The Bryophyte Flora of Aladağlar National Park (Turkey)

Abstract

It is covering an area of approximately 55.000 ha. It has many habitats and ecosystems due to ecotones intermingled between Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian. The Irano-Turanian which forms the north-western and western parts are within Niğde province and the northern parts are within Kayseri province. The Mediterranean which forms the southern and eastern parts are within Adana province (Halıcı & Aksoy, 2009). These phytogeographical regions have given Aladağlar National Park the richness of floristic diversity. It is situated in the C13 square in grid system of Turkey adopted by Henderson (1961) (Fig. 1).Unfortunately, there is no weather station in the Aladağlar National Park. The nearest stations are located in Pozantı (Adana), Yahyalı (Kayseri) and Çamardı (Niğde). According to the values from these stations, the climate type of the research area is mainly Mediterranean characterized by dry and warm summers. Average annual precipitation at Pozantı is 707.2 mm, 451.2 mm at Yahyalı, and 388.7 mm at Çamardı. Accordingly, the study area has an arid climate type in Kayseri and Niğde and semi-arid Mediterranean climate type in Adana (Akman, 1990).The main types of vegetation in Aladağlar National Park are forest, steppe and rock vegeta-