Habitat shaped by ancient salt: vegetation of the classes Therosalicornietea and Festuco-Puccinellietea in the Transylvanian Basin (Romania)

Vegetation of temperate inland salt-marshes reflects local environmental conditions

“…Interestingly, it was not noted in the latest study of salt marshes in North German Plain by Dítě et al (2022), who classified this vegetation, rather to the Puccinellietum limosae Soó 1933 and Atriplex prostrata community, despite the large share of S. marina. The Scorzonero parviflorae-Juncetum gerardii association is also widespread in European inland salt marshes as shows research from the Balkans (Dítě et al, 2015) or individual countries -Romania (Dítě et al, 2021). In our dataset Triglochino maritimae-Glaucetum maritimae association has been documented only in Poland and Germany, as confirmed by the results of Dítě et al (2022).…”

“…The results demonstrate that environmental parameters explain respectively 33 and 30 % of the total variance between associations. The results obtained for individual associations based on EIV are confirmed in the literature from other inland sites in Europe (Dítě et al, 2021(Dítě et al, , 2022. Salicornietum ramosissimae is characterized by the highest EIV of salinity, moisture and soil reaction in comparison to other associations.…”

“…The Festuco-Puccinellietea class in this system comprises two groups of orders from which one covers vegetation typical of flooded, moist/wet (mainly solonchak) soils in order Scorzonero-Juncetalia gerardi Vicherek 1973 and alliance Juncion gerardi Wendelberger 1943, which could include inland temperate salt marsh vegetation. Consequently, a similar approach is presented by other researchers in the temperate salt marshes of Europe (e.g., Dítě et al, 2021Dítě et al, , 2022. Moreover, Dítě et al (2022) based on data from the southern Baltic Sea coast and inland German salt marshes, proved the difference between inland salt marsh vegetation denoted as Festuco-Puccinellietea class and coastal vegetation representing Juncetea maritimi class.…”

“…The Therosalicornietea class is widespread in Europe. Apart from the sites considered in our study, which partially correspond to the areas analyzed by Dítě et al (2022), research was carried out also, e.g., in Romania (Dítě et al, 2021), Croatia (Dítě et al, 2019), Italy (Tomaselli et al, 2020) and generally in Southeastern Europe (Dajić Stevanović et al, 2016). The class is also listed outside our continent, e.g., in Central Asia, near the salty lakes and at the dry bottoms of intermountain depressions of eastern Siberia (Korolyuk et al, 2017).…”

“…This vegetation frequently is characterized by species zonation defined by dominance of some species and determined mostly by salinity and tides on coastal marshes and by salinity level on inland salt marshes (Lee et al, 2016;Piernik et al, 1996;Piernik et al, 2015). The saline habitats in Europe has been studied and documented for years (e.g., Lee, 1977;Wilkoń-Michalska, 1963;Zulka et al, 1997), and this process continues to this day, because they are undeniably an important elements in our local biodiversity (Dajić-Stevanović et al, 2019;Dítě et al, 2021Dítě et al, , 2022Fantinato and Buffa, 2019;Lubińska-Mielińska et al, 2022;Piernik, 2012).…”