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Tree-circles spontaneous vegetation over a long climatic gradient

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Abstract

Urban flora varies between urban habitats within a city and between cities. We used a particular urban habitat - tree-circles to compare floristic differences between urban agglomerations along a long climatic gradient on a continental scale. We recorded flora of this unique habitat in seven West Balkan cities and compared it to seven cities from Western and Central Europe. On average, 91 species were found on tree-circles in every city in the Balkans (compared to 81 in continental Europe). Climate was the most important factor influencing species composition. Western and Central European tree-circles floras are much more uniform and homogeneous than Balkan ones, which have richer species pools.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Wittig and U. Becker for providing us original data from Northern Europe. Martin Cregeen kindly checked our English. The research was partly financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) through a research program (P1-0236) and bilateral project with Montenegro (BI-ME/16-17-018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology Jovan Hadži, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    U. Šilc & F. Küzmič

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade, Belgrade-Zemun, Serbia

    S. Aćić

  3. Institute of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

    R. Ćušterevska

  4. Institute for Marine and Coastal Research, University of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik, Croatia

    N. Jasprica

  5. Faculty of Forestry, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Đ. Milanović

  6. Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Biology Department, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro

    D. Stešević

  7. Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ž. Škvorc

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  1. U. Šilc
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  2. F. Küzmič
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Correspondence to U. Šilc.

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Šilc, U., Küzmič, F., Aćić, S. et al. Tree-circles spontaneous vegetation over a long climatic gradient. Urban Ecosyst 23, 995–1004 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00987-3

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