Vegetation of Deciduous Forests in the Balkan Peninsula*

Abstract

The article provides an overview of deciduous forests of the Balkan Peninsula. It presents riverine, floodplain and moor forests, dominated by Alnus incana, A. glutinosa, Fraxinus excelsior, F. angustifolia , Quercus robur, Salix alba, Ulmus laevis, U. minor; acidophilous forests dominated by Betula pendula, Castanea sativa, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea; thermophilous forests dominated by Carpinus orientalis, Ostrya carpinifolia, Quercus cerris, Q. farainetto, Q. petraea, Q. pubescens and mesophilous forests dominated by Carpinus betulus, Fagus sylvatica, F. orientalis, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia argentea, T. cordata, T. platyphyllos, Ulmus glabra.At the same time, forests were classified into the synsystematic framework of the standard Central European system to the level of an alliance. Keywords: Balkan; forest; vegetation; classificationNomenclatural source: Euro+Med Plantbase (http://ww2.bgbm.org/EuroPlusMed) INTRODUCTIONResearch into vegetation in southeastern Europe has a long tradition. The first fundamental works about vegetation in the region were based on the so-called physiognomic-ecological approach and originate from the beginning of the 20 th century, when Gabriel Beck-Mannagetta published his work Vegetationsverhältnisse der illyrischen Län-der [1] and Lujo Adamović his work Vegetationsverhälnisse der Balkanländer [2]. At the beginning of the 20 th century, a new science -phytosociology -was established [3]. Soon after its beginning in Europe, research in the Balkans began according to this method [4] and the new science was widely accepted among researchers in the region. Our presentation is based on the standard Braun-Blanquet method and its hierarchy; so we group associations (ending -etum) into alliances (ending -ion), alliances into orders (ending -etalia) and those into classes (ending -etea) [5]. As a result of long and intensive research in the region, during recent years some important surveys of forest vegetation of some parts of the region has appeared, e.g. Slovenia [6], Croatia [7], Serbia [8], Kosovo [9], Bulgaria [10] and Greece [11,12]. These and many other studies have enabled us to make an overview of forest vegetation of the region.The large number of publications all over Europe encouraged a group of authors guided by Ladislav Mucina to start preparation of an overview over all vegetation types of the whole of Europe to the alliance level, from the Canary Islands to the Urals and from Cyprus to Greenland [13]. It is based on a list of vegetation classes [14] and on a preliminary overview of alliances [15]. During the procedure, literature sources all over Europe have been checked and many nomenclature corrections and some revisions of individual syntaxa have been published, for instance [16,17]. This paper is intended to give an overview of deciduous forests of the region on the alliance lev- DESCRIPTION OF AREAThe Balkan Peninsula has a large altitudinal diversity, since a great part of the territory has an altitude of over 1000 m, and provides a large altitudinal range t...

Forest habitats on the territory of the National Park “Central Balkan” Bulgaria

“…Syntaxonomic classification follows Mucina et al (2016) and the referenced literature (Horvat et al, 1974;Kojić et al, 1998;Roussakova & Dimitrov, 2005;Vukelić et al, 2007;Tzonev et al, 2006Tzonev et al, , 2009Tzonev et al, , 2017Tzonev et al, , 2019Čarni et al, 2009;Matevski et al, 2011;Pachedzhieva, 2012;, 2012Chytrý, 2013;Vasilev & Gavrilova, 2015;Coldea et al, 2015;Nikolov & Dimitrov, 2015;Duda et al, 2016;Čarni, 2016aČarni, , b, Willner et al, 2017Alexandrova et al, 2020;Petrova & Tzonev, 2020;Kalníková et al, 2021). The classification scheme also includes "communities" -syntaxa of undetermined rank, wich cannot be carried away to association due to the regional nature of the study.…”

Forest vegetation diversity of the Slivenska Mountain (Eastern Stara planina, Bulgaria)

“…For suballiances of Moesian beech forests we accept the scheme of Willner et al (2017). The classification of recorded vegetation units is determined after a comparative analysis of the diagnostic, constant and dominant species groups with those indicated in literature (Kojić et al 1998, Roleček 2005, Tzonev et al 2006, 2009, 2019, Čarni et al 2009, 2016a, 2016b, Borhidi et al 2012, Chytrý 2013, Biondi et al 2014, Coldea et al 2015, Douda et al 2016, Willner et al 2017. Some of phytocoenoses are not referred to any association and are assigned as "community types" because of their local occurrence or limited data of their presence in other regions of Bulgaria.…”

“…Herbaceous layer is usually well-developed (ranges between 5 and 70% cover), but with poor species composition, including species such as Luzula luzuloides, Poa nemoralis, Moehringia trinervia, Mycelis muralis, Hieracium murrorum, Veronica officinalis, Lamium galeobdolon. The most recent studies of such Balkan beech forests usually accepted an affiliation them to well known central European alliance Luzulo-Fagion (Tzonev et al 2006, Čarni 2016a, Willner et al 2017). According to Willner et al (2017), this association refers to the sub-alliance Luzulo luzuloidis-Fagenion II (Luzulo-Fagenion moesiacae) -acidophilous beech forests in the northeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula.…”