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Distribution of Xerohalophytic Vegetation Along
the Seaward and Landward Zone in South-Adriatic
Sandy Beach (Montenegro)
A. Mijović, Z. Popović, B. Karadžić, M. Mijatović & S. Perišić
To cite this article: A. Mijović, Z. Popović, B. Karadžić, M. Mijatović & S. Perišić (2006)
Distribution of Xerohalophytic Vegetation Along the Seaward and Landward Zone in South-Adriatic
Sandy Beach (Montenegro), Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment, 20:1, 30-35, DOI:
10.1080/13102818.2006.10817300
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2006.10817300
© 2006 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
Published online: 15 Apr 2014.
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Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/1 30
DISTRIBUTION OF XEROHALOPHYTIC
VEGETATION ALONG THE SEAWARD AND
LANDWARD ZONE IN SOUTH-ADRIATIC SANDY
BEACH (MONTENEGRO)
A. Mijović, Z. Popović, B. Karadžić, M. Mijatović, S. Perišić
Institute for Biological Research ''Siniša Stanković'', Department of Ecology, Belgrade,
Serbia and Montenegro
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research was to analyze the distribution of two typical widespread
xerohalophytic associations in sandy and sandy-shingle beaches of Montenegrin foreland:
Cakilo-Xanthietum italici (Beg. 1941) Pign.1953 and Echinophoro-Elymetum farcti
GÉHU 1988. Intense human activity generally affects the processes of vegetation degradation
in this habitat type. The Velika plaža beach near Ulcinj is one of the few relatively
undamaged sand beaches, in floristic and vegetational sense. Major environmental gradient
in this habitat is the decrease in moisture and salinity from seaward to landward zone.
This site’s conditions model the prominent zonation of coastal plant species and distribution
patterns of plants and plant communities.
Introduction
Extreme environmental conditions in the
foreland zone cause a specific vegetation
type that is very poor in floristic composition
– xerohalophytic vegetation. Plants of
this vegetation type posses numerous ecological
adaptations for resolving the problems
of chemical and physical drought, as
well as of injurious effects of the high chloride
concentration and low percentage of
humus particles in soil. By accumulating
NaCl, halophytes increase the osmotic
pressure of their cellular sap, which results
in an increased xeromorphism of recruitment.
Halophytic xerophytes can be included
either into the group of preferring or
the group of suffering halophytes (1).
Rocky coasts prevail on the Montenegrin
foreland, so that the vegetation of swamp
sites, as well as the vegetation of sandy and
shingle coasts is relatively slightly present.
As on all similar touristically attractive
coasts, these habitats are particularly endangered
in this part of Adriatic. Vegetation
of Montenegrin foreland includes
classes CAKILETEA MARITIMAE Tx. et
Prsg. 1950 and AMMOPHILETEA Br.-Bl.
& Tüxen ex Westhoff, Dijk & Passchier
1946 (2). Plant communities belonging to
the Cakiletea maritimae class are present
on narrow shingle beaches, while on broad
sandy coasts these plant communities develop
outlying belt of psammophytic
vegetation. Plant communities of Ammophiletea
class are commonly present on
sandy coasts where the process of dune
formation has already begun, resulting in a
decrease of chloride concentration in the
dune formation zone. Communities of
these two classes can be distributed in a
more or less mosaic pattern, depending on
a terrain configuration (2, 3). Set aside the
detailed classical studies of xerohalophytic
flora and vegetation of Montenegrin foreland
(e.g. 4, 5, 6), recent investigations are
dealing with this problem in a relatively
lesser extent (2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). In this
study, we investigated the distribution of
Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/131
xerohalophytic species that constitute the
characteristic plant communities on broad
sandy beaches of the Adriatic coast.
Materials and Methods
This research has been performed at the
Velika plaža beach near Ulcinj, the most
southern point of the Montenegrin coast. It
is the largest beach in this part of South
Adriatic (approximately 11.5 km in length),
extending into Albanian foreland south
from delta of Bojana River. Investigation
within the characteristic xerohalophytic
vegetation belt on this beach has been carried
out during the vegetational season
2002. A combined abundance and cover
scale was used, as proposed by Westhof
and van der Maarel (12). In addition, census
data were sampled within three strip
transects perpendicular to the shoreline at
the study site. For data analysis we used
Statistica for Windows program. The Cityblock
(Manhattan) distance analysis was
applied to present the differences in floristic
composition among the transects.
Results and Discussion
Psammophytic vegetation of the Velika
plaža beach is built up of two belts. The
first one is made of xerohalophytic plant
communities belonging to the Cakiletea
and Ammophiletea classes, interchanging
each other along the salinity and moisture
gradients, landwards; these are the associations
Cakilo-Xanthietum italici (Beg. 1941)
Pign.1953, and Echinophoro-Elymetum
farcti GÉHU 1988. The second belt of
xeropsammophytic vegetation comprised of
plant groups under the class Thero-Brachypodietea
Br.-Bl.1947, is not directly influenced
by the seawater (3), which is a specific
feature of Eastern Adriatic coast.
As shown in Fig. 1a-c, the vegetation of
this particular site can be divided into three
zones. In the first zone (up to 20-30 m
wide), the vegetation is almost missing due
to the overwash effects and strong chemical
influence of the seawater, as well as the
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
___
zone I ______________
zone II _______
Distance from sea (m)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Noofindividuals
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
_
zone I ________
zone II _____________
zone III ____
Distance from sea (m)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Noofindividuals
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
___
zone I ________________
interapping zone II/III
Distance from sea (m)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Noofindividuals
Fig. 1. Distribution and number of species from Cakiletea
class (empty squares) and species from Ammophiletea
class (filled squares) from seaward to landward
zone. a. in the belt zone of Cakilo-Xanthietum
ass. b. typical transect aligned perpendicular to the
shoreline, including embryo dunes in landward zone.
c. along the interdune transect, where zone II and
zone III overlapping occurs.
anthropogenic pressure. Only the individuals
of Salsola kali L., Cakile maritima Scop.
a
b
c
Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/1 32
TABLE 1
Cakilo-Xanhtietum italici (Beg. 1941) Pign.1953. Relevés 1-5 are from typical zone of Cakilo-Xanhtietum
ass., and relevé 6 is from interdune depression.
Distance form sea (m) 30 30 50 50 60 80
Size of relevé (m2) 25 25 25 36 36 50
Coverage (%) 10 15 20 30 35 35
Charact. species of ass.
Cakile maritima Scop. 2 2 2 2 1 1 V
Xanthium italicum Mor. 3 5 5 5 7 7 V
Charact. species of Cakiletea class
Salsola kali L. 1 1 1 - 1 1 V
Euphorbia peplis L. 1 - 2 1 - 1 IV
Polygonum maritimum L. - - 1 1 2 - III
Species from Ammophiletea class
Agropyron junceum (L.) P.Beauv. - - 1 3 3 5 IV
Eryngium maritimum L. - 1 1 1 - 2 IV
Echinophora spinosa L. 1 - - - 1 2 III
Euphorbia paralias L. - - - - 1 1 II
Others
Lagurus ovatus L. - - - - 1 1 II
Cuscuta sp. L. - - 3 - - 3 II
Inula crithmoides L. - - - 1 - - I
and Xanthium italicum Mor. can be observed
in this zone.
The next zone, where the species from
the Cakiletea maritimae class are dominant,
is characterized by still remarkable sand
salinity and by variable width depending on
the terrain configuration. Pioneer association
Cakilo-Xanthietum italici builds up
this characteristic vegetational belt that is
very poor in a floristic composition and has
a small coverage, with dominant presence
of annuals (Table 1).
With increasing distance from the sea,
sand emersion occurs, simultaneously with
the gradual decrease of salinity and moisture
in soil. Such conditions are favorable
for the development of species from Ammophiletea
class, so that EchinophoroElymetum
farcti ass. in the zone 3 continues
farther beyond the belt of CakiloXanthietum
italici ass. Beside the dominant
species Elymus farctus (Viv.) Runemark ex
Melderis, also frequent in this association
are Echinophora spinosa L. and Eryngium
maritimum L. (Table 2). Inter-dune areas
are overlapping patches of the Cakilo-Xanthietum
italici and Echinophoro-Elymetum
farcti communities in this zone (Fig. 1c).
Differences among transects based on
floristic composition of studied associations
are presented on tree-clustering diagram
(Fig. 2).
Salt spray and seawater inundations are
known to be very important factors in the
strandline species distribution. Barbour and
DeJong (13) have observed a strong correlation
between the position of particular
species in the zonation of strandline plants
and their tolerance. Results presented in
figures show that species are obviously
distributed along the gradient of sand salinity
and moisture. The pioneer community
Cakilo-Xanthietum italici occupies the
lowest and the most saline areas of the site
studied. Salisbury (14) has defined such
beach zone as the area of plants – pioneers
of dunes, i.e. the zone where annuals with
extensive root systems predominate (Cakile
maritima, Salsola kali, Xanthium italicum).
Generally, seasonal and irregular variations
in distribution of these species in zone I are
influenced by oscillations of wave action,
but landwards dispersion (zone II and especially
zone III) is mainly due to the wind
Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/133
TABLE 2
Association Ecinophoro-Elymetum farcti GÉHU 1988
Distance from sea (m) 50 50 70 80 80 90 90 100 120
Size of relevé (m2) 36 50 50 36 100 36 50 50 100
Coverage (%) 40 40 45 40 40 50 60 65 60
Characteristic species of ass.
Agropyron junceum (L.) P.Beauv. 5 5 5 7 7 7 8 8 8 V
Echinophora spinosa L. - - 2 - 2 5 2 2 2 IV
Species from Ammophiletea cl.
Eryngium maritimum L. 2 2 1 3 3 3 2 1 - V
Euphorbia paralias L. - - - - 1 2 - 1 1 III
Medicago marina L. - - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 III
Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link. - - - - - - - 5 5 II
Pancratium maritimum L. - - - - 1 - 1 - - II
Calystegia soldanella (L.) R.Br. - - - - - - 1 1 - II
Pseudorlaya pumila (L.) Grande - - - - 1 - - 1 - II
Lagurus ovatus L. - - - - 1 1 - 1 - II
Species from Cakiletea class
Xanthium italicum Mor. 5 5 7 5 5 5 3 5 3 V
Cakile maritima Scop. 1 2 - 1 - - - - - II
Polygonum maritimum L. - - 2 - 1 - - - - II
Atriplex hastata L. - - - 1 - 1 - - - II
Euphorbia peplis L. - 1 - - - - - - - I
Others
Parapholis incurva (L.) C.E.Hubb. - - - - 1 1 - - - II
Aegilops ovata L. - - - - 1 - - 1 - II
Vulpia ciliata Dumort. - - - - 1 1 - - - II
Schoenus nigricans L. - - - - 1 - - 1 1 II
Bromus tectorum L. - - - - 1 - 1 - - II
Juncus maritimus Lam. - - - - - 1 - - 3 II
Inula crithmoides L. - - - 1 1 - - - - II
Cuscuta sp. L. - 3 3 - - 1 - - - II
Reichardia picroides (L.) Roth. - - - - - - 1 - - I
Blackstonia perfoliata (L.) Huds. - - - - - - - - 1 I
action. Van der Valk (15) concluded that
the sand movement and salinity are the
most important factors influencing the distribution
of plant species on sandy beaches.
The relatively unstable floristic composition
of Cakilo-Xanthietum italici ass. (typical
for pioneer associations) is accompanied
with its ability to overlap with the next
association, especially in the further landward
zone. So, certain differences within
the transect III (Fig. 2) are mainly due to
terrain configuration.
The pioneer associations of the same
type, with similar distribution, populate the
sandy beaches along the Mediterranean
coasts. Cakilo-Xanthietum italici ass. is
widely distributed on the coasts of Western
Adriatic (16, 17), as well as on the coasts
of Tirrenian Sea (18). This community is
present as well as on sandy and sandyshingle
beaches in Eastern Adriatic, also in
Montenegrin foreland, but it is mostly degraded
by extremely strong anthropogenic
influence. Low abundance of the species
Cakile maritima is specific feature of this
association in Velika Plaža of Ulcinj. Since
the similar type of coasts prolongs further
southwards from this beach, Xhulaj and
Mullaj (19) described the same association
in Narta region, Albania. In addition, a
community Salsola kali – Xanthium strumarium
Oberd. et Tx. 1950, floristically
Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/1 34
Tree Diagram for Variables
Single Linkage; City-block (Manhattan) distances
CX3 EE3 EE2 EE1 CX2 CX1
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
LinkageDistance
Fig. 2. Tree-clustering diagram presents the degree of similarity among transects based on floristic compostion.
CX1 Cakilo-Xanthietum italici ass. in transect 1; CX2 Cakilo-Xanthietum italici ass. in transect 2; CX3 Cakilo-Xanthietum
italici ass. in transect 3; Echinophoro-Elymetum fracti ass. in transect 1; Echinophoro-Elymetum
fracti ass. in transect 2; Echinophoro-Elymetum fracti ass. in transect 3.
composed very similar to Cakilo-Xanthietum
italici community from Velika plaža of
Ulcinj, is found on W. Peloponnesos
coasts, as described by Lavrantiades (20).
Besides the abovementioned causes, distribution
of these species from seaward to
landward zone is also caused by the width
of the beach, as on the narrow sandy
beaches there are not conditions for fully
development of the associations with perennial
species.
On the Velika plaza beach, successive
stages of developing Echinophoro-Elymetum
farcti community are distributed in
different beach areas that are more distant
from the sea, but with relatively similar
species composition in all transects. The
tussocks of Elymus farctus constitute the
main agents of the dune evolution (14),
since its habitus “immobilizes” sand
movements and consequently accumulates
sand in the landward area. The significant
decrease of sand salinity in this zone is indicated
by the presence of Ammophila
arenaria (L.) Link. (14). As stated earlier
(14, 21), this species plays an important
role in the development and stabilization of
sand dune systems on European coasts.
The zone of Ammophila arenaria can only
be present on broader beaches and does never
occur on relatively narrow beaches (22).
The only representative of Ammophiletea
class on the Eastern Adriatic coast is Echinophoro-Elymetum
farcti ass., which is
distributed at all greater sandy coasts on
Croatian and Montenegrin foreland (3, 22).
Apart from dominant species Elymus farctus
(Viv.) Runemark ex Melderis, the
greatest physiognomical and coenological
importance have the perennials from the
Ammophiletea class – especially Echinophora
spinosa, Eryngium maritimum and
Euphorbia paralias. Generally, due to their
low competitive ability comparing to
psammophytic perennials, participation of
annuals in Echinophoro-Elymetum farcti
zone is infirmed (23, 24, 25). However,
because of increased content of chlorides in
inter-dune areas, the competitive pressure
of perennials decreases, so these areas pre-
Biotechnol. & Biotechnol. Eq. 20/2006/135
sent the transitional patches of the CakiloXanthietum
italici and Echinophoro-Elymetum
fracti ass in this zone. As presented
in phytocoenological relevés and transects,
Xanthium italicum is the only annual that is
quite abundant in this zone. Significantly
greater vegetation covering and dominant
participation of perennials in this community
indicates to its greater ecological and
coenological stability compared to CakiloXanthietum
italici ass. This fact is the reflection
of site conditions in EchinophoroElymetum
fracti zone – firstly of lower
sand salinity levels, but also of lesser human
impact.
Conclusions
Xerohalophytic vegetation of Velika plaža
is built up out of two plant communities
that are influenced by decreasing impact of
seawater and thus characteristically zonated.
General distribution of species belonging
to the Cakiletea and Ammophiletea classes
can be presented through three vegetation
zones. Because of strong physicochemical
influence of seawater and human impact,
only the individual annuals of pioneer
Cakilo-Xanthietum italici ass. are present
in the first zone. In the next zone, with degree
of the still remarkable sand salinity,
species from the Cakilo-Xanthietum italici
ass. are prevalent. Third vegetation zone is
characterized by decreased sand salinity
and moisture, so that species from the
Echinophoro-Elymetum farcti ass. develop
this vegetation belt. The distribution of
these two associations is more or less
overlapping, depending on the terrain con-
figuration.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Development
of the Republic of Serbia, Grant #1565.
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