1. komponenta

Lecture type	Total
Lectures	60
Practicum	15

* Load is given in academic hour (1 academic hour = 45 minutes)

Contents
1. Introduction, basic concepts in ecology, research directions and research programs, cognitive-theoretical approaches, field experiments in vegetation ecology
2. Scientific-theoretical foundations and systematic position of vegetation ecology, holistic reduction, generalized induction, concept of plant community and theoretical approaches, habitat, concept of ecological gradients, processes in community formation, modification of ecological conditions in the habitat
3. Diversity and diversity indices, alpha and beta diversity and indices, species?area relationship, spatial delimitation of plant communities, continuum?discontinuum controversy, selected vegetation models, evidence on the nature of boundaries
4. Concept of ecological niche, Lotka?Volterra competition model, methods of describing plant communities, physiognomic?ecological and floristic (Braun-Blanquet) method
5. Phases in syntaxonomic classification, Scandinavian plant sociology, early Uppsala school, late Uppsala school, Finnish school, current state of vegetation classification, methods of recording species abundance
6. Environmental data, sampling of environmental variables, creation of primary and secondary data matrices, types of variability in data, geometric models, data manipulation in vegetation data matrices, manipulations in environmental data matrices
7. Relationships between plots in the vegetation matrix, distance measures and their properties, theoretical basis in applying distance measures
8. Relationships in the secondary matrix, data analysis methods in vegetation ecology, gradient analysis, analysis models, ordination, geometric, statistical, algebraic approaches, PCA, PCoA, CA, DCA, NMDS, variants in specific analyses
10. Constrained ordination methods: RDA, CCA, DCCA, ordination axis scaling, interpretation of analysis results, numerical classification, types of classification methods, distance measures, classification methods, TWINSPAN, statistical group comparison, MRPP, ANOSIM, ISA
11. Vegetation dynamics, periodic changes, fluctuations, succession, vegetation history, synphenology, syndynamics, synchronology
12. Mechanisms in successional processes, methods in succession research, direct methods?permanent plots, indirect methods?space-for-time substitution, experiments in succession studies, statistical analysis
13. Types of succession, successional series and their components, syndynamically related species
14. Special vegetation ecology, plant formations and communities, formation of aquatic plant communities, water as a biotope, adaptations of aquatic plants, Lemnetea minoris, Zosteretea, Ruppietea, macrophyte vegetation in freshwater, Charetea, Utricularietea, Littorelletea, Potametea
15. Formation of therophytic pioneer communities: Thero-Salicornietea, Bidentetea tripartiti, Polygono-Poetea annuae, Stellarietea mediae, Isoeto-Nanojuncetea; formation of grassland pioneer communities on mobile substrates: Spartinetea, Ammophyletea; formation of scree and rock communities: Crithmo-Limonietea, Drypetea spinosae, Thlaspietea rotundifolii, Asplenietea trichomanis, Adiantetea capilli-veneris
16. Formation of reedbeds and wet meadows with tall sedges: Phragmiti-Caricetea elatae; formation of spring habitats, low fens and marshy meadows: Scheuchzerio-Caricetea fuscae
17. Formation of grasslands: Festuco-Brometea, Thero-Brachypodietea, Seslerietea juncifoliae
18. Formation of heathlands, forest edges and tall-herb communities: Nardo-Callunetea, Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei, Epilobietea angustifolii, Betulo-Adenostyletea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea
19. Formation of shrublands: Rhamno-Prunetea, Salicetea purpureae, Paliuretea, Erico-Cistetea, forest formation
20. Formation of forests: forest ecology and forest plants, tree as a life form, interaction with phytophages and game, syntaxonomic review of forest vegetation in Croatia: Carpino-Fagetea, Vaccinio-Picetea, Quercetea ilicis, Erico-Pinetea

Vegetation Ecology Practicals:
1. Students will practice preparing a phytosociological relevé, including the analytical phase and sampling of environmental variables.
2. Students will learn to enter floristic and environmental data and construct data matrices.
3. Students will be introduced to analytical statistical software, perform matrix manipulations, and prepare data for analyses.
4. Students will conduct diversity analyses and interpret results using ordination techniques (PCA, CA, DCA), including interpretation of outputs and graphs.
5. Students will apply constrained ordination methods (RDA, CCA) and interpret outputs and graphs.
6. Students will use numerical classification methods (UPGMA, TWINSPAN) and interpret the results.
7. Students will determine the optimal number of clusters for analysis, apply methods for analyzing a priori defined groups (ISA, ANOSIM), and interpret the results.

1. B., J.B. Grace, 2002: Analysis if ecological communities. MJM Sofrtware Design, Gleneden Beach. McCune
2. Peck J.L., 2011: Multivariate analysis for community ecologists. MJM Sofrtware Design, Gleneden Beach.
3. Oekland R.H., 1990: Vegetation ecology: theory, methods and applications with reference to Fennoscandia. Sommerfeltia Supplement 1.
4. Podani J., 2000: Introduction to the exploration of multivariate biological data. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden
5. Lepš, J. & P. Šmilauer, 2003: Multivariate analysis of ecological data using CANOCO. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
6. Trinajstić I., 2008: Biljne zajednice Republike Hrvatske, Šumarska akademija, Zagreb.
7. Vegetacija Hrvatske, Antun Alegro, interna skripta, 2018.
8. Vukelić J., 2012: Šumska vegetacija Hrvatske. Sveučilište u Zagreb, Šumarski fakultet, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb

Izborni kolegiji - Regular - Botany
Mandatory course - Regular - Terrestrial Ecosystems