engleski

Variability of the forest communities of the Dilj Mountain (Croatia) along environmental gradients

This paper deals with the forest vegetation of Dilj, situated on the southern edge of the Pannonian Basin in NE Croatia. Ten plant communities of the Querco-Fagetea were found and their ecology was analyzed in detail. The study provides the data on the vegetation and environmental factors and discusses the significance of factors for the plant species composition ; it characterizes the most important environmental gradients and the differences between plant communities are presented. Surface soil layer was analyzed in all sampled plots. Other ecological characteristics, such as microclimate, geomorphology, Ellenberg indicator values, were also considered and test for possible correlations. The forest vegetation was classified by means of cluster analysis, while vegetation-site relationships were examined by using methods of direct gradient analysis. The studied communities were found to occur in relatively restricted space, where the ecological factors control formation of a mosaic of vegetation patches with spatially unclear boundaries. Soil reaction and exposition was identified as the most significant environmental factors explaining the variation of the studied vegetation.

forest; vegetation; environmental gradients; croatia

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