scholarly journals Distribution of Vascular Plant Communities in Slovenian Watercourses

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1071
Author(s):  
Igor Zelnik ◽  
Urška Kuhar ◽  
Matej Holcar ◽  
Mateja Germ ◽  
Alenka Gaberščik

Rivers and streams are heterogenous ecosystems that host a great number of vascular plant communities. The territory of Slovenia is highly diverse regarding geomorphologic, geologic, climatic, and edaphic conditions. We presumed that environmental variability will also affect the distribution of hygrophilous vascular plants in running waters and consequently the structure of plant communities they form. We analyzed macrophyte, spatial, and environmental parameters in 906 stretches of the watercourses occurring in the Dinaric, Pannonian, and Po lowland hydro-ecoregions. We determined 87 vascular plant taxa. The most abundant were Myriophyllum spicatum, Phalaris arundinacea, and Potamogeton nodosus. Submerged macrophytes presented about one third of total species abundance, while amphiphytes were somewhat less abundant. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that distance from the source explained 15.1% of the growth form type variability, and current velocity and latitude explained 4.1% each. With the assessed parameters, we explained 31.6% of the variability. When CCA was run with taxa, only 20.9% of their variability was explained with statistically significant parameters. We distinguished 25 different plant associations belonging to five classes and nine alliances. The majority of defined plant communities were distributed in different watercourses belonging to different hydro-ecoregions. Only seven communities had a narrower distribution range, three of them on karst poljes. Among them, the new association Mentho aquaticae-Oenanthetum fistulosae from the river Mali Obrh on the Loško polje was described in this contribution.

Hacquetia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-336
Author(s):  
Naim Berisha ◽  
Fadil Millaku ◽  
Bekim Gashi ◽  
Vlado Matevski

Abstract In Europe, the genus Ramonda is represented with three species: Ramonda nathaliae, Ramonda serbica and Ramonda myconi. The first two are endemic Balkan species that are distributed also in Kosovo. These species grow in limestone as well as serpentine substrates, forming chasmophytic vegetation. The species Ramonda nathaliae is found in Macedonia, Greece, Serbia and in two localities in Kosovo, in the Sharri Mountains (Luboten and Gotovushë). R. nathaliae forms the following plant associations in the serpentines of Macedonia: Asplenio­Ramondetum nathaliae and Scorzonero-Ramondetum nathaliae, and the Achilleo­Ramondetum nathaliae in limestone substrates. Ostrya carpinifolia is charateristic species in Querco pubescentis-Ostryetum carpinifoliae, Ostryo-Fagetum, Querco-Ostryetum carpinifoliae and Corylo colurnae-Ostryetum carpinifoliae. This paper presents plant communities of Ramonda nathaliae and Ostrya carpinifolia in a limestone habitat, where the proposed new plant association named Ramondo­Ostryetum carpinifoliae ass. nova. is described. This plant community belongs to the class Quercetea pubescentis, order Quercetalia pubescenti­petraeae and alliance Fraxino orni­Ostryion. It was found and described on the limestone substrate on Mt. Luboteni (at 960–982 m a.s.l.).


Author(s):  
M. I. Dzhalalova ◽  
A. B. Biarslanov ◽  
D. B. Asgerova

The state of plant communities in areas located in the Tersko-Sulak lowland was studied by assessing phytocenotic indicators: the structure of vegetation cover, projective cover, species diversity, species abundance and elevated production, as well as automated decoding methods. There are almost no virgin soils and natural phytocenoses here; all of them have been transformed into agrocenoses (irrigated arable lands and hayfields, rice-trees and pastures). The long-term impact on pasture ecosystems of natural and anthropogenic factors leads to significant changes in the indigenous communities of this region. Phytocenoses are formed mainly by dry-steppe types of cereals with the participation of feather grass, forbs and ephemera, a semi-desert haloxerophytic shrub - Taurida wormwood. At the base of the grass stand is common coastal wormwood and Taurida wormwood - species resistant to anthropogenic influences. Anthropogenic impacts have led to a decrease in the number of species of feed-rich grain crops and a decrease in the overall productivity of pastures. Plant communities in all areas are littered with ruderal species. The seasonal dynamics of the land cover of the sites was estimated by the methods of automatic decoding of satellite images of the Landsat8 OLI series satellite for 2015, dated by the periods: spring - May 20, summer - July 23, autumn - October 20. Satellite imagery data obtained by Landsat satellite with a resolution in the multispectral image of 30 m per pixel, and in the panchromatic image - 10 m per pixel, which correspond to the requirements for satellite imagery to assess the dynamics of soil and vegetation cover. Lower resolution data, for example, NDVI MODIS, does not provide a reliable reflection of the state of soil and vegetation cover under arid conditions. In this regard, remote sensing data obtained from the Internet resource https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ was used.


Author(s):  
Sergey Krylenko ◽  
Sergey Krylenko

Preservation of biological diversity is necessary for sustainable development and rational use of coastal resources. In this paper structure of the cliff plant communities of the massif Tuapkhat (the Black Sea coast, Russia) are characterized. Flora of this coastal zone combines features of Mediterranean and middle European Russia types. Herbaceous and shrub life-forms and xeromorphous and petrophilous plant associations dominate at the studied area. The main factor determining the species composition of the examined communities is substrate character.


Author(s):  
Sergey Krylenko ◽  
Sergey Krylenko

Preservation of biological diversity is necessary for sustainable development and rational use of coastal resources. In this paper structure of the cliff plant communities of the massif Tuapkhat (the Black Sea coast, Russia) are characterized. Flora of this coastal zone combines features of Mediterranean and middle European Russia types. Herbaceous and shrub life-forms and xeromorphous and petrophilous plant associations dominate at the studied area. The main factor determining the species composition of the examined communities is substrate character.


2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 538-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenna M. Malcolm ◽  
Gretchen A. Kuldau ◽  
Beth K. Gugino ◽  
María del Mar Jiménez-Gasco

Much of the current knowledge on population biology and ecology of soilborne fungal pathogens has been derived from research based on populations recovered from plants displaying disease symptoms or soil associated with symptomatic plants. Many soilborne fungal pathogens are known to cause disease on a large number of crop plants, including a variety of important agronomical, horticultural, ornamental, and forest plants species. For instance, the fungus Verticillium dahliae causes disease on >400 host plants. From a phytopathological perspective, plants on which disease symptoms have not been yet observed are considered to be nonhosts for V. dahliae. This term may be misleading because it does not provide information regarding the nature of the plant–fungus association; that is, a nonhost plant may harbor the fungus as an endophyte. Yet, there are numerous instances in the literature where V. dahliae has been isolated from asymptomatic plants; thus, these plants should be considered hosts. In this article, we synthesize scattered research that indicates that V. dahliae, aside from being a successful and significant vascular plant pathogen, may have a cryptic biology on numerous asymptomatic plants as an endophyte. Thus, we suggest here that these endophytic associations among V. dahliae and asymptomatic plants are not unusual relationships in nature. We propose to embrace the broader ecology of many fungi by differentiating between “symptomatic hosts” as those plants in which the infection and colonization by a fungus results in disease, and “asymptomatic hosts” as those plants that harbor the fungus endophytically and are different than true nonhosts that should be used for plant species that do not interact with the given fungus. In fact, if we broaden our definition of “host plant” to include asymptomatic plants that harbor the fungus as an endophyte, it is likely that the host ranges for some soilborne fungal pathogens are much larger than previously envisioned. By ignoring the potential for soilborne fungal pathogens to display endophytic relationships, we leave gaps in our knowledge about the population biology and ecology, persistence, and spread of these fungi in agroecosystems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Stokes ◽  
Guillermo Angeles ◽  
Fabien Anthelme ◽  
Eduardo Aranda-Delgado ◽  
Isabelle Barois ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Altitude integrates changes in environmental conditions that determine shifts in vegetation, including temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and edaphogenetic processes. In turn, vegetation alters soil biophysical properties through litter input, root growth, microbial and macrofaunal interactions. The belowground traits of plant communities modify soil processes in different ways, but it is not known how root traits influence soil biota at the community level. We collected data to investigate how elevation affects belowground community traits and soil microbial and faunal communities. This dataset comprises data from a temperate climate in France and a twin study was performed in a tropical zone in Mexico. Data description The paper describes soil physical and chemical properties, climatic variables, plant community composition and species abundance, plant community traits, soil microbial functional diversity and macrofaunal abundance and diversity. Data are provided for six elevations (1400–2400 m) ranging from montane forest to alpine prairie. We focused on soil biophysical properties beneath three dominant plant species that structure local vegetation. These data are useful for understanding how shifts in vegetation communities affect belowground processes, such as water infiltration, soil aggregation and carbon storage. Data will also help researchers understand how plant communities adjust to a changing climate/environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. e68062
Author(s):  
Pauline Delbosc ◽  
Mathieu Le Dez ◽  
Jean-Bernard Bouzillé ◽  
Kevin Cianfaglione ◽  
Frédéric Bioret

Carici-Genistetea lobelii Klein 1972 corresponds to cyrno-sardinian oromediterranean cushion scrub and related grasslands. In France, this class is only present in Corsica and the syntaxonomic scheme is debated among phytosociologists. The aim of this paper is to highlight the main plant associations of Carici-Genistetea lobelii Klein 1972 and to define the diagnostic species for each phytosociological unit. We compiled 519 vegetation plots and we applied EuropeanVegetationChecklist expert system for the classes of European vegetation to retain only vegetation plots belonging to Carici-Genistetea lobelii. We obtained a dataset with 189 vegetation plots and we classified them with Modified TWINSPAN classification. Our analyses recognized 6 plant associations and 3 sub-associations already described in the literature; and to describe a new alliance corresponding to the supra-mediterranean vegetations (Genistion salzmannii), a new association (Brimeuro fastigiatae-Juniperetum nanae) and its sub-association (alnetosum suaveolentis). For each of them, we identified diagnostic, constant and dominant species and produced their distribution map. Formal definitions were then written for each phytosociological unit (from subassociation to class) and grouped in an expert system to automatically classify the vegetations of Carici-Genistetea lobelii.


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