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

By

Vynokurov, Denys
Aleksanyan, Alla
Becker, Thomas
Biurrun, Idoia
Borovyk, Dariia
Fayvush, George
García-Mijangos, Itziar
Magnes, Martin
Palpurina, Salza
Becker, Ute
Berastegi, Asun
Cykowska-Marzencka, Beata
Dembicz, Iwona
Frank, Dieter
Hilpold, Andreas
Kirschner, Philipp
Mayrhofer, Helmut
Oganesian, Marine
Vasheniak, Iuliia
Dengler, Jürgen

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024-5-9

Original Publication

Vegetation classification and survey

Volume

5

Pages

39--73

Subjects

Armenia , Classification , Cousinio brachypterae-Stipetalia arabicae , dry grassland , Festuco-Brometea , Irano-Turanian , mountain steppe , Onobrychido transcaucasicae-Stipetalia pulcherrima , Plantagini atratae-Bromopsietalia variegatae , species richness , Syntaxonomy , thorn-cushion community

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers 2020-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.119253

 

Abstract

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 m2) 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 significant differences in the topographic, climatic and soil characteristics, and structural parameters, species life forms and distribution range types between the grassland types at different syntaxonomic levels. The mean species richness was 47.3 (vascular plants: 46.8, bryophytes: 0.4, lichens: 0.1). Conclusions: We found remarkable differences of the Armenian dry grasslands from the previously known units and described most of the higher syntaxa and all the associations as new to science. Our study provides arguments for a potential new class of Ziziphora tenuior-Stipa arabica grasslands separate both from the Euro-Siberian Festuco-Brometea and the Anatolian Astragalo-Brometea. Finally, we found plot scale richness of vascular plants clearly above the Palaearctic average of dry grasslands and that of non-vascular plants clearly below, which calls for further biodiversity analyses.<br> Taxonomic reference: Euro+Med (2023) for vascular plants, Hodgetts et al. (2020) for bryophytes, Nimis et al. (2018) for lichens except for Xanthoparmelia camtschadalis (Ach.) Hale.<br> Abbreviations: EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; DCA = detrended correspondence analysis; ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al. 2021); TWINSPAN = two-way indicator species analysis.