Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok VIII. - Natura Somogyiensis 23. (Kaposvár, 2013)
Salamon-Albert É.: Climatic conditions and habitats in Belső-Somogy, Külső-Somogy and Zselic as vegetation-based landscape regions IV. Precipitation envelopes of mesic deciduous woodlands
Natura Somogyiensis 23 75-88 Kaposvár, 2013 Climatic conditions and habitats in Belső-Somogy, Külső-Somogy and Zselic as vegetation-based landscape regions IV. Precipitation envelopes of mesic deciduous woodlands Salamon-Albert Éva University of Pécs, Biological Institute, Department of Systematic and Ecological Botany H-7624 Pécs, Ifjúság útja 6., Hungary, e-mail: albert@gamma.ttk.pte.hu Salamon-Albert, E.: Climatic conditions and habitats in Belső-Somogy, Külső-Somogy and Zselic as vegetation-based landscape regions IV. Precipitation envelopes of mesic deciduous woodlands. Abstract: In our study precipitation response of mesic deciduous woodlands (lowland pedunculate and sessile oak-hornbeam woodland, beech woodland) are discussed in the vegetation based landscape regions of South Transdanubia, including Belső-Somogy, Külső-Somogy and Zselic at landscape scale. Long term precipitation variables from BIOCLIM series as potential ecological predictors are used to characterize and compare climate envelopes of selected mesic woodlands. Non-parametric Gaussian probability estimation detailed with kernel densities as a potential series of ecological niches were computed for yearly, quarterly and some short time range or deviation of precipitation representing annual trends, seasonality and extreme or limiting environmental factors in order to get more extensive knowledge about macro-ecological responses leading to environmental adaptation. Precipitation envelopes of the woodlands as the whole and the habitats in each are nearly integrated into the regional range according to their summarized densities on relative frequency. Precipitation response of beech woodlands shows significant difference to semi-natural habitats by all variables consequently but to habitat group of mesic woodlands only in some case (e.g. annual sum of precipitation). Climate envelope of pedunculate oak-hombeam woodlands and sessile oak-hornbeam woodlands significantly differ from semi-natural habitats response by precipitation of wettest and coldest quarter, especially. Among studied variables the annual sum and one of the warmest quarter turned to be the most effective in climatic niche differentiation in habitat group of woodlands as a whole as well as in mesic habitat types in each. In contrast to the above mentioned, fall sum of wettest month and precipitation seasonality is verified to provide the most slight niche segregation effort. The two latter ecological phenomena is suitable to discover the most significant macro-ecological factors to enchance functional diversity [BIOCLIM-12, -18] or variables to confirm a nearly uniform precipitation performance [BIOCLIM-13, -14] in submontaine mesic woodlands as the main macro- ecological predictors for water input. Keywords: climate envelope model, mesic deciduous woodlands, niche segregation, META habitats, South Transdanubian Region Introduction Examining vegetation environment relationships based on relevant ecological data supported by a theoretical model and management applications is forming current hot spot questions and answers, and can be discussed both from ecological and environmen-
