Forest vegetation in the upper Iara basin. Considerations on plants diversit

. Forests cover important areas in Romania, but are poorly investigated from a biological point of view. Forestry studies are focused on economic productivity, while biological studies have focused on phytosociological descriptions. Biodiversity measures have been rarely used in Romania to describe forest environments. This study is an attempt to link classical biologic forest studies with more modern statistical methods of investigation. The diversity of 65 forest relevées from the upper Iara basin is measured using the Shannon index. The values are plotted on a map, in order to assess the spatial distribution of forest diversity. The average of Ellenberg indicator values is calculated for each relevée and used to describe the spatial distribution of each forest association in a CCA plot. Finally, an optimized regression is made between Shannon diversity and the environmental variables (Ellenberg values, altitude, exposition, slope). The results of this analysis may help us understand which physical locations harbor the highest diversity, and are more important to protect from deforestation. The floristic analysis reveals that all forest types are important, even those with low Shannon diversity, as they may be the habitat for certain valuable species.