Floristic diversity of valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands in Greece

Abstract

Valonia oak (Quercus ithaburensis subsp. macrolepis (Kotschy) Hedge and Yaltirik), a deciduous species grown in the xerothermic conditions of the east Mediterranean zone of Europe, forms woodlands of open canopy that permits adequate light to reach the ground thus sustaining an exceptionally rich flora. In Greece, these woodlands are mainly used for livestock grazing and considered important silvopastoral systems. Nowadays, most of them are abandoned and degraded as a result of inappropriate management. For the effective evaluation and sustainable management of these woodlands and the establishment of reliable monitoring systems, a detailed analysis of their plant diversity characteristics across Greece is needed. This paper aims at determining and comparing floristic diversity measures as well as at assessing the impact of human activities on vegetation and floristic diversity of the most characteristic valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands of Greece. It was found that the truncated log-normal model adequately predicts the species abundance data for eleven out of the twelve woodlands. From the statistical comparison of the diversity indices Q-statistic, Berger-Parker dominance index and Shannon-Wiener measure of equitability, three groups of these woodlands can be distinguished (a) the high-richness group of Pentalofos, Lesvos, Lakonia and Thesprotia, (b) the medium-richness group of Kriti Island, Alexandroupoli, Strofylia and Galaxidi, and (c) the low-richness group of Kea Island, Amfilohia, Almyros and Lilaia. However, the Rényi's diversity ordering diagram showed that, generally, in low levels of entropy inconsistency is the rule and no clear pattern of diversity is extracted reflecting the impact of complex factors. Among them, those related to management seem to mostly determine plant diversity of valonia oak silvopastoral woodlands, with abiotic factors having an occasionally supporting role. Changes of species richness and evenness due to livestock grazing as well as acorn and wood harvesting are further discussed. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.