POPULATION-DYNAMICS AND LIFE-HISTORY FEAT URES OF 3 ALPINE PLANT-SPECIES IN THE NORTHWESTERN CAUCASUS

Individual specimens of Anemone speciosa. Campanula tridentata and Car um caucasicum were monitored on permanent plots from 1980 to 1993 in a lpine lichen heath, Teberda Reserve, The Northwestern Caucasus, Observ ations were made annually and the flowering and onthogenetic stages we re recorded, Onthogenetic composition of the populations was relativel y stable with predominance of juvenile plants for C. tridentata and C. caucasicum. All studied species are semirosette polycarpic without ve getative propagation, Mean life expectancy was calculated using transi ent matrices, According to this approach we estimate life expectancy a s more than 60 years for C. tridentata and C. caucasicum, but it was m ore than 150 years for A. speciosa. Alternation of several years of fl owering with 1-2 years without flowering is typical for most of the sp ecimens of all studied plants.