Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Flora, phytocenoses, and algal phytonymes in islands Svetac, Brusnik and near bottoms of central Adriatic

2002; Croatian Natural Society; Volume: 104; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1849-0964

Andrija-Željko Lovrić, Mladen Rac,

Marine and environmental studies

Background and Purpose: The phytogeography of remote minor islands in open Adriatic was insufficiently studied, and their marine phytocenoses were nearly unknown so far. Especially for Svetac and Brusnik the available data were restricted to notes on land flora, and the indications for adjacent phytobenthos were scarce. Folk phytonymes of Dalmatian algae till now were neglected and nearly unknown. The main aim of actual paper is to list the unknown algal flora at Svetac with algal folk names, and to give its zoning of phytocenoses, with additions to complete their land flora. Material and Methods: Actual survey of benthic macroalgae and insular Mediterranean vegetation is the result of iterative field studies in Svetac and near islets in central Adriatic, in different seasons from 1975 to 1999. The shallow bottom to 7m was prospected along shores, and deeper to 25m in selected representative profiles. Algal phytonymes were noted from the experienced old fishers of port Komiza who frequently visited Svetac, and they offered us also some algae dragged bynets from major depths in that area, indicating e. g. some sites of Laminaria and Sporochnus with folk names. Results and Conclusions: The studied phytobenthos at the remote island Svetac (Stondria) and near islets Kamik, Ondrin and Brusnik includes 276 marine taxa: 167 rhodophytes, 65 pheophytes, 42 chlorophytes, and 2 seagrasses, with a low R/P ratio of 2.2. After our recent insights, terrestrial flora of Svetac island includes 444 vascular taxa (54 in Brusnik islet), and it is rather rich if compared with similar Adriatic islands of average size. In the vegetation of Svetac and Brusnik we registered 28 main phytocenoses in 8benthic and altitudinal belts, with 11 terrestrial communities and 17 marine ones. Both vascular and algal vegetation in Svetac area is true Mediterranean and almost similar to those in other remote islands of central Adriatic and of Mediterranean offing. Within the Adriatic Archipelago, Svetac has a southern vegetation of Thermo-Mediterranean type, its halophytic vegetation includes 9 insular endemics, and the surrounding phytobenthos is especially rich in coralligene phytocenoses with 30 taxa of calcified algae. Among the noted folk names of algae at Svetac, 15 marine phytonymes of Komiza fishers are poorer than in shores of Northwestern Europe, but they are among the richest ones within Mediterranean.