Role of herbaceous plant communities in biogenic cycles of chemical elements

The role of ecological factors in the formation of biogenic cycles of chemical elements has been studied. It has been shown that, both under background conditions and chemical pollution, biogeochemical and biocenotic factors contribute to this process. These are the species structure of a community, specific features of chemical element accumulation, biomass of individual species, and productivity of phytocenosis. The accumulation of chemical elements in the phytomass depends not so much on their increasing concentrations in the soils as on degradation of the environment caused by their toxic effect and manifested in transformation of species composition and reduction of the total phytomass of the phytocenosis.