Natural habitat and vegetation types of river gravel bars in the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F20%3A00114219" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/20:00114219 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12224-020-09364-6" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12224-020-09364-6</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12224-020-09364-6" target="_blank" >10.1007/s12224-020-09364-6</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Natural habitat and vegetation types of river gravel bars in the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia

Original language description

River gravel-bar habitats are highly endangered. They are still well-preserved in the Caucasus, but developing conservation strategies is burdened by the lack of data from this region. We studied vegetation and habitat types on gravel bars of 22 rivers in Georgia, including successional stages from open early-successional herbaceous vegetation to scrub. We distinguished five vegetation types based on vegetation physiognomy and beta-flexible clustering of species composition, and described them as phytosociological vegetation units: Early-successional herbaceous vegetation at higher elevations was described as the new associationEpilobietum colchiciand that at lower elevations as thePetrorhagia saxifraga-Crepis foetidacommunity. The grassland dominated byCalamagrostis pseudophragmitesand scrub vegetation were assigned to the associations previously described from Central Europe (Tussilagini farfarae-Calamagrostietum pseudophragmitae,Salici purpureae-Myricarietum germanicaeandSalici incanae-Hippophaetum rhamnoidis). We established diagnostic plant species for each type using the fidelity calculation and related these types to environmental variables. We further compared them with the previously published data on gravel-bar vegetation from the Russian part of the Caucasus and with European systems of habitat classification. This study demonstrates that vegetation and habitat types occurring in Georgia correspond to those recognized earlier in Europe, and can be easily linked to the European systems of habitat classification. Unlike in other parts of Europe, these habitats are still well-preserved on rivers with natural hydrological dynamics, but they are threatened by plans of dam building and other river regulations. Our study provides baseline data for developing conservation strategies for the Caucasian gravel-bar habitats.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10602 - Biology (theoretical, mathematical, thermal, cryobiology, biological rhythm), Evolutionary biology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GX19-28491X" target="_blank" >GX19-28491X: Centre for European Vegetation Syntheses (CEVS)</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Folia Geobotanica

ISSN

1211-9520

e-ISSN

1874-9348

Volume of the periodical

55

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

22

Pages from-to

41-62

UT code for WoS article

000539841700001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85086382365