Calamagrostio villosae-Fagetum

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The Calamagrostio villosae-Fagetum , known in German as riding-grass-spruce-beech forest, woolen riding-grass (spruce) beech forest or spruce-red beech forest, is a Central European forest community of the mountain forest level on acidic sites.

Species composition

In the tree layer of the forest type, the common beech dominates . It is always accompanied by the spruce , occasionally the silver fir is also mixed in. Mixed individually are sometimes rowan and sycamore . The trees are often low and saber-growing on steep slopes. In closed stands in a sheltered location, however, the tree layer can grow better and can reach a height of 25 to 30 meters here.

In the shrub layer there is almost only young growth of the tree species, occasionally accompanied by red elder . The species-poor herb layer is made up of acidic species. Name-giving, steady and often dominating the stocks in the cover is woolly riding grass ( Calamagrostis villosa ), a species that otherwise has its main distribution in spruce forests. Another conifer companion is common with the alpine lettuce ( Homogyne alpina ). Other typical species are Oxalis acetosella , Luzula sylvatica , Dryopteris dilatata and Athyrium filix-femina . Typical species of the beech forests such as Prenanthes purpurea and Polygonatum verticillatum are occasionally accompanying in low continuity. Berry bushes such as Vaccinium myrtillus and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa appear in thinned stands . The moss layer is usually well developed, but poor in species and not very characteristic. Acid indicators such as Polytrichum formosum , Dicranum scoparium and Hypnum cupressiforme predominate in forests .

Location

The riding grass-spruce-beech forest grows in the montane and high-montane altitudes, between 700 and 1,200 meters above sea level, in the eastern peripheral Alps and the eastern (Hercynian) low mountain ranges with a relatively continental climate. The subsoil is acidic silicate rocks with the soil type moderately brown earth , which can often be podsolized or pseudovergleyt .

distribution

The distribution center of the forest type lies in the Bavarian and Bohemian Forests up to the Fichtel and Ore Mountains . There are also occurrences in the Thuringian Forest and the other Thuringian low mountain ranges and in the Harz Mountains , in the latter mostly only as a narrow strip in the transition from deciduous to coniferous forest. In the Harz Mountains, large areas of woolly riding grass in high degrees of coverage indicate that it is a potential location for the spruce or the riding grass-spruce forest.

In Bavaria, according to the data of the national forest inventory, 45,155 hectares of area of ​​the type are given. Of these, 5 hectares are in natural forest reserves of the Bavarian Forest National Park.

Syn systematics

The forest type forms a natural transition between the acidic red beech forests (association Luzulo-Fagetum) of the low-lying areas and the spruce forest of the high-altitude areas, with which it shares the woolly riding grass in the herb layer. As a species-poor transitional stock, it does not have its own character species , which is why its independence is contested by some vegetation experts. It is usually placed in the Luzulo-Fagion association, i.e. one of the beech forests of acidic locations. In contrast to this, Paul Seibert (in Oberdorfer) places him in the association Piceion abietis, i.e. in the spruce forests of the European low mountain ranges, Alps and Carpathians.

It was described in the plant sociological system as an association by the Czech vegetation expert Rudolf Mikyška.

natural reserve

The Calamagrostio villosae-Fagetum is locally endangered. In the Red List of Plant Associations in Germany, it is listed in risk level 3: endangered. Locally, it is threatened primarily by immissions from air pollutants that have been transported over a wide area and that have degraded or killed large populations in the Ore Mountains, but also in other low mountain ranges. In addition, it has lost many locations due to the conversion to spruce forests. As part of the habitat type 9110 “Hainsimsen-Buchenwald” (to which it is assigned in the mapping instructions), the society is worthy of protection under the Habitats Directive of the European Union; this is intended to create special protected areas for its conservation within the scope of Natura 2000 .

swell

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  • Wolfgang Willner (2002): Syntaxonomic revision of the south-central European beech forests. Phytocoenologia 32 (3): 337-453.
  • Jörg Ewald, Hans Jehl, Luisa Braun, Ernst Lohberger (2011): The vegetation of the Bavarian Forest National Park as an expression of location and forest dynamics. Tuexenia 31: 9-38.
  • Gunter Karste, Uwe Wegener, Hans-Ulrich Kison (2014): The vegetation map of the Harz National Park (Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt) and some evaluation options. Tuexenia 34: 71-88. doi : 10.14471 / 2014.34.001
  • Calamagrostio villosae-Fagetum Mikyska 1972. in FloraWeb, online information service of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) about wild plant species, plant communities and natural vegetation in Germany
  • PA Schmidt, W. Hempel, M. Denner, N. Döring, A. Gnüchtel, B. Walter, D. Wendel (2002): Potential natural vegetation of Saxony with map 1: 200,000. In: Saxon State Office for Environment and Geology (publisher): Materials for nature conservation and conservation 2002. ISBN 978-3000100154
  • Markus Blaschke And Helge Walentowski The natural forest reserves - "research peepholes" in natural forest processes. LWF knowledge 61. download .
  • Albert Lang and Helge Walentowski: Handbook of habitat types according to Appendix I of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive in Bavaria. 165 pp. + Appendix. published by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) and the Bavarian State Institute for Forests and Forestry (LWF), Augsburg & Freising-Weihenstephan, 2010.