Dry grasslands and thorn-cushion communities of Armenia: a first syntaxonomic classification

作者：Denys Vynokurov, Alla Aleksanyan, Thomas Becker, Idoia Biurrun, Dariia Borovyk, George Fayvush, Itziar García‐Mijangos, Martin Magnes, Salza Palpurina, Ute Becker, Asun Berastegi, Beata Cykowska‐Marzencka, Iwona Dembicz, Dieter Frank, Andreas Hilpold, Philipp Kirschner, Helmut Mayrhofer, Marine Oganesian, Iuliia Vasheniak, Jürgen Dengler · 发表于：Vegetation Classification and Survey · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3897/vcs.119253 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Botany and Plant Ecology Studies、Plant Ecology and Taxonomy Studies、Bryophyte Studies and Records

Aim : To provide the first syntaxonomic, plot-based classification of the dry grasslands and thorn-cushion communities in Armenia. Study area : Armenia. Methods : We sampled 111 vegetation plots (10 m 2 ) and recorded environmental and structural parameters. We collected additional 487 relevés from surrounding countries for a broad-scale comparison. We used modified TWINSPAN to derive a syntaxonomic classification system, whose units were then compared among each other regarding species composition, structure, site conditions and distribution. Results : The classification of Armenian vegetation plots resulted in a 12-cluster solution. Unsupervised classification of the broad-scale dataset yielded five main groups, which were used for the high-level syntaxonomic assignments of the Armenian data. We assigned about half of the plots of the Armenian dataset to the Festuco-Brometea , while the remaining represented a potential new class, preliminarily called “ Ziziphora tenuior-Stipa arabica grasslands”. Most of the syntaxa below class level are new to science, therefore we provide formal descriptions of three orders ( Plantagini atratae-Bromopsietalia variegatae , Onobrychido transcaucasicae-Stipetalia pulcherrimae , Cousinio brachypterae-Stipetalia arabicae ), four alliances ( Acantholimono caryophyllacei-Stipion holosericeae , Artemision fragrantis , Onobrychido michauxii-Stipion capillatae , Onobrychido transcaucasicae-Stipion pulcherrimae ) and six associations. We found sign...