Limestone snow soils
Lime snow soils form the plant-sociological order Arabidetalia caeruleae over carbonate sites .
Location characteristics
Limestone snow soils are characterized by soils rich in skeletons or calm to weakly agitated rubble soils with long snow cover, usually more than eight months. Due to the long snow cover, the soil usually remains well-moistened, but can dry out considerably in late summer or autumn due to the permeability of karstified carbonate rocks. Limestone snow soils reach their optimum in the limestone chains of the Northern Alps and in the Northern and Eastern Carpathians . Here they are widespread in the lower alpine to the alpine level . The limestone snow valleys in the limestone mountains of southern Europe ( Pyrenees , Dinarides , Southern Carpathians , Rhodopes , Balkan Mountains ) are less extensive . Due to the different combination of species and different socialization, they form their own societies or associations . In general, the associations there are smaller and increasingly dependent on special microclimate locations. Due to lower altitude, more pronounced seasonal dry seasons and shorter snow cover, snow valleys in the south are quickly displaced by debris and turf communities.
However, the occurrence of Arabis caerulea and Salix retusa is always characteristic .
In contrast to small snow valleys over silicate, calcareous snow soils take up ever smaller areas. They are generally dependent on the feet of slopes and hollows, in the south, where the summer drought lasts for several months, increasingly azonal on paleodolines in which cold air collects ( cold air lake ). Since limestone is impermeable, water can hardly collect in it. Since the seepage regime in the hillside debris is the dominant type of ecotope-forming regime, the soil water regime is also a characteristic ecosystem process. Lateral additional water, which via meltwater leads to the moisture penetration of slope debris and flowing debris, is indispensable for the formation of limestone snow soils. Therefore, converging landforms in hollows and sinkholes , which - due to their own shading - significantly longer snow cover and slope footprints with water-storing scree slopes, higher soil moisture and, on average, lower temperatures, are one of the most widespread locations for the limestone rubble snow soils of the Campanulo pullae-Arabiedetum caeruleae or the Campanulo pullae-Achilleetum clusianae are. These species-poor locations sometimes also show high proportions of moss and lichen.
Synecology
Two general associations are identified:
- Association of blue cress lawns ( Arabidion caeruleae ), lawn communities with long snow cover
- Association of dwarf willow trellises on limestone subsoil ( Salicion retusae )
distribution
The distribution of limestone snow soils in Europe is limited to mountains with limestone subsoil. Geologically, they are therefore absent in Northern Europe, in Southern Europe there is a limit to the lack of snow. Even in the Northern Alps, the distribution of limestone snow soils is only local, in the Bavarian Karwendel the Karwendelgrube of the western Karwendelspitze is the main focus of the occurrences. Outside of the Allgäu, only the brown grove (Luzuletum alpinopilosae) can be found on the Fraunalpel in Wetterstein. There are other significant limestone snow soil deposits in Bavaria in the Upper Dammkar, at the Thomasalpel, in the Felderngrube and under the Schlichtenkar peaks.
General distribution areas are in the northeast and southeastern Alps. Here there are Dachstein, Dürrenstein, Hochschwab, Höllengebirge, Lechtal Alps, Tennengebirge, Schneeberg, Karwendel in the northeast and Gailtal Alps, Julian Alps, Karawanken, Carnic Alps, Lienz Dolomites, South Tyrolean Dolomites and Braies Dolomites in which there are suitable locations for the Pile formation of limestone snow soils.
In the south-east adjoining Dinarides, only azonal sinkholes in the Krainer Schneeberg and Kapela are known. Only in the towering south-east Dinarides are calcareous snow soils in Maglić, Durmitor, Komovi and Prokletije common. The more sub-Mediterranean or Oro-Mediterranean Dinarides, on the other hand, only have limestone snow-bottom vegetation azonal. Here in particular in Čvrsnica, Prenj and Velež. An isolated occurrence is described oro-Mediterranean from the Orjen. Here on the northern roof of the Velika Jastrebica is a paleodoline site of the limestone snow-soil flora of Europe, which is closest to the Mediterranean. In the more continental east of the Balkan Peninsula, limestone snow soils can still be found in the Jakupica and in the Pirin and Rila Mountains.
literature
- Thorsten English: Multivariate analyzes of the syn systematics and site ecology of the snow floor vegetation (Arabidetalia caeruleae) in the Northern_Kalkalpen. In: Stapfia. Volume 59, Linz 1999, PDF on ZOBODAT More PDF on researchgate.net.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thorsten English: Multivariate analyzes of the syn systematics and site ecology of the snow floor vegetation (Arabidetalia caeruleae) in the Northern_Kalkalpen. In: Stapfia. Volume 59, Linz 1999, PDF on ZOBODAT More PDF on researchgate.net.
- ↑ Pavle Cikovac, Ingo Hölzle 2018: GLACIAL RELICTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DINARIDES - A PHENOMENON OF COLD-AIR POOL MICROCLIMATES? Abstract, Conference: 7th Balkan Botanical Congress - 7BBC 2018 At: Novi Sad, Serbia [1]
- ^ Ivo Horvat, Vjekoslav Glavac, Heinz Ellenberg: Vegetation Southeast Europe . (= Geobotanica Selecta. Volume IV). Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-437-30168-3 .
- ↑ LFU Bavaria Karwendel Mountains (PDF)
- ↑ ibid. Pavle Cikovac, Ingo Hölzle 2018.