A study of the effect of habitat fragmentation on the population status of Iris pumila L. in Ukraine

The goal of the study was to investigate the effect of isolation on populations of Iris pumila L., a typical Ukrainian steppe xerophyte which habitat has been split into a multitude of small fragments. Most of the studied populations clearly demonstrate prevalence of adult flowering plants. Seedlings are rare, which can be explained by drought during major parts of the vegetative seasons, the substantial matting of local soil, and human impacts, such as burning. Population success appears to depend on the size of the steppe fragment and the total human impact. In this preliminary genetic study of a relatively large Iris pumila populations no signs of gene pool depletion ware detected. Further research will hopefully reveal whether the genetic indices that have been estimated are also useful tools for other populations of the species – fragments of a previously continuous habitat. Meanwhile, due to the increasingly endangered status of the habitat and the practical absence of any population status monitoring, it makes sense to include this species into the Ukrainian Red
List.