Original paper
Phytosociological study of fringe communities of Sardinia (Italy)
Rosati, Leonardo; Farris, Emmanuele
Phytocoenologia Band 51 Heft 2 (2022), p. 111 - 139
64 references
published: Jul 4, 2022
published online: Aug 26, 2021
manuscript accepted: Jun 29, 2021
manuscript revision received: Jun 7, 2021
manuscript revision requested: Mar 13, 2021
manuscript received: Jan 5, 2021
ArtNo. ESP024005102001, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
Question: This study represents the first contribution to the description and ecological characterization of fringe communities of Sardinia (Italy), and aimed: 1) to describe Sardinian fringe communities from a floristic-vegetational point ; 2) to provide a syntaxonomic scheme, confirming or not the applicability of the most recent framework, proposed at the European scale, also in a Mediterranean insular context (Sardinia); 3) to verify if there is a correspondence among fringe communities and potential natural vegetation in the study area. Study area: Sardinia, the second largest island of the Mediterranean basin (Italy). Methods: 65 phytosociological plots realized using the Braun-Blanquet approach; for each of them, bioclimatic indices were derived from the available Bioclimatic map of Sardinia; Raunkiær life-forms were considered as species functional traits. Furthermore, by using Ellenberg Indicator Values (EIVs) we calculated for each relevé an abundance-weighted mean indicator value. Main vegetation types were identified through a Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and NMDS ordination. A permutational multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the overall significance in EIVs distribution differences among the clusters obtained from HCA. Results: we found a total amount of 139 vascular plant species. Hierarchical clustering detected the presence of seven interpretable clusters, well differentiated in terms of floristic composition, geographic distribution, bioclimatic characters and EIVs, and in terms of their inclusion in different vegetation series. Conclusions: we describe 5 new associations, four of them included in the new alliance Digitalido purpureae-Pteridion aquilini (Melampyro-Holcetalia mollis order, Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei class), clearly differentiated with respect to other alliances described from both the eastern and the western side of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Another new association was referred to the Epilobietea angustifolii class (Galio-Alliarietalia order).
Keywords
ecotones • Ellenberg Indicator Value • Epilobietea • EuroVegChecklist • forest vegetation • potential natural vegetation • syntaxonomy • Trifolio-Geranietea