Tuexenia 38: 135–154. Göttingen 2018. doi: 10.14471/2018.38.024, available online at www.zobodat.at Diversity and ecological differentiation of mixed forest in northern Montenegro (Mt. Bjelasica) with reference to European classification Diversität und ökologische Differenzierung von Bergmischwäldern im nördlichen Montenegro (Bjelsica-Gebirge) mit Bezug zur Europäischen Vegetationsklassifikation Milan Gazdić1, *, Albert Reif2, Milan Knežević1, Danka Petrović3, 4 5 Marko Stojanović & Klara Dološ 1University of Belgrade, Department of Forestry, Kneza Višeslava 1, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia; 2University of Freiburg, Chair of Silviculture, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 790 85 Freiburg, Germany; 3University of Montenegro, Dzordza Washingtona bb, 810 00Podgorica, Montenegro; 4Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Global Change Research Institute, Bělidla 4a, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic; 5Karlsruher Institute of Technology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Kaiser Str. 12, 761 31 Karlsruhe, Germany *Corresponding author, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The current state of forests as well as tree species composition in stands is the result of past devel- opment and somehow a record of all previous influences. As a base for better projections of future forest development and the development of sustainable management strategies we should recognize developmental processes in forests and understand their drivers. Mixed mountain forests in Montene- gro, with an exceptionally large variation of environmental conditions, provide an excellent opportunity to study eastern-Mediterranean mixed mountain forests near their southern distribution limit. The goals of this study were 1) to floristically characterize mountain forests in an Eastern Mediterranean region and 2) to assess their physical site properties as determinants of forest types. Research was based on data collected from 158 sampling plots in the territory of the mountain Bjelasica, north-east Montene- gro.