BIOGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONALISATION BASING ON POTENTIAL VEGETATION. CASE STUDY: BISTRITA-NĂSĂUD COUNTY

Abstract

The County of Bistrita-Năsăud lies in north-central Romania, at the border between the Transylvanian Plateau and the Eastern Carpathians. Its geomorphology features mountains and hills, laid out in a south and westward widely opened natural amphitheatre, with a difference in altitude of 2029 m. As a result, there is a rich, vertically zoned vegetation cover (including: alpine level, subalpine level, forest level, and sylvosteppe level). The vegetation of these zones was subject to important changes in time due to anthropic intervention, so that primary plant communities have been replaced by secondary ones, which are a main component of present-day landscape. In this context, the present paper tries to recreate the areas of initial, primary, or potential vegetation in the county. This is a necessary step in biodiversity preservation actions, in preparing plans of territorial management and planning, in touristic utilisation of some areas, in the process of ecological reconstruction of areas impacted by anthropic activities from the last two centuries, for the identification of new habitats to be included in the appendixes of the Habitats and Birds Directives, for increasing the number of protected areas by including new, „untouched” areas (not affected by overexploitation, fertilisation etc.), for converting natural / semi-natural forests and pastures in Natura 2000 sites etc.

Keywords

• biogeographical regionalisation
• potential vegetation
• Corine
• Palearctic Habitats
• Natura 2000