Nenad Jasprica

University of Dubrovnik · Institute for Marine and Coastal Research

This paper presents a comprehensive revision of the dry grasslands, specifically the alliance Chrysopogono grylli-Koelerion splendentis within the order Scorzoneretalia villosae along the eastern Adriatic, aimed at developing a formalized classification of this vegetation type. The revision is based on 490 relevés, including 44 newly sampled from t...

This article reports on Cenchrus spinifex Cav. (Poaceae) as a new alien species in Croatia. Cenchrus spinifex was found in autumn 2023 on the Pelješac peninsula in the southernmost part of the country. It occurs on ruderal sites with sandy soils. The morphology, habitat and distribution of the species in the Mediterranean and south-east Europe are...

Within the framework of the project EUBRASWILD (Capturing Brassica Wild Relatives Diversity in Southeastern Europe), several collecting missions were organized, targeting wild Brassica complex species (2n = 18), belonging to the gene pool of Brassica oleracea L. These crop wild relatives have repeatedly shown their potential to contain useful allel...

This article reports on Cenchrus spinifex Cav. (Poaceae) as a new alien species in Croatia. Cenchrus spinifex was found in autumn 2023 on the Pelješac peninsula in the southernmost part of the country. It occurs on ruderal sites with sandy soils. The morphology, habitat and distribution of the species in the Mediterranean and southeast Europe are b...

Die Waldvegetation der Insel Krk ist typologisch sehr differenziert, sodass wir auf der Insel Vegetationstypen eumediterranen, submediterranen und mitteleuropäischen Charakters finden können. Der Übergang zwischen immergrüner und laubwerfender Vegetation ist eher kontinuierlich. Was die phytozönologische Vielfalt betrifft, verfügt die Insel Krk übe...

The Romuleion , the only alliance of the order Poetalia bulbosae (class Poetea bulbosae ) found on the Balkan Peninsula, represents Mediterranean perennial and ephemeral pastures. It has been found in several Balkan countries, from Greece to the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bulgaria. However, a revision of its nomenclature a...

The changes in the grassland vegetation that have occurred over the last almost 100 years on the northeastern Adriatic island of Plavnik (Croatia) were studied. For this purpose, 29 phytosociological relevés of standard plot size were collected using the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological approach and compared with those of 100 years ago. With the ai...

The Neretva delta (estuary) is an internationally important wetland included in the Ramsar list and is one of the Important Plant Areas (IPA) in Croatia. The paper presents data from phytosociological research collected in the lower Neretva delta in the period 2006-2021. Based on 28 phytosociological relevés, 15 associations and one subassociation...

Three individuals of Prangos trifida (Mill.) Herrnst. & Heyn (Apiaceae) were found in Croatia for the first time in 2013. The population has increased in the last ten years and in 2023, 30 individuals were found. Prangos trifida grows on the small islet of Zmorašnji Opuh (Puh) in the Kornati National Park (Dalmatia) within the vegetation of salt-sp...

We investigated the floristic richness of ruderal sites along the newly built access roads to Pelješac Bridge after several years of construction and three months of traffic on the roads (in autumn 2022). A clear dominance of steno-Mediterranean plants was observed, with a considerable proportion of cosmopolitans, accompanied by a high proportion o...

The analysis of plants featured in Baroque artworks on the eastern Adriatic coast has not previously been the subject of an in-depth study. The study of plant iconography in Baroque sacred artworks, which are mostly paintings, was carried out in eight churches and monasteries on the Pelješac peninsula in southern Croatia. Taxonomic interpretation o...

This paper presents the new association Pimpinello lithophilae-Centaureetum lovricii, described for the halotolerant vegetation of the order Helichrysetalia italici (Crithmo-Staticetea) on the island of Vis (southern Croatia). The new association substitutes the Pimpinello lithophilae-Centaureetum issaeae, originally published invalidly because its...

Communities with constant presence of two insular endemic species of genus Brassica (B. cazzae Ginzb. et Teyber, B. mollis Vis.) were studied on the small southeastern Adriatic islands and islets (South Croatia), following the Braun-Blanquet approach. From a total of 51 phytosociological relevés, mostly collected in the period from 2020 and 2022, e...

Vegetation diversity and ecology of grassland communities with Salvia officinalis were assessed in the natural range of the species in the Western Balkans, using the Braun-Blanquet approach. With the aim of defining the differences among the communities and identifying the main environmental gradients, cluster analysis (Flexible Beta method) and no...

Some of the areas on the east coast of the Adriatic have, at least thus far, managed to resist the negative influence of humans and preserve their centuries-old natural features. These certainly include the Mali Ston Bay. The Bay is located in the Mediterranean region, the Eastern Mediterranean subregion, the Adriatic province and the Epiro-Dalmati...

The Book of Abstracts of the 39th Eastern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology Meeting (EADSVE) includes the program of the Meeting, and abstracts of plenary lecture, oral and posters presentations.

The alliance was proposed by Jasprica et al. (2008) as a preliminary concept (nomen provisorium) and without an original diagnosis. After (2016) Jasprica performed the formal validation of this alliance according to ICPN (Weber et al. 2000). Holotypus was Tamaricetum dalmaticae association described from Adriatic seaboards by Jasprica (2016) and th...

This paper comprises an overview of the riverine, swamp, floodplain forests and scrub throughout the continent. The team of researchers from various European countries has considered most of the forest habitats from the Canary Islands to European Russia. It was a difficult task to gather all the knowledge about this type of vegetation across the...

Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle (“Tree of Heaven”), native to China, has become invasive all over the world. In Croatia it is present in all administrative regions, where it can form dense forest communities. Although there are several ecological studies on this species, there is a lack of floristic-vegetational data for Croatia. We present the...

Phytoplankton community structure and dynamics were investigated in the open southern Adriatic Sea during two winter-spring seasons (2016 and 2017) under different oceanographic and meteorological conditions. The principal environmental factor was a pronounced inflow of the Levantine Intermediate Water into the Adriatic, favoured by the cyclonic ci...

Based on our own research carried out from 2013 to 2019 and literature data, this study presents for the first time a comprehensive floristic list of Mt Svilaja (max. 1508 m a.s.l.). It contains 1285 taxa classified within 502 genera and 109 families. Of these, 552 taxa are listed for the first time for Svilaja. Out of 733 taxa recorded previously,...

Na temelju literaturnih podata objavljenih u 2019. i 2020., vegetacija Hrvatske dopunjena je novopisanim i nomenklaturno preinačenim sintaksonima. Novi sintaksoni i preinake utvrđene su unutar razreda Carpino-Fagetea sylvaticae , Nardetea strictae , Molinio‐Arrhenatheretea , Erico-Pinetea , Pinetea halepensis , Crithmo-Staticetea , Juncetea maritim...

The flora of the cobbled streets and pavements in the Old City of Dubrovnik, South Croatia, was studied in unusual circumstances with lack of trampling due to the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. The features of the flora through analyses of taxonomic composition, life forms, chorotypes and the phytosociological character of species found at eight...

Svilaja (1508 m n. v.) je planina u Dalmatinskoj Zagori, u središnjem dijelu unutrašnje Dalmacije. Flora i vegetacija planine Svilaje do sada nije sustavno istraživana. Od 2013. obavljaju se opsežna terenska istraživanja s ciljem inventarizacije ukupne flore. U ovom radu su, na temelju dostupnih podataka iz literature, prikazana obilježja reljefa,...

Urban flora varies between urban habitats within a city and between cities. We used a particular urban habitat - tree-circles to compare floristic differences between urban agglomerations along a long climatic gradient on a continental scale. We recorded flora of this unique habitat in seven West Balkan cities and compared it to seven cities from W...

The initial colonization of bacteria and diatoms on a immersed artificial substrate and the development of diatom assemblages in relation to physico-chemical parameters were investigated on a weekly basis at one station in the marine Lake Mrtvo More, South Croatia, from April to October 2016. According to TRIX trophic index, lake showed different t...

Walls represent globally distributed, locally extensive, artificial ecosystems. Wall vegetation is still poorly known in the Mediterranean and Temperate regions of southeastern Europe. The aim of this study is to classify and describe chasmophytic vegetation of walls, covering southeastern Europe from Slovenia to North Macedonia. From a total 463 p...

The Dalmatian coast (Croatia) represents the second largest Archipelago within the Mediterranean area and contributes considerably to the Mediterranean biodiversity. The islands of the Vis Archipelago, in particular, contain an exceptional richness of endemic and rare plant taxa. The aim of this paper is to provide a phytosociological description o...

This study focuses on the taxonomy of epiphytic diatoms in the area of invasive macroalgae from the genus Caulerpa. Caulerpa species are characterized by the presence of secondary metabolites, such as caulerpenyne (CYN), the main function of which is a chemical defense mechanism against herbivores and epiphytes. Epiphytic diatoms were studied on fr...

A phytosociological investigation of spontaneous vegetation on seven-year-old ferro-manganese and silico-manganese slag heaps in southern Croatia showed a predominance of ruderals and weeds (Chenopodietea, Artemisietea vulgaris) and taxa of dry open habitats (Festuco-Brometea, Sedo-Scleranthetea). The limited number and cover of woody taxa seem to...

Epilithic diatom community structures are compared among three locations of the eastern Adriatic Sea coast (Croatia), in the presence of two different invasive Caulerpa species, C. taxifolia and C. cylindracea, which have spread rapidly in the Mediterranean in the last decades. Forty samples were taken seasonally at three sites (island of Hvar, isl...

The Centaureo-Portenschlagiellion describes the cliff vegetation of the Southeastern Adriatic. This habitat type harbours many endemic taxa and has a high value for biodiversity conservation. Notwithstanding its importance, knowledge of the syntaxonomy of this alliance is still poor. This article aims at revising the synchorological, coenological a...

This study was conducted in February, April and June 2009 at three stations in the southern Adriatic. Occurrence of the dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans and tunicates Salpa fusiformis and Salpa maxima in high abundances for the oligotrophic open sea, indicates the importance of physical forcing (vertical mixing) and inflow of nutrient-enriched...

The characteristics and intensity of winter phytoplankton blooms in the Open Southern Adriatic (OSA) were investigated from 1994 to 2012 by combining available unpublished and literature data on phytoplankton abundance, in situ chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and satellite-derived Chl-a surface data. We used original data from Februaries 1994 and 1995 (phyto...

This paper is based on the main results of an analysis of spontaneous flora and vegetation on the small islet of Vrnik (0.281 km²), on which there are some abandoned limestone quarries, on the eastern Adriatic coast. The investigations were carried out from 2014 to 2016. Altogether, 251 vascular plant taxa (species and infraspecific units) were rec...

The objective of this work was to contribute to the knowledge of microphytobenthos in the Adriatic Sea, by studying for the first time the benthic diatom communities in Neum Bay in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For this purpose, the benthic diatoms naturally growing on stones and macroalgae were identified at one station in the small semi-enclosed oligot...

The taxonomic composition and structure of a marine epilithic diatom community were sampled from the bottom of the two sites at monthly intervals from January to December 2011 in the small semi-enclosed oligotrophic Neum Bay in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Middle Adriatic). Altogether, 264 diatom taxa (species and infraspecific taxa) within 69 genera we...

Questions What are the syntaxonomic and synchorological patterns of the xerothermic chasmophytic vegetation in the central part of the Mediterranean Basin? What are the diagnostic species of the high‐rank syntaxa of Asplenietalia glandulosi, Onosmetalia frutescentis and Centaureo dalmaticae‐Campanuletalia pyramidalis? Location Mediterranean coasta...

The main aims of our study were (1) to determine the flora in railway areas with special emphasis on the presence of neophytes; (2) to describe the features of the flora through analyses of taxonomic composition, chorotypes, life forms and the phytosociological character of species found at 15 stations in the Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean are...

Based on field investigations and using the Braun-Blanquet approach, the paper describes the chasmophytic association Portenschlagiello ramosissimae-Campanuletum portenschlagianae, from Croatian Mediterranean cliffs.

Aims: This paper aims to revise the nomenclature of the Asplenietalia glandulosi and its vicariant orders in the central Mediterranean Basin, up to the association/subassociation level, in order to sort out the inconsistencies found in scientific literature. Study area: Central Mediterranean Basin, from France to Greece. Methods: The nomenclatural...

Croatia is among the most ecologically diverse and floristically rich countries in Europe, with a great variety of communities. The vegetation elaboration according to the standard central European method was initiated in Croatia at the beginning of the 20 th century. In previous overviews of Croatian vegetation, the number of classes and alliances...

The characteristics and intensity of winter phytoplankton blooms in the open South Adriatic (OSA) were investigated by combining data on abundance and satellite-derived surface chlorophyll (1995–2012). Particular attention was paid to the different circulation regimes in the Ionian Sea, namely the anticyclonic and cyclonic Northern Ionian Gyres (NI...

The South Adriatic (SA) is an entry point for water masses originating from the Ionian Sea (IS) and a place of dense water formation for the eastern Mediterranean deep circulation cell. Water masses, entering the SA in larger amount during the winter, show decadal variability explained by different circulating regimes (cyclonic and anticyclonic) in...

In Europe, Myriophyllum heterophyllum Michx. (Haloragaceae) has had the status of invasive species in freshwater ecosystems since 2012. During phytosociological research in the Neretva River Delta in July 2016, we noted a high coverage of species Myriophyllum heterophyllum within vegetation of rooted leaf-floating macrophytes of the Nymphaeion alba...

The paper gives a formalised description of the Picrido hieracioidis-Cirsietum candelabri association, a new ruderal syntaxon from Croatia.

Based on the diagnostic morphological characters of the Arundo taxa, and after both field and herbarium observation, three species (A. micrantha, A. plinii and A. donax) were found along the eastern Adriatic coast. Altogether, 50 phytocoenological releve´s from Arundo stands were collected in Croatia, Montenegro and Albania between 2010 and 2013. T...

The aim of this study is to classify and describe all plant communities with Quercus coccifera covering the entire eastern Adriatic coast and islands from north Croatia to south Albania, and to relate their species composition, chorotypes and life forms to environmental factors using Pignatti ecological indicator values. From total 70 phytosociolog...

The vegetation of the north-eastern Adriatic island of Olib (26.13 km2 ) was studied in 2015. From a total of 99 phytosociological relevés, 33 floristically and ecologically distinctive vegetation communities were identified and described (30 associations and 3 stands) within 28 alliances, 27 orders and 23 vegetation classes. Altogether, 18 NATURA...

Plant communities were studied along two oligotrophic karstic rivers – Trebižat and Lištica – from 2007 to 2009. Based on 93 phytosociological relevés, using Braun–Blanquet methods, a total of 25 plant associations were recognised in the rivers and nearby surveyed area. These associations have been subordinated to 11 alliances, eight orders and six...

This paper is a first contribution to knowledge of the vascular plant species diversity of the NE Adriatic Island of Olib (26.13 km 2). The total vascular flora of the island comprises 465 taxa of native and naturalised vascular plants, and 69 commonly cultivated taxa. The Mediterranean character of Olib flora is reflected by a large proportion of...

The vegetation and flora of the south Croatian islet of Badija (0.97 km 2), located in the Korčula archipelago , were studied in 2014 and 2015. From a total of 52 phytosociological relevés, 12 floristically and ecologically distinctive vegetation communities were identified and described (eight associations, one subassociation and three stands) wit...

The results of a phytosociological investigation of the Quercus coccifera L. stands occurring along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts in south Albania are given. The surveyed stands are localized in the Thermo-Mediterranean and Meso-Mediterranean belts. On the basis of literature and unpublished data, Q. coccifera stands extend from the shoreline up t...

The paper describes the Tamaricion dalmaticae alliance and the Tamaricetum dalmaticae association, a new syntaxa localized under the saline or sub-halophilous conditions within the thermo-mediterranean and meso-mediterranean belts of the eastern Adriatic coast. The Tamaricion dalmaticae alliance is considered analogous to the Western Mediterranean...

The aim of this study is to classify and describe all plant communities with Quercus coccifera covering the entire eastern Adriatic coast and islands from north Croatia to south Albania, and to relate their species composition, chorotypes and life forms to environmental factors using Pignatti ecological indicator values. From total 70 phytosociolog...

The flora and vegetation of three small islets with surface areas from 1.04 to 3.31 hectares, lying between the mainland and the Pelješac peninsula in south Croatia, were investigated in 2014 and 2015. The floristic data have been used to analyze life-form and chorological spectra and to assess species-area relationship, the occurrence of islet spe...

The present phytosociological study of the eastern Adriatic coastal salt-marsh at Blato, Croatia, is based on the Braun-Blanquet approach. Five plant associations were recorded in the area: Juncetum maritimo-acuti, Puccinellio festuciformis-Sarcocornietum fruticosae, Scirpetum maritimi, Enteromorpho intestinalidis-Ruppietum maritimae and Cressetum...

The aim of this study is to describe and classify the stands with a predominance of Cirsium candelabrum Griseb. (Asteraceae) for the first time in Croatia. The stands were investigated in south Croatian region of Dalmatia in 2015. In this study, the Picrido hieracioidis-Cirsietum candelabri Jasprica, Milović & Pandža 2015 is described and proposed...

The present phytosociological study of the eastern Adriatic coastal salt-marsh at Blato, Croatia, is based on the Braun-Blanquet approach. Five plant associations were recorded in the area: Juncetum maritimo-acuti, Puccinellio festuciformis-Sarcocornietum fruticosae, Scirpetum maritimi, Enteromorpho intestinalidis-Ruppietum maritimae and Cressetum...

Rasprostranjenost neke svojte ovisi o nizu čimbenika – klimi (npr. količini oborina, temperaturi), orografskim odlikama (npr. nadmorskoj visini, ekspoziciji, nagibu terena), tipovima tala te mnogim drugim utjecajnim elementima kao što su kompeticija s drugim biljkama, sposobnost širenja, otpornost na bolesti i sl. Posljedica je da su pojedine vrste...

The flora of the south croatian island of Korčula and the peninsula of Pelješac was studied during the period from 2009 to 2014. Altogether, 99 plant taxa (species and infraspecific taxa) were reported as new for the area, 73 for the island and 26 for the peninsula. Thus the total recorded number of plant taxa on the island of Korčula and the Pelje...

Biochemical and fatty acid composition of the bivalve Arca noae were investigated in the Mali Ston Bay in relation to environmental conditions. Sampling was carried out monthly, from December 2001 to November 2002. Wet shellfish meat consists on average of 77.61% water and 22.39% dry matter, while dry shellfish meat consists on average of 89.04% or...