UCarpHT

The project involves comprehensive studies of high-mountain meadows of the Ukrainian Carpathians in the context of their transformation under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors using modern approaches of functional ecology, biosystematics, phylogeography, and molecular genetic analysis, including DNA-barcoding technologies. These studies are relevant in assessing the dynamics of high-mountain communities under climatic changes and anthropogenic pressure. They will allow testing existing hypotheses regarding the impact of various factors on the α- and β-diversity of high-mountain meadow communities and associated arthropod communities, identifying the relationship between the functional traits of their representatives, their phylogenetic structure, and factors of environmental assessment. Special attention will be paid to investigating the interactions and dependencies between the structure and species composition of plants of high-mountain meadow communities with the species composition of associated arthropods in the context of transforming their habitat. The obtained data on the structure and species composition of the analyzed groups, as well as DNAbarcoding data, will be published in open access using specialized online resources GBIF, BOLD, and the Biodiversity of Ukraine Data Center, which will expand the possibilities of their further use in biogeographical, sozological, taxonomic, and other studies.

The main tasks of the project are:
1. Select model research plots of high-mountain meadows of the Ukrainian Carpathians;

2. Conduct descriptions of plant communities within the research plots and classify them using the Braun-Blanquet approach;

3. Conduct an analysis of α- and β-diversity of plant and arthropod communities within the research plots, within the OGU and within the Ukrainian Carpathians as a whole;

4. Conduct an analysis of the main (including edaphic) environmental indicators and analyze their impact on the species composition and structure of plant communities and associated arthropods within the research plots;

5. Conduct an analysis of the main functional traits for dominant plant cover species and assess their interaction with environmental factors;

6. To carry out DNA barcoding of model organisms using plastid and nuclear (for plants) and mitochondrial (for arthropods) markers;

7. To analyse the phylogenetic structure of plant and arthropod communities within the research plots, as well as a comparative analysis within the OGU;

8. To carry out an analysis of the formation and transformation of biotic diversity of highmountain meadows of the Ukrainian Carpathians and to assess the role of environmental, phylogenetic, and functional indicators in these processes;

9. To publish data on the biodiversity of the analyzed groups and DNA barcoding data in open access using online resources GBIF, BOLD, and the Data Center “Biodiversity of Ukraine”.