THICKETS OF SPIRAEA CHAMAEDRYFOLIA L. ON CALCAREOUS BEDROCK – RARE HABITAT FOR UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/biosystems2025.01.145Keywords:
biotop, habitat, scrub thickets, Eastern CarpathiansAbstract
A detailed characteristics of the habitat Ch4.5 Carpathian thickets of Spiraea chamaedryfolia L. on outcrops of carbonate rocks is given. This habitat type in Ukraine was found near the village of Sarata, Vyzhnytskyi district, on the area of Chornodilskyi and Yarovytskyi physical-geographical regions in the altitude range of 1100–1200 m a.s.l. A similar habitat type is known from the territory of Romania, it is also distinguished in the EUNIS habitat classification: S357142 Carpathian elm-leaved spiraea thickets. Communities dominated by S. chamaedryfolia are formed on thin, well-drained, sceletal soils on eluvium-deluvium of carbonate-containing bedrocks. Characteristic species are listed (shrub layer – S. chamaedryfolia; herbal layer – Cirsium erisithales, Cruciata glabra, Epipactis atrorubens, Galium intermedium, Moehringia muscosa, Pimpinella major, Poa nemoralis, Scabiosa lucida, Silene nutans subsp. dubia, Thymus pulegioides, etc.), the features of ecological conditions are characterized, and the syntaxonomic positions of the communities are determined (as the association Calamagrostio-Spiraeetum ulmifoliae Resmeriţă et Csűrös 1966 from the alliance Prunion fruticosae Tx. 1952). This habitat type have a high conservation status, it is protected by the Resolution 4 of the Bern Convention as F3.241 Central European subcontinental thickets, and by the Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive as 40A0* Subcontinental peri-Pannonic scrub. The main threat to the habitat is the transformation due to spontaneous overgrowth by trees and shrubs. For habitat preservation and maintenance, it is proposed to use active protection methods, which consist in periodic removal of undergrowth of tree species.
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