The aim of research was to study the ecological-meliorative and biological characteristics of various species of herbaceous plants root systems growing under conditions of rock dumps and similar species of vegetation cover of ordinary chernozem and the comparison of climamores by meliorative functions. Field studies were carried out in accordance with the generally accepted methods in the mine dumps of “Shchurovka-1”, “Yuzhno-Donbassskaya-1”, “Yuzhno-Donbassskaya-3”, “Rossiya”, ¹ 11 (Donetsk) and on ordinary chernozem in the protective zone of the rock dump of mine ¹ 5-bis “Trudovskaya”. Seeds of campfire (Bromus arvensis L.), wild carrots (Daucus corota L.), sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis L. Pall.), bluegrass (Poa angustifolia L.) were used as seed material for field experiments. As a result of research, ecological-meliorative and biological information on structure and distribution of root systems was obtained in terms of the following characteristics: the weight of the dry root mass in grams, the root surface in centimeters square, the root length in centimeters, the saturation of rock and soil by the roots in percent, the root mass distribution in percentage by the root fractions in millimeters (more than 5.0, 5.0–1.0, 1.0–0.5 and less than 0.5) in the isolated cenomorphs (St – stamps, Sil – silants, Pr – pratants, Ps – psammophytes, Ptr – petrophytes, Ru – ruderants). According to the obtained data it was found out that under the extreme conditions of rock dumps, the individual features of the root systems are equalized by adaptation adopting similar patterns such as: the formation of the root system in the rock layer 0–20 cm, the root growth cessation into depth in moisture absence, diffuse deviation of root systems caused by moisture movement. The characteristic features of water and mineral consumption by root systems and meliorative function of ruderal vegetation, stepants, pratantes, silvants, psammophytes and petrophytes are established. It was revealed that species growing on ordinary chernozems form a one third bigger root system. The increase is caused by fine and medium fractions (from less than 0.5 to 5.0–1.0 mm).
Key words: root systems, rock dump, cenomorphs, ecological and meliorative characteristics, biological characteristics.
