Compendium of Bulgarian Plant Communities [English / Bulgarian]

About this book

Language: Bilingual in English and Bulgarian

From the introduction:

"Systematic phytocoenological studies in Bulgaria started at the beginning of the 1950's . Earlier studies of Bulgarian flora and vegetation were focused mainly on phytogeographic and sylvicultural issues or had a strictly descriptive character. In most publications there were no clearly formulated taxonomic categories.

Phytocoenological studies in Bulgaria are mainly based on the theoretical principles and methodology of the Russian Phytocoenological School, which determines plant associations on the basis of dominant species in different storeys. A limited number of investigations have been carried out after the methods of Braun-Blanquet, while some follow other specific approaches, such as structural vegetation categories.

The intensive research has resulted in the accumulation of a large amount of data reflecting the rich diversity of syntaxonmic units. Since no complete survey of hitherto described associations has been done, it is unknown how many of them exist in the country or in the separate regions. Whenever a new phytocoenological research is undertaken, it is difficult to find out whether the studied associations have been previously reported or whether the syntaxonomic categories they refer to have already been estabhshed in the country (region).

This invites the conclusion that there is the imperative need in a compiling compendium of plant associations in Bulgaria. Realizing this necessity. Professor Veltcho Veltchev and Doctor Pavel Vassilev as early as ten years ago conceived the idea of creating such a compendium. Gratitude merits the fact that the information gathered during this long period was left at our disposal. However, it was incomplete. After organising the entire structure of the Compendium, we started collecting and processing the literary data anew and entered it into a modern data bank.

The data included into the Compendium were collected from 1891 to 1995. They are grouped into 3 sections:
I. Syntaxonomic units described and studied after the methodology of the Russian Phytocoenological School
II. Syntaxonomic units described and studied according to the Braun-Blanquet approach
III. Vegetation units of undefined taxonomic rank

The Compendium is meant to help specialists working in the I field of phytocoenology, as well as all those interested in Bulgarian botany."

Contents

1. Syntaxonomic units, described and studied after the methodology of the Russian Phytocoenological School
2. Syntaxonomic units, described and studied according to the Braun-Blanquet approach
3. Vegetation units of undefined taxonomic rank
      3.1. Plant communities and groups
      3.2. Structural vegetation units (serial communities, meso- and microcombinations)
      3.3. Vegetation types defined on the basis of characteristic species
      3.4. Descriptive studies on Bulgarian vegetation
      3.5. Vegetation units in geobotanical maps
4. Survey of studies on Bulgarian vegetation
5. References (a full bibliography on Bulgarian vegetation, consisting of 371 literature sources)
6. Species index

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