No abstract

Abstract:The current study is seeking to highlight the biogeographical significance of the protected areas located in southern Romania, a territory continuously exposed to strong human pressure since early times (e.g., extensive/intensive agricultural use, industrialization, urbanization/ suburbanization processes). As a result, the primeval vegetation has been massively transformed and forests have been significantly fragmented and reduced to even smaller surfaces (e.g., Călăraşi County has the smallest forest-covered area in Romania). Under these conditions, the current forest patches have suffered important floristic and faunistic structural changes. Some forest remnants have been assigned protected areas status of biogeographical significance, as they host and preserve valuable southern arboreta species and xerothermal associations, secular and multi-secular arboreta (even some virgin arboreta), relict, endemic or unique species, or having their world biological limit. To stress the biogeographical significance of the forest protected areas, the authors carried out in-depth investigations of the ecosystem structure focusing on the spatial and statistical changes occurring over recent centuries and the key phyto-and zoological elements relied on the cross-referencing the biological, biogeographical, and geographical scientific literature and on the reviewing of the historical data sources. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the biogeographical elements based on selected indicative taxa (Quercus species) and witness species considered important for southern Romania, which were able to reconstruct the original ecosystems to explain and understand their significance for the preservation of the current ecosystems.

The paper is discussing the importance of assessing forest dynamics based on several statistical and cartographic supports considered to be the most representative for the last century. The selected maps are able to point out the forest cover changes for three time frames (1912-1971; 1971-1990; 1990-2006) related to the relevant multi-temporal statistical and cartographic data as well as historical events such as land reforms, political changes related to the transition to the intensive and extensive communist agriculture and the post-communist period strongly related to the decolectivisation and privatisation of agriculture leading to the emergence of new types of property, an excessive land fragmentation and deforestation (illegal logging). The authors are aiming to analyse land use conversion and forest covered areas dynamics in relation to the main socio-political and natural driving forces by means of GIS methods (binary change index and trend index) based on a series of significant cartographic documents and a large and complex geodatabase.

In Romania, urban and peri-urban forests (UPUF) have been subject to significant transformations during the past centuries, especially during the post-communist period. The current paper seeks to provide an integrated assessment of UPUF in one of the most dynamic and densely populated urban areas in Romania, i.e., Galați, in terms of historical overview, forest structure and dynamics, and conservation of forest ecosystems, and the way all these aspects are reflected in the toponymy. The analysis covers three main time intervals: (1) until the 20th century, (2) the first half of the 20th century, and (3) the second half of the 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century. For each of the three intervals, complex quantitative spatial and temporal analyses were performed at the level of the Local Administrative Unit (LAU) using in-depth documentation of relevant historical records and geospatial data for selected years (1912, 1948, 1976, 2002, and 2018) derived from cartographic materials and satellite images. Significant changes in the urban and peri-urban forests were evidenced, but the most notable were observed since the 19th century in relation to the new political and socio-economic context, which pushed deforestation processes to support settlement expansion (though urbanization and suburbanization) and agricultural development (intensification and extensification). These processes gradually expanded until the beginning of the 21st century under the socio-economic changes during the communist regime and the post-communist period. Galați area has more than tripled in size, which led to a significant pressure on the forest-covered area, followed by changes in its structure and composition.

Abstract. The presence of the Red Deer in the North-western parts of Tulcea County is an example of the natural expansion of a species spreading area. In North Dobrogea, this mammal first occurred only forty years ago. The first specimens were spotted on Cocoºul Hill (on the territory of Niculiþel area) in 1970. Peak numbers (68 individuals) were registered in the spring of 1987. The deer population (67 specimens in 2007) of this county extended along 10 km from West to East and 20 km from North to South over a total of 23,000 ha (55% of which was forest land) in the East of the Mãcin Mountains and in the West of the Niculiþel Plateau.Résumé. La présence du cerf rouge (Cervus elaphus) dans le nord-ouest du département Tulcea constitue un exemple d'extension naturelle de l'aire de distribution d'une espèce. Ce mammifère n'est apparu dans le nord de la Dobrogea que depuis 40 années. Les premiers exemplaires ont été observés en 1970 à Dealul Cocoºului situé sur le territoire de la commune Niculiþel. Le plus grand nombre en a été enregistré au cours du printemps de l'année 1987, quand on y a observé 68 exemplaires. En 2007 l'aire de la population de cerfs (67 exemplaires) du département de Tulcea s'étendait sur environ 10 km de l'ouest vers l'est et 20 km du nord vers le sud, en tout environ 23 000 ha (dont 55% de terrain forestier) à l'est des Monts Mãcin et à l'ouest du Plateau Niculiþel.