Aquatic and Wetland Vegetation Along the Sava River

Abstract

Diverse hydrological, climate, and soil conditions along the Sava River caused significant diversification of vegetation. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to integrate and present all the available data on variability of the aquatic and riparian plant communities along the Sava River and its main tributaries as well as to identify the environmental factors, which are related to the distribution of different vegetation types. Special attention has been also paid on the detection of threats for rare and endangered plant species and fragile wetland ecosystems along the Sava River. Based on data review, syntaxonomic revision of aquatic and riparian vegetation based on common, pan-European databank is required. Ecological studies that involve inventory, monitoring, modeling, and prediction of changes in populations, ecological communities, and ecosystems require both georeferenced databases and computational tools for application of statistical methods.

Potentially toxic elements in the riparian soils of the Sava River

“…The 265-km upper reach, including Sava Dolinka, is dominated by mountainous terrain, the shortest middle part (129 km) flows through lowland, and the 597-km lower section flows through plains and is characterized by a very low declination and a wide water channel (ISRBC 2013). Specific hydrological and soil characteristics have resulted in vegetation diversity, including 167 protected areas, and while riparian soils are rich in organic residues, the humus content is normally low because these residues are covered by river sediment during high-water events, preventing decomposition (Karadžić et al 2015).…”

The potential of elm trees (Ulmus glabra Huds.) for the phytostabilisation of potentially toxic elements in the riparian zone of the Sava River

“…and poplar (Populus sp.) forests in the riparian zone of the Sava (Jarić et al 2011(Jarić et al , 2015Karadžić et al 2015). According to Crnobrnja-Isailović et al (2015), eighteen habitat types have been identified along the River Sava as being important for biodiversity conservation.…”

“…Riparian mixed forests of Quercus robur, Ulmus laevis and U. minor, Fraxinus excelsior or F. angustifolia are found in 40.8% of the representative localities (Crnobrnja-Isailović et al 2015). Species of the Ulmus genus are present in forests of common alder with buckthorn (Frangulo-Alnetum glutinosae Rauš 1968) and oak and hornbeam forests (Carpino betuli-Quercetum roboris Rauš 1969) (Karadžić et al 2015).…”