Species diversity of plant communities from territories anthropogenically contaminated with natural radionuclides

The diversity of the vascular plant species, which developed during 50 years on iteratively unoccupied territories with enhanced levels of natural radionuclides and heavy metals, was studied. No differences were found in the geographical and ecological structure of plant communities from the antropogenically impacted and reference sites. However, species diversity of the most contaminated plots studied was shown to be lower when compared to the reference and less contaminated sites.