Phytocoenological characteristics in poplar plantations in the protected region of the central Danube basin

Z Galic,S Orlovic,Violeta Babic,D Stojanovic,Vladislava Galovic,Verica Vasic,Bojana Klasnja

doi:10.2298/abs1103811g

Abstract

Following the water regulation along the Danube river, the area of natural forests decreases and the vegetation is fragmented. The goal of the study was to survey the recent phytocenological characteristics of the region of the protected floodplain outside the dam. We surveyed three site types in poplar plantations near Novi Sad. In the poplar plantations phytocoenological relev?s were made. The elevation of the study plantations is between 75 and 76 m a.s.l. The most represented species on the ground layer are the species Dactylis glomerata, Urtica dioica and Rubus caesius identified on the humofluvisol. The most represented species on the sandy part of the fluvisol were Rubus caesius, Solidago serotina, Dactylis glomerata and Equisetum arvense. The loamy form of fluvisol occurs at an elevation of 75.50 m. The most numerous species on the loamy form of the fluvisol in the flooded region were Rubus caesius, Solidago serotina, Polygonum hydropiper, Dactylis glomerata and Urtica dioica. Based on the above data, we determined the differences between ground vegetation in the study areas and in the part of the alluvial plain affected by additional moisture by both floodwater and ground water.

Highlights

The Central Danube Basin is situated in the zone of temperate continental climate which determines the type of vegetation
In the protected part, there is no flooding and additional moisture is provided only by ground water which determines the occurrence of the particular vegetation type
The physiologically active depth of this profile is 150 cm, meaning that the level of ground water was below this depth only in September

Summary

Introduction

The Central Danube Basin is situated in the zone of temperate continental climate which determines the type of vegetation. The forest sites in the conditions of semiarid to arid climate grow only in the inundations of lowland rivers. The semi-natural wetlands are limited to a small area along the lowland rivers after water regulation (Schweitzer 2003). Patches of the original vegetation become smaller and more isolated due to river control and intensive land use. There are no sites in the floodplain which remain completely in its natural state. The manifold exchange processes that occur between land surface and atmosphere are largely determined through the vegetation that dynamically responds to atmospheric conditions such as humidity, temperature (Hank and Mauser 2009) and additional moisture of underground waters

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