Description
This dataset contains 178 occurrences of 79 vascular plants species of Nechayeva Mohyla Kurgan flora. This is the highest Scythian mound in the steppe zone of Eurasia. Its current dimensions are approximately 15 meters in height, 110–120 meters in diameter, and 300–320 meters in circumference. The kurgan dates back to the 6th century BC and holds the status of a national archaeological monument. The kurgan is situated 4 km northeast of the village of Lebedynske, in the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, on a watershed plateau at the upper reaches of the Solona, Tomakivka, and Kamyshuvata Sura rivers. Historically, the kurgan was utilized by the Zaporizhian Cossacks as a guard post. In the 19th century, it was named after the landowners Nechayev and Hegelyn, who owned the surrounding territories. During the winter of 1943–1944, the kurgan served as a stronghold for German forces. At that time the top of the mound was removed, and the embankment was fortified with dugouts, firing positions, trenches, and communication passages. Archaeological finds in the vicinity of the kurgan include fragments of ancient Greek amphorae. In recent years, the kurgan has suffered damage due to illegal excavations conducted by unknown individuals in 2018 and 2024, presumably for the purpose of looting. At the base of the mound, a memorial to Soviet soldiers has been installed. Additionally, a metal staircase was constructed on the northern side, leading to the top, where a state triangulation marker has been placed.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 179 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Dyrenko N, Skobel N, Heinzel E, Moysiyenko I (2024). Records of vascular plants from Nechayeva Mohyla Kurgan, Nikopol District, Dnipropetrivsk Region (Ukraine). Version 1.1. Kherson State University. Occurrence dataset. https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=mohyla&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Kherson State University. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 7f4f5355-9d8c-4f4f-aada-e33fbf5c5a7d. Kherson State University publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; biodiversity; steppe; kurgan
Contacts
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5802-0174
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Geographic Coverage
Dnipropetrovsk Region, the southeastern part of central Ukraine.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [47.835, 27.246], North East [53.645, 33.223] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
No Description available
| Kingdom | Plantae |
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| Phylum | Tracheophyta |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date | 2024-05-20 |
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Project Data
Advocating for the environment and local communities of the future for the former Kakhovka Reservoir and Kakhovka HPP, implemented by the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group with the support of the Fondation de France
| Title | Advocating for the environment and local communities of the future for the former Kakhovka Reservoir and Kakhovka HPP |
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Sampling Methods
The research was conducted on May 20, 2024. To describe the vegetation, Kurgan was divided into five biotopes: the top, the northern and southern slopes, and the northern and southern bottoms. For each species, its abundance was noted using a five-point scale: I - rare, II - occasional, III - frequent, IV - common, and V - abundant.
| Study Extent | The dataset contains the co-distribution of vascular plants of Nechayeva Mohyla Kurgan. The study area is located in the Dnipropetrщvsk Region, Nikopol district, near Lebedynske village. This area is situated in a strip of mixed grass-cereal steppes among agricultural fields. Next to the Kurgan, there is a memorial to the victims of World War II and another smaller kurgan. |
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| Quality Control | Some specimens of the vascular plants were collected as herbarium for determination and verification after the fieldwork. After digitizing the data, we harmonised the taxonomic information according to the nomenclature sources: for vascular plants The nomenclature of the dataset is as follows: “Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0” - (Vynokurov et al. 2024). Then we used GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (GBIF species matching tool: https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup) for the taxonomic check and implemented minor corrections of species names regarding misprints and problematic taxa to avoid misinterpretation. We additionally checked and verified the header data using OpenRefine (https://openrefine.org/), and QGIS 3.38 (https://qgis.org) for quality control. |
Method step description:
- Site selection, field research.
- Identification of herbarium specimens of vascular plants.
- Recording and identification of vascular plants with using road-field methods and VegApp.
- Digitizing the field data forms.
- Data checking and cleaning.
- Transformation of the dataset according to the Darwin Core standards.
- Taxonomic check, final quality control.
Bibliographic Citations
- Nechaieva–Hehelyna mohyla / M. P. Zhukovskyi // Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine [Online] / Eds. : I. М. Dziuba, A. I. Zhukovsky, M. H. Zhelezniak [et al.]; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Shevchenko Scientific Society. – Kyiv: The NASU Institute of Encyclopedic Research, 2021. – Available at: https://esu.com.ua/article-71933.
- Vynokurov, D., Borovyk, D., Chusova, O., Davydova, A., Davydov, D., Danihelka, J., Dembicz, I., Iemelianova, S., Kolomiiets, G., Moysiyenko, I., Shapoval, V., Shynder, O., Skobel, N., Buzhdygan, O. & Kuzemko, A. (2024). Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e118128. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e118128
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | 7f4f5355-9d8c-4f4f-aada-e33fbf5c5a7d |
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| https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=mohyla |