Mirjana Krstivojević Ćuk

University of Novi Sad · Department of Biology and Ecology

Aim s Ecological theories predict that assembly processes are driven by two deterministic forces: environmental filtering and limiting similarity. Their relative importance under different environmental conditions is still not completely obvious. Therefore, in this paper the predictions of the stress–dominance hypothesis (SDH) are tested in several...

Aim In salt-affected environments, salinity shapes ecosystem functions and species composition. Apart from salinity, however, we know little about how soil chemical factors affect plant species. We hypothesized that specific ions, most of which contribute to salinity, co-determine plant niche differentiation. We asked if the importance of ions diff...

This study analyzes the bryophyte flora of six old cemeteries in Novi Sad and reports on the findings of the first study on bryophytes in Novi Sad. All investigated cemeteries are more than a hundred years old and are protected by the Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments of Novi Sad. A total number of 49 bryophyte species was recorded. Al...

Deliblato Sands is one of the largest sandy areas in Europe. Given that developing of vegetation on the sand is a slow process, followed by human activities that devastate the plant cover (grazing, deforestation), the free-moving sand on Deliblato Sands exited until the 18th century. Unbound sand hindered the development of agriculture in the entir...

Although edges are usually considered key areas for biodiversity, previous studies have focused on anthropogenic edges, usually studied edges in relation to forest interiors (disregarding the adjacent non-woody vegetation), and used simple taxonomic indices (without considering functional or phylogenetic aspects). We studied the species composition...

Aristolochia clematitis L. is a perennial herbaceous plant distributed throughout Europe, Asia Minor and Caucasus. It has been used as a medicinal plant since antiquity but not in recent times because it contains poisonous aristolochic acid, causing progressive kidney failure. The aim of this work was to study Aristolochia clematitis ecology on the...

Bryophytes play important role in forest ecosystem functioning and their distribution and diversity are driven by numerous environmental factors. The aim of the present study was to bring new insights in deeper understanding of terrestrial bryophytes diversity in temperate forests, as well as to determine the environmental factors which have predom...

There is a gap in the knowledge about how environmental factors affect functional diversity and trait structures of macrophyte communities in altered waterbodies. We used macrophyte and environmental data collected from 46 waterbodies; we extracted data on 14 traits with 43 attributes for 59 species and calculated seven functional diversity indices...

Aims Ellenberg-type indicator values are expert-based rankings of plant species according to their ecological optima on main environmental gradients. Here we extend the indicator-value system proposed by Heinz Ellenberg and co-authors for Central Europe by incorporating other systems of Ellenberg-type indicator values (i.e., those using scales comp...

Macrophyte communities have major role in the functioning of freshwater ecosystems. However, there is gap in knowledge about how natural and anthropogenic hydro-morphological disturbances affect their functional diversity and trait structure, particularly in the temperate large rivers. In this study we investigated the effect of hydro-morphology on...

Aim The first comprehensive checklist of European phytosociological alliances, orders and classes (EuroVegChecklist) was published by Mucina et al. (2016, Applied Vegetation Science , 19 (Suppl. 1), 3–264). However, this checklist did not contain detailed information on the distribution of individual vegetation types. Here we provide the first maps...

With the aim to identify future challenges and opportunities in vegetation science, we brought together a group of 22 early-career vegetation scientists from diverse backgrounds to perform a horizon scan. In this contribution, we present a selection of 15 topics that were ranked by participants as the most emergent and impactful for vegetation scie...

Since grasslands provide many ecosystem services, there are often different opinions on their management (e.g., agronomy, ecology, botany). Multidisciplinary research on this topic is therefore needed. This article focuses on the impact of ecological conditions, functional groups, ecological strategies, floristic composition (through habitat prefer...

The article deals with wet meadow plant communities of the alliance Trifolion pallidi that appear on the periodically inundated or waterlogged sites on the riverside terraces or gentle slopes along watercourses. These plant communities are often endangered by inappropriate hydrological interventions or management practices. All available vegetation...

Aims (a) To determine the contribution of current macro‐environmental factors in explaining the phylogenetic structure of European forest vegetation, (b) to map and describe spatial patterns in their phylogenetic structure and (c) to examine which lineages are the most important contributors to phylogenetic clustering and whether their contribution...

Aim The EUNIS Habitat Classification is a widely used reference framework for European habitat types (habitats), but it lacks formal definitions of individual habitats that would enable their unequivocal identification. Our goal was to develop a tool for assigning vegetation‐plot records to the habitats of the EUNIS system, use it to classify a Eur...

Nestedness is currently one of the most explored structural patterns of biological communities, especially since its major application in studies on ecological networks. Research on the nested pattern, as a spatial structural descriptor of communities, was mostly focused on theoretical background in the conservation of habitat islands. Here, we exp...

Questions Which are the main wet and mesic grassland vegetation types along the climatic gradient on the southern margin of the Pannonian basin? Which are the most important environmental gradients that determine their distribution and species composition? Location Southern margin of the Pannonian plain (N and E Slovenia, N Croatia, N Serbia). Me...

White poplar is a key species in wood production and afforestation, but also very important for biodiversity preservation and habitat improvement. Vegetative propagation from hardwood cuttings is the most desirable method of white poplar breeding. The present research analyzed the effect of various technological treatments on four white poplar clon...

Supporting information for the article Alpha diversity of vascular plants in European forests Article DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13624 Read-only version: https://rdcu.be/bGrNA

Spatial distribution of forest vegetation plots, ranging from 100 to 1,000 m2 in plot size, used as an input dataset for modelling alpha‐diversity patterns (n = 73,134). The colours indicate the total number of vascular plant species recorded per plot (i.e., alpha diversity). For this visualization, alpha‐diversity values displayed on the map were...

Integrated relative importance of predictor variables for explaining alpha‐diversity patterns for all forests and for each forest type separately. The black part of the bars indicates the contribution of the “Mean decrease in node impurity” to the integrated relative importance, while the grey part indicates the contribution of the “Mean decrease i...

Effects of the three top‐ranked predictor variables on alpha diversity for all forests and for each forest type separately (partial dependence plots). The integrated importance scores are shown in parentheses. AET, actual evapotranspiration; PET, potential evapotranspiration; VRM, vector ruggedness measure. The effects of the lower‐ranked predictor...

Predicted alpha diversity of vascular plants across European forests based on Random Forest models for (a) all forests (n = 73,134); (c) deciduous broadleaf forests (n = 54,521); (d) coniferous forests (n = 15,978); and (e) sclerophyllous forests (n = 2,635). All maps are provided in a UTM 5 × 5 km grid, with species numbers predicted for a plot si...

Aim The former continental‐scale studies modelled coarse‐grained plant species‐richness patterns (gamma diversity). Here we aim to refine this information for European forests by (a) modelling the number of vascular plant species that co‐occur in local communities (alpha diversity) within spatial units of 400 m²; and (b) assessing the factors likel...

The European semi-dry grasslands belong to the most species-rich vegetation types of the northern hemisphere and form an important part of habitat mosaics of the forest-steppe zone. However, a comprehensive evaluation of compositional variation and phytosociological classification of these grasslands is still missing. For our syntaxonomic revision,...

Sand dunes are one of the critically endangered habitats in Europe. This vegetation type is under a strong anthropogenic influence. Its natural value is very high since many plant species with a narrow distribution are found there. The classification of Serbian sand-dune vegetation and the status of the described associations has not been validated...

We hypothesize that the physical features of river habitats and anthropogenic hydromorphological alterations influence macrophyte communities and lead to habitat fragmentation. Sampling included 1081 contiguous survey units positioned in the main channel and side arms along 588km of the Danube River, along its middle course. To identify habitat fra...

Because of the high importance of bryophytes in forest ecosystems, it is necessary to develop standardized field sampling methodologies. The quadrat method is commonly used for bryophyte diversity and distribution pattern surveys. Quadrat size and the position of quadrats within the studied area have a significant influence on different analyses. T...

Questions: What are the main floristic patterns in the Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands? What are the diagnostic species of the major subdivisions of the class Festuco- Brometea (temperate Eurosiberian dry and semi-dry grasslands)? Location: Carpathian Basin (E Austria, SE Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, N Croat...

Appendix?S1. List of aggregated species.

Appendix?S7. Full synoptic table of the Festuco?Brometea.

Appendix?S3. Diagnostic species of the classes Festuco?Brometea, Molinio?Arrhenatheretea, Nardetea strictae, Koelerio?Corynephoretea and Elyno?Seslerietea following the EuroVegChecklist.

Appendix?S6. Fidelity, constancy and average cover of species in the three Festuco?Brometea orders.

Appendix?S2. Indicator species of steppe grasslands.

Appendix?S4. Synoptic table of the TWINSPAN classification.

Appendix?S5. Average percentage cover of the diagnostic species of five grassland classes in the TWINSPAN clusters.

Appendix?S8. Data sources of the Festuco?Brometea relev?s.

Abstract Questions: What are the main floristic patterns in the Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands? What are the diagnostic species of the major subdivisions of the class Festuco-Brometea (temperate Euro-Siberian dry and semi-dry grasslands)? Location: Carpathian Basin (E Austria, SE Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia,...

22nd EVS International Workshop, Rome, 9-11 April 2013.

Questions: What are the major floristic and ecological gradients of the Balkan dry grassland vegetation and how could they best be reflected in a formal phytosociological classification? Location: Bulgaria, Northern Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. Methods: We compiled a comprehensive vegetation-plot database of dry grasslands from...

The European Vegetation Archive (EVA) has been developed since 2012 by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey as a centralized database of European vegetation plots. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation-plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect the ongoing independent development of...

This study was carried out on the Vidlič Mountain, eastern Serbia. The herb layer was surveyed in permanent plots on two localities: in a naturally regenerated beech forest and in a Douglas-fir plantation, in spring, summer and autumn 2011, 2012 and 2013. Air temperature, air humidity and soil moisture were measured. Species richness, Shannon's div...

Our objectives were to offer insight into the characteristics of the physical environment in the River Danube in Serbia; and to show the relationship between selected environmental factors and the composition and abundance of macrophyte species. The macrophyte survey method followed the European Standard EN 14184, applying Kohler’s five-level descr...

Koviljski Rit is located along the left bank of the Danube River, between the villages of Kovilj and Gardinovci. It is a rare example of pristine nature, where the original features of a swamp biotope are preserved. Because of its exceptional natural value, Koviljski Rit, along with the swamp in Petrovaradin, has been under the protection of the Re...

Fruška Gora is a mountain located in the southern part of Pannonian plane and it is poorly bryologicaly investigated as well as most parts of Serbia. First data on bryophytes, for this region, were published in 1949 by Teodor Soška in his paper Pregled mahovina i lišajeva u okolini Beograda (Review of mosses and lichens in the vicinity of Belgrade)...

This is the invitation to the 9th Field Workshop (Research Expedition) of the Eurasion Dry Grassland Group (EDGG; www.edgg.org), to be held in Serbia from 2-9 July 2016. The contribution explains the philosophy of the EDGG Field Workshops, provides and overview of outcomes of previous Field Workshops and introduces the dry grasslands in Serbia in g...

We analysed a stand of Pannonian subcontinental fescue sandy grassland in the Deliblato Sands (Deliblatska peščara; South-Eastern Banat, Vojvodina, Serbia) with nested-plot sampling on areas from 0.0001 to 100 m² (= “EDGG biodiversity plot”). The stand belongs to the class Koelerio-Corynephoretea, order Sedo acris-Festucetalia (syntax. syn.: Festuc...

Rose hips have been used for a long time in folk medicine, due to their prophylactic and therapeutic activities against wide range of disorders (CHRUBASIK et al. 2008). Also, they have been consumed as traditionally prepared food: tea, jelly, jam and beverages. Just in Europe, 42 Rosa species can be found (KERÉNYI-NAGY, 2012), but chemical composit...

The research was conducted during 2011 and 2012 in Vidlič Mountain in southeastern Serbia. The aim of this research was to determine species composition of mosses and liverworts in beech forests. A total number of 48 taxa (6 liverworts, 42 mosses) was recorded. According to the Red Data Book of European Bryophytes there is one species in rare categ...

Floristic diversity in the Pannonian Plain is the result of mosaic habitat composition, characterized by steppes, saline meadows, and lowland forests along major rivers. In the last few centuries, the flora has become enriched by species introduced by human activities, such as colonization and industrialization. Presently it consists of nearly 1800...