%0 Journal Article
%T A Contribution to the Knowledge of Composition and Classification of Holm Oak Forests in Istria
%A Dario Bari£¿evi£¿
%A Irena £¿api£¿
%J Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering
%D 2011
%I University of Zagreb
%X The forest vegetation of Istria is considered one of the most interesting vegetation types in the Republic of Croatia. This is confirmed by the presence of a large number of highly diverse forest communities occurring on the border between two completely different plant-geographical regions: the Mediterranean region and the Euro-Siberian ¨C North American region. As climazonal vegetation, forests of holm oak in the Eu-Mediterranean represent special value and a particular asset. Owing to systematic research during the past fifty or more years, the general distribution of holm oak in Istria is well known; however, data on forest communities of holm oak and their phytocoenologcal characteristics are much less known. This means that until the present research, only about forty phytocoenological relev¨¦s of the forest stands of holm oak in Istria had been released, which clearly demonstrates that these stands have been insufficiently studied and that further detailed research is required. Synecological-vegetation research was undertaken in 12 localities in the coastal part of Istria, starting with the surroundings of Pore  in the north-west, across the western and southern parts, to the surroundings of Pula (Fig. 1). Phytocoenological research of forest vegetation was based on the principles of the Zurich-Montpellier School (Braun-Blanquet 1964). Our own phytocoenological relev¨¦s were entered into the Turboveg database (Hennekens and Schaminee 2001), together with 30 published phytocoenological relev¨¦s of forests of holm oak and manna ash, taken in a broader research area and described as the subassociations typicum and cotinetosum. A total of 42 phytocoenological relev¨¦s were statistically processed. In addition to classical analysis, numerical analysis by means of SYN-TAX 2000 (Podani 2001) software was also conducted. Eco-indicator values according to Pignatti (2005) were applied to describe the ecological conditions using the floral composition, while the mean values for particular relev¨¦s and forest communities were calculated by means of the JUICE 6.3 programme (Tischy 2002).The applied cluster methods showed very similar results and the same general patterns. Accordingly, the majority of the relev¨¦s are clearly divided into three groups, while only three relev¨¦s make up a separate group (Fig. 2). Further detailed analysis of the floral composition showed that the studied forest stands of holm oak belong to the first group of relev¨¦s, typical stands of holm oak and manna ash to the second group, while stands of holm oak and manna ash with smoke tree (Tab
%K Forests of holm oak
%K Istria
%K floral composition
%K classification
%K Fraxino orni-Quercetum ilicis
%K carpi- netosum orientalis
%K ecoindicator values
%U http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/101574