FOREST HABITATS IN OBORISHTE LOCALITY, SREDNA GORA MOUNTAIN
KALINA PACHEDJIEVA*, TANIA ZHELEVA
Sofia University St. Kl. Ohridski, Faculty of Biology, Dep. of Ecology and EP, 8 Dragan Tsankov Blvd., 1164 Sofia – BULGARIA
* Corresponding author: kalina.pachedjieva@gmail.com
Keywords: forest communities, EUNIS habitats, Oborishte locality
Abstract: Oborishte locality is a historical site in Sredna Gora Mountain, where the First Great National Assembly took place in 1876 against the Ottoman slavery in Bulgaria. A memorial was built in the first half of the 20th century to mark this significant place. The territorial scope of the present investigation is concentrated at the middle stream of Panova River, which flows alongside down into Tundzha River. Being a site of historical significance, Oborishte locality attracts lots of tourists. It borders on the Nature 2000 site Sredna Gora according to both the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive.
With its typical for Sredna Gora Mountain broadleaved forests Oborishte locality is rather attractive for tourists during the whole year. The vegetation cover around is presented by an interesting community complex of xerothermic oak and meso-xerothermic beech forests. The present study aims to reveal their floristic composition and to determine their classification status according to Braun-Blanquet phytosociological approach and habitat affiliation according to the EUNIS classification system.
The forests ecosystems around Oborishte locality are presented by communities of Quercion confertae and Cephalanthero-Fagion alliances forming community complexes – Quercion confertae forests taking the steeper and dry stands and Cephalanthero-Fagion forests taking the less steep stands. The floristic diversity of the forests consists of 34 plant species in total.
The present study is the basis of a further investigation of the condition of forest ecosystems in this locality.