Ancient defensive earthworks as refuge of steppe flora in Ukraine

Occurrence
Latest version published by Kherson State University on Apr 10, 2025 Kherson State University
Publication date:
10 April 2025
Published by:
Kherson State University
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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Description

Ancient defensive earthwork fortifications—ramparts—were selected as the research subject. The most renowned among them are the Zmiievi Valy, a multi-tiered system of defensive structures constructed during the period of Kyivan Rus. Their total length originally measured 969.5 km; however, according to the findings of archaeologist Mykhailo Kuchera in 1987, only 234 km (24.1%) remained preserved by that time (Kuchera 1987, 2005). Additionally, ramparts were often constructed around cities for defensive purposes. While these fortifications have been extensively studied from historical and archaeological perspectives, their biodiversity remains poorly explored. Only a limited number of studies have addressed this subject (Parnikoza et al. 2009; Vasyliuk et al. 2012; Perehrym et al. 2017). This dataset contains 891 occurrences of 359 vascular plant species recorded in 10 floristic lists during the project. The nomenclature of the dataset is as follows: “Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0” - (Vynokurov et al. 2024).

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 891 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:

Shchepeleva O, Skobel N, Moysiyenko I (2025). Ancient defensive earthworks as refuge of steppe flora in Ukraine. Version 1.0. Kherson State University. Occurrence dataset. https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=valy_kyiv_2023&v=1.0

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: e3ae80b1-370f-4e1c-877f-874591e08b1c.  Kherson State University publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.

Keywords

Occurrence; cultural heritage objects; steppe; biodivirsity

Contacts

Olena Shchepeleva
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator
Graduate Student
Kherson State University
27 Universytetska Str
73000 Kherson
UA
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6583-2967
Nadiia Skobel
  • Programmer
PhD Student
Kherson State University
27 Universytetska Str
73000 Kherson
UA
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4354-2881
Ivan Moysiyenko
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
Dr. Sc., Prof., Head of Department of Botany
Kherson State University
27 Universytetska Str
73000 Kherson
UA
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0689-6392
Nadiia Skobel
  • Programmer
Programmer
Kherson State University
UA
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4354-2881

Geographic Coverage

Kyiv administrative Regions, North Ukraine.

Bounding Coordinates South West [49.282, 29.037], North East [51.522, 32.289]

Taxonomic Coverage

The nomenclature of the dataset is as follows: “Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0” - (Vynokurov et al. 2024).

Kingdom Plantae

Temporal Coverage

Start Date 2023-09-06
Start Date 2023-09-07
Start Date 2023-09-08

Sampling Methods

During the research, we employed two widely used methods for studying floristic composition: the standard route-field survey method and the transect method. The essence of the first approach, the route-field survey method, lies primarily in identifying species of higher vascular plants growing within the defensive structure and assessing their abundance using a five-point scale: I – rare, II – occasional, III – frequent, IV – common, V – abundant. Data collection from each point of the Zmiievi Valy was conducted using the specialised mobile application Vegapp and pre-printed plot recording sheets. Partial documentation of plant species was also carried out using the iNaturalist mobile application.

Study Extent In the autumn of 2023, we conducted research in the Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine, within both the right-bank and left-bank areas of Kyiv Region. During this study, ten of the most well-preserved sections of earthwork ramparts were examined across five settlements and their surroundings—Mala Karatul, Khodosivka, Ivankovychi, Vasylkiv, and Bilohorodka, all located within Kyiv Region.
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 "Ukrainian Plant Trait Database: UkrTrait v. 1.0" - (Vynokurov et al. 2024): for vascular plants, 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.

Method step description:

  1. Site selection, field research.
  2. Identification of herbarium specimens of vascular plants.
  3. Recording and identification of vascular plants with using road-field methods and VegApp.
  4. Digitization of field data forms.
  5. Data checking and cleaning.
  6. Taxonomic check, final quality control.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Didukh, Ya.P. (Ed.) (2009). Chervona knyha Ukrainy. Roslynnyi svit [Red Data Book of Ukraine. Plant Kingdom]. Globalkonsaltyng, Kyiv, 912 pp. [in Ukrainian]
  2. Kuchera, M.(1987). Zmiievi valy Serednoho Podniprovia: monohrafiia. [The Zmiievi Valy of the Middle Dnipro: a monograph.] Київ: Naukova dumka: 208. [In Ukrainian]
  3. Kuchera, M. (2005). Zmiievi Valy [The Zmiievi Valy] . Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine: in 10 volumes, Kyiv. V. 3: 365. [In Ukrainian]
  4. Parnikosa I., Vasyliuk O., Inozemtseva D., Kostiushyn V. … (2009). Stepy Kyivskoi oblasti. Suchasnyi stan ta problemy zberezhennia. [Steppes of Kyiv region. Current state and problems of conservation]. Series: Let's save Ukrainian steppes [Zberezhemo ukrainsky stepy]. Kyiv: NECU: 160. [In Ukrainian].
  5. Perehrym M., Bezsmertna O., Komarenko V. (2017). Introduktsiia ta zberezhennia roslynnoho riznomanittia [Introducing and preserving plant diversity]. Promising areas for conservation in the vicinity of Bilohorodka village, Kyiv region. Visnyk of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Kyiv. Issue 1(35): 29-32. [In Ukrainian]
  6. Vasyliuk O., Kostiushyn V., Norenko K. (2012). Pryrodno-zapovidnyi fond Kyivskoi oblasti [National-provision fund of the Kyiv region]. Kyiv: NETsU: 338. [In Ukrainian]
  7. 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