Abstract
We investigated vegetation in ravine habitats of Serbia, in order to classify hop hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.) forests in syntaxonomic terms, assess the effects of environmental factors on their floristic differentiation, and detect the biodiversity components of the analyzed communities. Both K-means clustering and Bayesian classification revealed five ecologically interpretable groups of forests that belong to the alliances Ostryo carpinifoliae-Fagion sylvaticae, Ostryo carpinifoliae-Tilion platyphylli, Fraxino orni-Ostryion carpinifoliae, Pseudofumario albae-Ostryion carpinifoliae, and Achilleo ageratifoliae-Ostryion carpinifoliae. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that these alliances are clearly differentiated along a combined light–moisture gradient (from shade and mesic to sunny and xeric variants). The alpha diversity increases from xeric to mesic alliances. A lower alpha diversity in xeric forests may be explained by the stress conditions that prevent mesic species from colonizing the saxatile habitats. Extremely high—almost the greatest possible—values of both the species turnover and beta diversity were detected in all variants of the analyzed forests. Such high diversity may be the result of the strong environmental gradients in ravine habitats. The investigated forests represent an important pool of rare, paleo-endemic species that survived Quaternary glaciations in ravine refugia.
Highlights
Ostrya carpinifolia Scop., commonly known as hop hornbeam, dominates in xeric amphi-Adriatic alliances Carpinion orientalis Horvat 1954 and Fraxino orni-Ostryion Tomažić of the class Quercetea pubescentis Doing-Kraft ex Scamoni et Passarge 1959 [1,2,3,4].Čarni et al [4] and Stupar et al [5] analyzed the ecological, floristic, and chorological differences between these alliances
In addition to the zonal belt of sub-Mediterranean xeric forests, the hop hornbeam forms mesic communities that are extrazonally distributed in inland parts of the Apennines and the Balkan Peninsula [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Ostrya carpinifolia Scop. is a species that is adapted to a warm to moderate climate, but it avoids a strictly Mediterranean climate with a marked summer drought
Summary
Ostrya carpinifolia Scop., commonly known as hop hornbeam, dominates in xeric amphi-Adriatic alliances Carpinion orientalis Horvat 1954 and Fraxino orni-Ostryion Tomažić of the class Quercetea pubescentis Doing-Kraft ex Scamoni et Passarge 1959 [1,2,3,4].Čarni et al [4] and Stupar et al [5] analyzed the ecological, floristic, and chorological differences between these alliances. Ostrya carpinifolia Scop., commonly known as hop hornbeam, dominates in xeric amphi-Adriatic alliances Carpinion orientalis Horvat 1954 and Fraxino orni-Ostryion Tomažić of the class Quercetea pubescentis Doing-Kraft ex Scamoni et Passarge 1959 [1,2,3,4]. Is a species that is adapted to a warm to moderate climate, but it avoids a strictly Mediterranean climate with a marked summer drought. This species has wide tolerance limits with respect to both light and moisture gradients [9]. Due to its high tolerance to adverse soil conditions, it is most commonly located in canyons [2,3,8]
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