Assessment of Digression and the Potential of Re-Establishment of Kizlyar Pastures in the Western Near-Caspian Region

Kizlyar pastures are a vast part of the Western Near-Caspian region, which includes steppe and semi–desert landscapes of the south-east of Stavropol Region and north-west of Republic of Dagestan. Their phytocenoses have long been used in semi-nomad and sedentary livestock farming in the arid region, where the climate aridity and pasture overloading of livestock are the cause of land degradation. This in turn is accompanied by a reduction in their projective plant coverage, species composition and feed capacity. The purpose of the work is to assess the phytoecological and bioproductive state of natural forage lands in conditions of increased anthropogenic digression and manifestations of the reverse of it in the direction process of local demutation of desolate pasture ecosystems. The results of the research were obtained during the longterm (2003-2020) monitoring of the forage biocenoses state at 12 permanent sites (dedicated to livestock complexes and other nodal points in the steppe), and 37 temporary key sites (for expanding the database) on Kizlyar pastures, in the border regions of Stavropol Region (south-east) and Republic of Dagestan (northeastwest). They made it possible to extrapolate the ecological-productive and phytocenotic state of pastures on almost 400 thousand hectares of natural and about 15 thousand hectares of reclaimed pasture lands. The research novelty is the block of studies on the local demutation (reestablishment) of degraded phytocenoses manifestation during the formation of single-species synusias of the valuable Cýnodon dáctylon cereal plant in degraded pasture areas.