Ruderal vegetation in Serbia - diversity and floristic composition

Milena Tabasevic,Nevena Kuzmanovic,Snezana Vukojicic,Milan Glisic,Slobodan Jovanovic,Dmitar Lakusic

doi:10.2298/botserb2102251t

Abstract

This study represents the first data gathering and analysis of the floristic composition of ruderal vegetation in Serbia, published over the last 70 years. The dataset included 748 relev?s of ruderal communities and a total of 716 plant species and subspecies. The study showed that the most abundant were widespread taxa, especially taxa of the Eurasian area type, while alien species accounted for a relatively small proportion of the ruderal flora (about 10%). Therophytes and hemicryptophytes were most abundant in the life form spectra. Five vegetation groups were identified, corresponding to the following vegetation classes: Bidentetea, Sisymbrietea, Digitario sanguinalis-Eragrostietea minoris, Artemisietea vulgaris and Polygono-Poetea annuae. The analysis of similarity showed that there are small floristic differences between particular vegetation groups. The determined diagnostic species for the vegetation groups were compared with those of the corresponding anthropogenic vegetation classes, and a high degree of similarity was found for all but one group. The most frequent taxa in all five groups were Polygonum aviculare, Convolvulus arvensis, Plantago major subsp. major and Chenopodium album.

Highlights

Ruderal flora and vegetation occur spontaneously, mainly in settlements, and in other man-made environments where environmental conditions are significantly altered
Spontaneous urban flora is characterized by plants with different traits, requirements, and distribution ranges, but a common feature of many plants found in urban environments is their ability to tolerate disturbance (Godefroid & Koedam 2007)
The dataset survey showed that most of the relevés, a total of 301, were collected in north-central Serbia, more precisely in Belgrade and its surroundings, 273 in Vojvodina, 119 from Kosovo and Metohija, 26 from south-eastern Serbia, and 29 did not contain any information about locality. This indicates that the ruderal vegetation was not studied in the central part of the country, with the exception of Belgrade and its surroundings, or in the eastern and western parts

Summary

Introduction

Ruderal flora and vegetation occur spontaneously, mainly in settlements, and in other man-made environments where environmental conditions are significantly altered. Urban environments represent a mosaic of more or less isolated habitats, which are frequently anthropogenically disturbed. These disturbances, as well as the different types of habitats, have a strong influence on species composition (Lososová et al 2012). Spontaneous urban flora is characterized by plants with different traits, requirements, and distribution ranges, but a common feature of many plants found in urban environments is their ability to tolerate disturbance (Godefroid & Koedam 2007). The spontaneous flora of urban environments, especially that of cities, can be species-rich (Godefroid & Koedam 2007; Stešević et al 2014). Many studies have shown that the presence of aliens in urban areas increases over time (Prodanović et al 2017; Rendeková et al 2018; Salinitro et al 2019), especially neophytes - aliens intro-

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Conclusion