Syntaxonomical classification of wet woodlands with Picea abies in Slovakia

Abstract

Wet woodlands with domination of Norway spruce are floristically and ecologically distinctive element of coniferous forest vegetation. However, specialized studies on this vegetation are considerably rare. In this survey the syntaxonomical classification of 145 relevés of Sphagnum-rich and other wet woodlands with Picea abies from Slovakia is proposed. Eight plant communities in the rank of association were differentiated. A distinctive feature of the association Sphagno acutifolii-Piceetum Zukrigl 1973 is the co-occurrence of species typical for climax supramontane woodlands on silicate bedrock of the alliance Piceion excelsae Pawłowski ex Pawłowski et al. 1928 and species characteristic for woodlands of the class Vaccinio uliginosi-Pinetea Passarge 1968. Consequently, this association is classified within the order Piceetalia abietis Pawłowski ex Pawłowski et al. 1928 and alliance Piceion excelsae Pawłowski ex Pawłowski et al. 1928. The rest of wet Picea woodland associations are azonal stable communities (Dauergesellschaften) distributed mostly in the montane zone and they differ floristically as well. Therefore those associations are separated in the floristically well distiguishable order Sphagno palustris-Piceetalia P. Kučera 2019 and they are subdivided into three syntaxa in the rank of alliance: (1) alliance Sphagno palustris-Piceion P. Kučera 2019 comprising the communities limited to nutrient-poor habitats with a shallow peat layer or hydromorphic soils with a substantial raw humus layer: Soldanello montanae

Natural calcareous Norway spruce woodlands in Slovakia and their syntaxonomical classification

“…Aim of this paper is present an updated syntaxonomical classification of natural calcareous Norway spruce communities found in the territory of the Western Carpathians in Slovakia. The preceding syntaxonomical revisions were dedicated to syntaxonomy of Arolla pine communi-ties (Kučera, 2017;Kučera, 2019b) and coniferous wet woodland communities (Kučera, 2019a, with exception of bog woodland communities).…”

“…In comparison to the dataset used for calcicolous Norway spruce communities byKučera (2019a), tab. 1: "76 relevés"), four relevés were added:Kobzáková (1987), tab.…”