying due to increased insolation and improved aeration as a result of tree stand management measures during the park's reconstruction. Geobotanical analysis revealed that the park is represented by 166 plant species. This indicates a high level of plant community diversity within the city park. The wide ecological diversity of cliomorphs indicates the presence of permanent modifications in the plantations, and the low diversity of helophytes indicates a significant transformation of the landscape cover as a result of the reconstruction of the urban environment. The assessment of the phytoindication scale revealed that the reconstruction leads to a significant change in the light regime of the park plantation, which has a direct impact on the plant cover and soil. The general trends in changes in microclimatic conditions in the park as a result of the reconstruction can be explained by a decrease in the density of crown space due to crown pruning and removal of old trees.The reconstruction of the park disrupts the course of long-term processes that structure the vegetation cover, resulting in temporal and spatial misalignment of the dynamics of ecological processes.The initial effect of park reconstruction may have adverse consequences for the provision of erosion control ecosystem services provided by park plantations. To improve management, it is possible to plant herbaceous plants with fibrous root systems, which significantly improve the erosion control properties of the ecosystem. In terms of further research, it is of particular interest to establish patterns of temporal dynamics of ecological regimes