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Ecology and vegetation types of oak-hornbeam and ravine forests of the Eastern Greater Caucasus, Georgia

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Abstract

The Caucasus harbours unique forest vegetation so far only little studied using the Braun-Blanquet approach. This study is mostly based on a dataset (N = 110) of original phytosociological relevés of oak-hornbeam and ravine forests in the Eastern Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Their unsupervised classification produced seven communities. Five belong to oak-hornbeam forests (order Lathyro-Carpinetalia caucasicae). Of the zonal Caucasian alliance Crataego-Carpinion, the association Corno australis-Carpinetum inhabits valleys of the Greater Caucasus, and Clinopodio umbrosi-Carpinetum is confined to the warm Eastern Greater Caucasus promontories. The association Astrantio maximae-Carpinetum of the alliance Astrantio-Carpinion represents distinctive Caucasian montaneoak-hornbeam forests. The other two communities, documented by a few relevés, were described at the community level only. Within ravine forests (order Aceretalia pseudoplatani), we introduce a new Caucasian alliance Pachyphragmo macrophyllae-Tilion begoniifoliae with two associations. Valeriano tiliifoliae-Ulmetum glabrae comprises Caucasian montane ravine forests whereas Hedero pastuchovii-Aceretum velutini inhabits the foothills of the Eastern Greater Caucasian. To provide a broader context of the recognized communities, an expanded dataset (N = 231) of original relevés and previously published relevés of Georgian deciduous forests was analysed. It indicated a major turnover in species composition following biogeographical patterns presumably driven by macroclimate and vegetation history.

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Acknowledgements

For help with the fieldwork we thank Kryštof Chytrý, Kamila Čížková, Anna Hlaváčková, Veronika Kalníková, Helena Prokešová, Vojtěch Sedláček and Ondřej Škeřík. Renata Piwowarczyk kindly determined herbarium specimens of the genus Orobanche and Naiba Mehdiyeva determined material of the genus Polystichum. We thank Hamid Gholizadeh and three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on previous versions of the manuscript. The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation under the grant EXPRO (GX19-28491X).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-611 37, Brno, Czechia

    Pavel Novák, Dominik Zukal, Martin Harásek & Pavla Vlčková

  2. Institute of Ecology, School of Natural Science and Medicine, Ilia State University, K. Cholokashvili Avenue 5, GE-0162, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Otar Abdaladze

  3. Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, A-1030, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Willner

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  1. Pavel Novák
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Contributions

P.N. and D.Z. designed the study. P.N., D.Z., M.H. and P.V. participated in the field sampling. P.N. led the writing and did the numerical analyses. D.Z. wrote the parts dealing with the ravine forests. M.H. prepared the map. O.A. provided data on the ecology of some species and assisted in the selection of sampling sites. W.W. significantly helped with the parts dealing with phytosociological nomenclature. All the authors critically revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pavel Novák.

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Novák, P., Zukal, D., Harásek, M. et al. Ecology and vegetation types of oak-hornbeam and ravine forests of the Eastern Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Folia Geobot 55, 333–349 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-020-09386-0

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