Transylv. Rev. Syst. Ecol. Res. 8, (2009), "The Wetlands Diversity" 113 FLOODPLAIN FORESTS ALONG THE LOWER DANUBE Erika SCHNEIDER-BINDER * * Karlsruhe University, Institute for Waters and River Basin Management, Division World Wide Fund - Institute for Floodplain Ecology, Josef Street 1, Rastatt, Germany, D - 76437,
[email protected] KEYWORDS: Danube, floodplain forests, black and white poplar gallery forests, poplar-elm forests, elm-oak forests relict habitat types. ABSTRACT The present paper presents the results of the studies conducted in the floodplain forests along the Lower Danube. Emphasis was prevalently put on near-natural black poplar and white poplar forests, poplar-elm forests as well as the few remaining oak-elm floodplain forests that have been studied on various sections along the Romanian-Bulgarian Danube. They are allocated to the Salici-Populetum, Fraxino-Ulmetum and Ulmo-Quercetum roboris associations. Floodplain forests are threatened all over Europe and are listed in Appendix I of the Directive on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora under 91E0 *Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae, Salicion albae), presented more on smaller water courses, 91F0 Riparian mixed forests of Quercus robur, Ulmus laevis and Ulmus minor, Fraxinus excelsior or Fraxinus angustifolia, 92A0 Salix alba and Populus alba galleries. Further studied communities are tamarisk bushes that are listed under 92D0 Southern riparian galleries and thickets (Nerio-Tamaricetea and Securinegion tinctoriae), occurring frequently together with the White poplar gallery forest. The curtains of wild wine (Vitis sylvestris) and on the eastern section of the Lower Danube also of the silkvine Periploca graeca and Cynanchum acutum give them a tropical touch.