The Balkan Vegetation Database (BVD; GIVD ID: EU-00-019) is a regional database, which was established in 2014. It comprises phytosociological relevés covering various vegetation types from nine countries of the Balkan Peninsula (Albania – 153 relevés, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1715, Bulgaria – 12,282, Greece – 465, Croatia – 69, Kosovo – 493, Montenegro – 440, North Macedonia – 13 and Serbia – 2677). Currently, it contains 18,306 relevés (compared to 9.580 in 2016), and most of them (82.8%) are geo-referenced. The database includes both digitized relevés from the literature (65.6%) and unpublished data (34.5%). Plot size is available for 84.7% of all relevés. During the last four years some “header data information” was improved e.g. elevation (now available for 83.4% of all relevés), aspect (67.7%), slope (66%), total cover of vegetation (54.3%), cover of tree, shrub, herb, bryophyte and lichen layers (27.1%, 20.1%, 40.2%, 11.5% and 2.1%), respectively. Data access is either semi-restricted (65.6%) or restricted (34.4%). Most relevés (84.6%) are classified to syntaxa of different levels. The database has been used for numerous studies with various objectives from floristic, vegetation and habitat-related topics, to macroecological studies at the local, regional, national, continental and global levels. During the last four years, BVD data were requested from 111 different projects via the EVA and sPlot databases.
Alpine scrubs (Roso pendulinae-Pinetea mugo) and dwarf heaths (Loiseleurio procumbentis-Vaccinietea) are an exceptional assemblage of rich floristic units which contribute significantly to the overall diversity on the Balkan Peninsula. The main edificators of these types of habitats are mostly glacial relicts. Additionally, they are of the arctic, alpine, and boreal distribution types, which further emphasises their importance from the conservation point of view. We investigated their taxonomic richness, endemism, patterns of spatial distribution and diversification in the central Balkans as well as their coenotic composition using a comprehensive dataset (15,609 species occurrence data). The analyses were conducted at three hierarchical levels taking into account the ecological and geographic diversity of the alpine scrubs and dwarf heaths in the study area. The results obtained showed that in the alpine scrubs and dwarf heaths of the central Balkans 902 taxa (829 species and 73 subspecies) had been recorded, and that the proportion of endemics in these habitats is extremely high (ca. 22%). Our results further showed that in 180 randomly selected plots of medium size (? 10 and < 100 m2), the registered regional floristic richness for the unique sample size was 527 species, placing the alpine region of the Balkan Peninsula in second place among the richest alpine regions in the world. Moreover, significant regional differences in species composition were observed within the research area, with floristic richness and diversity increasing from north to south.
We investigated taxonomic and endemic richness, patterns of spatial distribution, cenotic and spatial diversification, and chorological and life form spectra of montane coniferous forests in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. We collected information on 1435 taxa (1351 at the level of species and 84 subspecies) with 65,289 species-occurrence data, published in 1930 original plots with a total area of about 215 ha in the analysis. All statistical analyses (univariate and multivariate) were performed on binary matrices prepared for different levels of analysis. Our main results showed that the montane coniferous forests of the central Balkan Peninsula represent very species-rich vegetation. At the same time, the high proportion of endemics indicated that the montane coniferous forests of the central Balkan Peninsula differ significantly from Central European and boreal forests of a similar type. Furthermore, we found that there were regional differences in the species composition of the coniferous forests of the Balkan Peninsula, and that the primary centers of floristic richness are located in the area of the central and continental Dinarides. This latter finding suggested that the true centers of the richness of European coniferous forests are located south of the Limestone Alps—Western Dinarides—Carpathian Foothills line in Romania, which used to be considered the center of the richness of the coniferous forests in Europe.
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