Comparative Characteristics of Morphological Parameters of Pine Needles and Shoots Under Different Types of Pollution in the South Ural Region

A review of domestic and foreign authors publications indicates a polymorphism of adaptive reactions of woody plants assimilation apparatus morphological parameters, identified by researchers in response to various types of industrial pollution. However, in these studies there is no comparative characteristic of the identified adaptive reactions in different types of pollution, and most importantly, there is no qualitative assessment of them, despite the fact that all authors indicate the unconditionally adaptive nature of these reactions. These provisions served as a justification for the purpose of this work. The object of the study is pine, a widespread forest-former of the South Ural region, the needles of which serve as a good all-season bioindicator. Five industrial centers with different types of pollution served as industrial landfills: three with aerotechnogenic pollution and two – dumps of the mining industry. The results of the studies showed that petrochemical pollution and polymetallic pollution on the dumps of the copper-sulfur mining industry suppress the growth processes of pine needles and under these conditions there is a general direction towards a «stress» adaptive reaction, which indicates a low adaptive poten- tial of pine for these types of pollution. In conditions of aerotechnogenic polymetallic contamination and polymetallic pollution on the dumps of the brown-coal mining industry the stimulation of the needles growth and a general direction towards a «tolerant» adaptive reaction are observed, which indicates a high adaptive potential of pine for these types of pollution. Reactions of morphological parameters of shoots are ambiguous compared to needles, but in general we can talk about regularity – the presence of opposite adaptive reactions in needles and shoots to the same type of pollution. The relative independence of needles and shoots morphological parameters adaptive reactions, regardless of the type of pollution both within the organ and between organs, is shown, which characterizes plasticity of pine to different types of pollution.