An Asphodelus ramosus dominated plant community in Montenegro

Our phytosociological study in Montenegro (Ćemovsko polje) deals with the syntaxonomy of arid grasslands in the Adriatic region and, in particular, different interpretations of plant communities dominated by Asphodelus ramosus. The main aims of this study were to contribute to knowledge of the composition of dry grasslands dominated by Asphodelus ramosus in Montenegro and to compare instances of Asphodelus ramosus dominated vegetation along the Adriatic. Our vegetation dataset included 82 phytosociological relevés: 17 from our recent field work and 72 relevés of South European Asphodelus ramosus communities. Ordination analysis (NMDS) was used for comparison of Asphodelus ramosus dominated communities in the Adriatic region. The Asphodelus ramosus community from Montenegro was classified into Bromo erecti-Chrysopogonetum grylli. The analysis revealed two distinct vegetation groups: grassland communities of the vegetation class Festuco-Brometea from Montenegro, Croatia and Albania, and edge vegetation of the new class Charybdido pancratii-Asphodeletea ramosi from Italy. Comparison with similar vegetation types shows high similarity with associations on the eastern Adriatic coast, where they are treated as grassland communities belonging to the alliance Chrysopogono grylli-Koelerion splendentis, order Scorzoneretalia villosae, class Festuco-Brometea.

Recognition of Ziziphus lotus through Aerial Imaging and Deep Transfer Learning Approach

There is a growing demand for the detection of endangered plant species through machine learning approaches. Ziziphus lotus is an endangered deciduous plant species in the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) native to Southern Europe. Traditional methods such as object-based image analysis have achieved good recognition rates. However, they are slow and require high human intervention. Transfer learning-based methods have several applications for data analysis in a variety of Internet of Things systems. In this work, we have analyzed the potential of convolutional neural networks to recognize and detect the Ziziphus lotus plant in remote sensing images. We fine-tuned Inception version 3, Xception, and Inception ResNet version 2 architectures for binary classification into plant species class and bare soil and vegetation class. The achieved results are promising and effectively demonstrate the better performance of deep learning algorithms over their counterparts.

Change Detection for Wasit Province’s Land Coverbetween 2013 and 2020

It is well known that On Earth there are only a few places, which are now intheir natural state and have not been affected by human activity in any way. These human activities lead to significant changes in land use at the regional and local levels. In this research, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) are integrated to monitor, map, and quantify the main land cover types (vegetation, water, soil, bare area, and urban) in Wasit province. The result of supervised classification for two classified Landsat-8 images for 2020, 2013 after combining 13 subclasses: Water area in 2013 (0.719%) increases to (1.521%) in 2020, vegetation class increases from (2.864) to (6.148%). Urban increases from 2.095% to 4.629%, Bare area in 2020 became 24.307% but in 2013 was 29.03% and finally, soil decreased from (15.821%) to (13.922%).

Comparison of RGB and Multispectral Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Monitoring Vegetation Coverage Changes on a Landslide Area

The development of UAV technologies offers practical methods to create landcover maps for monitoring and management of areas affected by natural disasters such as landslides. The present study aims at comparing the capability of two different types of UAV to deliver precise information, in order to characterize vegetation at landslide areas over a period of months. For the comparison, an RGB UAV and a Multispectral UAV were used to identify three different classes: vegetation, bare soil, and dead matter, from April to July 2021. The results showed high overall accuracy values (>95%) for the Multispectral UAV, as compared to the RGB UAV, which had lower overall accuracies. Although having lower overall accuracies, the vegetation class of the RGB UAV presented high producer’s and user’s accuracy over time, comparable to the Multispectral UAV results. Image quality played an important role in this study, where higher accuracy values were found on cloudy days. Both RGB and Multispectral UAVs presented similar patterns of vegetation, bare soil, and dead matter classes, where the increase in vegetation class was consistent with the decrease in bare soil and dead matter class. The present study suggests that the Multispectral UAV is more suitable in characterizing vegetation, bare soil, and dead matter classes on landslide areas while the RGB UAV can deliver reliable information for vegetation monitoring.

Phytoindication approach to assessing factors determining the habitat preferences of red deer (Cervus elaphus)

The study examined the possibility of using the phytoindication technique to describe habitat preferences of red deer in a relatively homogeneous area. Two alternative hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis 1 suggests that the relationship between red deer and vegetation is due to a trophic factor, so preferences for individual plant species cause vegetation to influence the distribution of animal numbers. Hypothesis 2 suggests that environmental factors influence vegetation, structuring and determining the productive level of the community as a whole. Therefore, environmental factors, rather than individual plant species, cause vegetation-animal interactions. The research was conducted on Biryuchiy Island Spit, where the Azov-Sivash National Nature Park is located. The geobotanical surveys were performed in three types of ecosystems: sandy steppe (vegetation class Festucetea vaginatae), saline meadows (vegetation class Festuco–Puccinellietea), and artificial forest plantation (vegetation class Robinietea). 250 releves were recorded according to the Brown-Blanquet approach. The number of fecal pellets and the number of groups of pellets of red deer was recorded together with geobotanical surveys in the same sample plots. The pellet groups counted in the field were converted to deer densities in specific vegetation classes taking into account the number of pellet groups on the site and the decay rate of the fecal pellets. The vegetation types were distinguished by the number of deer fecal pellets per unit area. The highest number of fecal pellets was found for the plant class Festucetea vaginatae, somewhat fewer fecal pellets were in the plant class Robinietea, and the lowest number was in the plant class Festuco-Puccinellietea. A geometric distribution model is adequate for explaining the experimental data on the number of fecal pellets. A total of 59 species of flowering plants were found. Based on the species composition and projective cover of species, the ecological regimes of ecotopes were identified by phytoindication. The correspondence analysis of the vegetation revealed two ordination axes. The ordination axis 1 (CA1) was able to explain 11.3% of community inertia, and the ordination axis 2 (CA2) was able to explain 5.2% of community inertia. The maximum excretory activity of animals was recorded for the central part of the ordination space, indicating the presence of an optimum zone in the gradient of environmental factors that structure plant communities. The forward selection procedure allowed the Nutrients Availability variable to be selected as the most important variable to explain variation in the plant community structure. The number of deer fecal pellets exhibited different patterns of response in the Nutrients Availability gradient. The response within the plant class Festucetea vaginatae could best be explained by Model III from the list of HOF-models. The response of the excretory activity of deer within the class Festuco-Puccinellietea could best be fitted by the model IV, which represents a symmetric Gaussian curve. The response of excretory activity in the Robinietea vegetation class was asymmetrical bimodal. The ecological properties of the red deer ecological niche in both the drier and less mineralized part of the range of ecological conditions and the wetter and more mineralized part should be assessed in the context of the prospects for future studies.

Vegetation Cover Change and Its Diversity in Urban Areas of Medan

Vegetation plays an important role in maintaining the environmental quality of urban areas. Increase in population and development of cities has led to land conversion with lesser vegetated areas. Land cover change analysis in urban areas is needed, especially for urban regional planning with green open space consideration. This research was conducted to analyze urban vegetation cover and its changes in two sub-districts of Medan between the years 1999 and 2019. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and change analysis were conducted in the research. The diversity of plant within this areas was observed. The results showed changes in vegetation cover areas in the mentioned years. In 1999, most of the areas were under a highly dense vegetation class while in 2019, they were under a low-density vegetation class. This indicates a decrease in vegetation cover due to changes to non-vegetation cover or land cover areas with less vegetation. There are a diverse of plants within the area such as paddy, cassava, corn etc and also many tree species. It is recommended to optimize the land by replanting in the area with no or less vegetation to maintain the environmental quality.

New and validated names of some syntaxa of the Festuco-Brometea class vegetation from Eastern Europe

We present new and validated names of some syntaxa of the vegetation class Festuco-Brometea. True steppe vegetation of Eastern Europe, which is distributed from the Eastern part of Romania to the Urals, we propose to consider as a separate order Galatello villosae-Stipetalia lessingianae. It is an intermediate link between meso-xeric communities of the Central and Eastern Europe of the order Festucetalia valesiacae Soo 1947 from one hand, and desert steppe vegetation of the order Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipetalia lessingianae Lysenko et Mucina in Mucina et al. 2016 from the other hand. We describe a new order Cephalario uralensis-Jurineetalia stoechadifolii for rocky dwarf-shrub calcareous grasslands of the Pontic region. It replaces the order Stipo pulcherrimae-Festucetalia pallentis Pop 1968 in Eastern Europe due to more continental conditions. We validate the name of the alliance Galio campanulati-Poion versicoloris, as well as its type association. This alliance includes rocky grasslands on limestone outcrops from the Central and Western Podillia and belongs to the order Stipo pulcherrimae-Festucetalia pallentis Pop 1968 on the easternmost range of its distribution. We describe a new association of the desert steppes from the Republic of Kalmykia of the alliance Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipion lessingianae. In addition, we publish the replacement name Paeonio tenuifolii-Stipetum tirsae as a substitute for illegitimate later homonym. У статті наводиться опис нових, а також відбувається валідизація деяких синтаксонів рослинності класу Festuco-Brometea. Запропоновано справжні степи Східної Європи, поширені від східної частини Румунії до Уралу, відносити до порядку Galatello villosae-Stipetalia lessingianae. Він є проміжною ланкою між мезоксерофітними угрупованнями Центральної та Східної Європи порядку Festucetalia valesiacae Soo 1947 та пустельними степами порядку Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipetalia lessingianae Lysenko et Mucina in Mucina et al. 2016. Кальцепетрофітні угруповання Понтичного регіону запропоновано об’єднати у порядок Cephalario uralensis-Jurineetalia stoechadifolii. Вони заміщають ценози Stipo pulcherrimae-Festucetalia pallentis Pop 1968 у Східній Європі в умовах більш континентального клімату. Валідизовано союз Galio campanulati-Poion versicoloris, що охоплює угруповання на карбонатних відслоненнях Центрального та Західного Поділля, і є одиницею порядку Stipo pulcherrimae-Festucetalia pallentis Pop 1968 на східній межі поширення, а також асоціацію, що є його лектотипом. Описано нову асоціацію пустельних степів з Республіки Калмикія з союзу Tanaceto achilleifolii-Stipion lessingianae. Окрім того, наведено нову назву Paeonio tenuifolii-Stipetum tirsae для асоціації лучних кримських степів, оскільки стара її назва має бути відхилена внаслідок омонімії.

ANALISIS VEGETASI DI TAMAN WISATA ALAM (TWA) SUNGAI DUMAI, RIAU

TWA Sungai Dumai is a tourist forest area and ensuring the preservation of natural potential. However, there are problems that can disrupt the sustainability of it, including forest and land fires and conversion of land use to agriculture and oil palm plantations. Until now, there is no vegetation analysis using satellite imagery in TWA Sungai Dumai, so it is important to do so that can be managed sustainably. This study classification of vegetation density classes which are presented in the form of a vegetation density class map in it. This research uses Landsat-8 OLI / TIRS images from October 2017 and October 2020 which are processed to determine density class using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index algorithm. The vegetation density class with the highest area in 2017 was the vegetation density class (2380,832 ha or 66,819% of the total area), while the lowest area was the non-vegetation class (75,737 ha or 2,126% of the total area). The vegetation density class with the highest area in 2020 in TWA Sungai Dumai is dense vegetation density class (3205,039 ha or 89,950% of the total area), while the lowest area is non-vegetation class (1,637 ha or 0.046% of the total area)

The concept of vegetation class and order in phytosociological syntaxonomy

In order to stabilize the defining concepts of the higher rank syntaxonomic units such as class or order, the criteria of floristic content and unity of origin are enunciated. This is done with the aim of preventing the fragmentation of the large classes and the subsequent typological inflation. For orders, the criterion of specific floristic content is discussed, with orders that have been described to encompass seral secondary forests or the separation of forest vegetation from that which is dominated by shrubs rejected, due to their weak floristic characterization. These criteria have been applied to two forest vegetation classes: the European temperate (Querco-Fagetea) and the Mediterranean (Quercetea ilicis). For the first, it is argued in favor of maintaining a single class for all temperate deciduous forests in Europe instead of dividing them into four. Within this single class five orders are distinguished: Fagetalia, Quercetalia roboris, Quercetalia pubescenti-petraeae, Alno-Fraxinetalia and Populetalia albae, rejecting the orders that have been proposed for secondary forests because they have few characteristic taxa. For the sclerophyllous and macchia forests of Mediterranean Europe, the Quercetea ilicis class can be split into two or three geographical orders, rejecting the Pistacio-Rhamnetalia alaterni as a shrubby physiognomic unit. Taxonomic reference: Castroviejo S (coord. gen.) (1986–2012) Flora iberica 1–8, 10–15, 17–18, 21. Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC, Madrid, ES. Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016).