Grassland vegetation of the Molinio‐Arrhenatheretea class in the NW Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

Questions: How does the floristic composition of plant species of meadows and mesic pastures vary along a broad geographical gradient in the NW Balkans? How does the current phytosociological classification of the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea vegetation differ among the NW Balkan countries? Location: NW Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia). Methods: 3635 relev es originally assigned to the class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea were classified with a beta flexible method, and the crispness of classification was checked. DCA ordination with Pignatti indicator values and climate data were applied to show the influence of site conditions on species composition.Results: The classification was best interpreted at the level of 13 clusters, but could also be interpreted at the level of three groups of clusters. The first division was according to geography and climate: the first and third groups were concentrated in the NW part, while the second was restricted to the eastern part of the study area. The most important variable was site moisture, followed by nutrients and altitude, which corresponded with a west-east direction. The first group was very diverse and included communities on the wettest and most nutrientrich sites (Potentillion anserinae, Cynosurion cristati, Calthion palustris, Molinion caeruleae, Molinio-Hordeion). The second group comprised mesophilous continental grasslands (Trifolio-Ranunculion pedati, Trifolion pallidi, Trifolion resupinati), while the third group consisted of grasslands from regions with abundant precipitation (Arrhenatherion elatioris, Deschampsion cespitosae, Pancicion serbicae, Triseto flavescentis-Polygonion bistortae).Conclusions: Our analysis can be used to unify different phytosociological classifications in different countries, also showing the transitional forms of wellknown Central European vegetation types that have a different floristic composition and ecology in the Balkans. This knowledge will enable classification of the same vegetation types in neighbouring Balkan countries that are less studied.

Bryophyte responses to a moisture gradient within two different spatial scales in mown meadows and mesic pastures

“…; Šilc et al . ). Despite the lower diagnostic value of bryophytes in such meadows and pastures compared with mires or spring vegetation (Zechmeister and Mucina ; Jiménez‐Alfaro et al .…”

“…; Šilc et al . ) was restricted only to vegetation plots with identified moss layer and a plot size of 4–100 m 2 that were assigned by their original authors to this vegetation unit. The plots were extracted from the Slovak Vegetation Database (http://ibot.sav.sk/cdf/), local literature sources and from available unpublished relevant material, including 75 of the original author's plots.…”

Plant communities: their conservation assessment and surveys across continents and in the tropics

“…In addition to this Special Feature, we continued with publication of the Virtual Special Feature on 'Classification of European Grasslands' (Dengler et al 2013), which included the above-mentioned paper by Jim enez-Alfaro et al (2014) and the grassland survey studies of Silc et al (2014) and Rodr ıguez-Rojo et al (2014). Another Special Feature on 'Temperate forests in continental East Asia' was prepared in 2014 and is published in this issue (Liu et al 2015).…”

Floodplain forests of the Iberian Peninsula: Vegetation classification and climatic features

“…; Šilc et al. ). These comprehensive surveys have been possible thanks to the compilation of large electronic databases of vegetation plots (Dengler et al.…”