engleski

Vegetation of the islands of the Pelješac peninsula archipelago (South Croatia, eastern Adriatic)

The peninsula of Pelješac (355 km2, max. altitude 961 m a.s.l.), South Croatia, is the second largest Croatian peninsula. It is situated in the Mediterranean Region, Eastern Mediterranean Subregion, Adriatic Province, and Epiro-Dalmatian Sector. The area has a Mediterranean pluviseasonal-oceanic bioclimate, and it is situated within the lower meso-Mediterranean belt, and falls within the lower humid ombroclime (ombrotype). High level of habitat diversity including habitats within the NATURA 2000 network has been shown on the peninsula. Pelješac has 76 associations and sub-associations included within 34 alliances, 28 orders and 27 vegetation classes. From a botanic point of view, the most interesting habitats and those with the highest value of indigenous flora are rare sandy and gravel coasts, dry grasslands, and some abandoned agricultural areas that are important habitats of orchids. The peninsula is surrounded by numerous small islands and islets which can be divided for geographical reason in two groups: i) north-eastern group, composed by 13 islands located in the Mali Ston Bay, and ii) south-western group, composed by 19 islands situated in area between the peninsula and the island of Korčula (the Pelješac Channel). The surface area range of the islands is between 0.208 ha (skerry of Geravac) and 97.087 ha (island of Badija). The coasts are low and rocky, and the islands are uninhabited. Among them, island of Badija has the highest elevation (75 m). The aim of study was to investigate the natural landscape identifying plant communities of the islands. Altogether, 58 original phytosociological relevés were used on 18 islands, collected in 2012 and 2013. Vegetation data were interpreted in terms of syntaxonomical classification, based on cover and floristic affinities, following the Zürich-Montpellier approach. Ten plant associations have been identified and their successional position was pointed out. The woodland series prevail (90% of the area), but they are represented mainly by macchia and garrigues, forming the intermediate serial stages. The most important were the Myrto communis-Pistacietum lentisci (Molinier (1936) 1954) Rivas Martínez 1975 and Myrto communis-Quercetum ilicis (Horvatić 1963) Trinajstić 1985 associations. Although human pressure is low, the islands show a relatively low variety of taxa and plant communities.

islands ; vegetation ; south Croatia ; NE Mediterranean

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