BIOINDICATION AND MAIN WAYS OF OPTIMIZING AGRICULTURALINFLUENCE ON NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS

Abstract

The article deals with the main aspects of positive and negative influence of agriculture on natural ecosystems.

The positive influence of agriculture on the environment consists in creating reservations of biodiversity in anthropogenic landscape, for example, forest lines protecting fields from erosion of soil. Agricultural activity can stimulate the increase in the number of some species. Most negative influence is felt by natural ecosystems of forests, meadows, rivers, etc. adjacent to agricultural lands. One of the examples of consequences of agricultural negative influence is anthropogenic successive processes in natural ecosystems, structural and functional changes of biota. Research shows that most receptive to pollution are water ecosystems (rivers, streams, lakes, etc.), swamp ecosystems, ecosystems of water-meadows of small rivers.

In the result of contamination of soil and water with different substances (primarily organic) biodiversity is reduced, species and ecological structure of natural ecosystems are changed (the number of highly specialized — stenobiontic species of plants and animals decreases, on the contrary, the number of euribionts, i.е. species tolerant to anthropogenic influence — increases).

In the article the main ways of optimizing agricultural activity influence on natural ecosystems are defined. The
efficiency of monitoring of ecological state of natural communities, which are under pressure from agriculture, considerably improves when methods of bioindication are employed.

Different taxonomic groups of organisms can react to direct toxic influence and change in habitat caused by this
influence in various ways. To define the level of agricultural influence on natural ecosystems it is possible to use certain
species as well as whole taxonomic groups of organisms as bioindicators.

Ref.: 12 titles.