Pannonian mixed forests

Pannonian mixed forests
Pannonian mixed forests
	Buchlov Nature Reserve
	location of the Pannonian mixed forests
Ecology
Realm	Palearctic
Biome	temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Borders	List Alps conifer and mixed forests; Balkan mixed forests; Carpathian montane forests; Central European mixed forests; Dinaric Mountains mixed forests; Western European broadleaf forests;
Geography
Area	307,720 km2 (118,810 sq mi)
Countries	List Austria; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Czech Republic; Hungary; Romania; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia,; Ukraine;
Conservation
Conservation status	Critical/endangered
Protected	55,223 km2 (18%)

The Pannonian mixed forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in Europe. It covers an area of 307,720 km² in all of Hungary, most of Slovakia, about half of Croatia and Slovenia, around a third of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Serbia, and minor parts of Austria, Czech Republic, and Ukraine.

Flora

The plant communities include mixed oak-hornbeam forests, azoal floodplain vegetation and lowland to montane herb-grass steppes.

Mixed oak-hornbeam forests are mixed forests of pedunculate oak and sessile oak and hornbeam. Sub-Mediterranean thermophilous bitter oak forests grow in warmer areas. These forests are dominated by Quercus pubescens, Quercus cerris, and Quercus frainetto mixed with other trees, mainly Fraxinus ornus and Carpinus orientalis. Higher altitude areas are dominated by European beech and silver birch, downy birch, European aspen and sometimes by conifers Abies alba, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus nigra.

Riparian forest and azoal floodplain vegetation occurs along rivers and lakes. It is dominated by Populus nigra, Populus alba, Salix alba, Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus oxycarpa, Ulmus minor and Quercus robur. Phragmites australis is dominant in most wetlands.

Lowland to montane herb-grass steppes dominate large areas of the ecoregion. The dominant species are Stipa zalesskii, Bromus riparius and the shrubs Prunus fruticosa and Prunus spinosa.^[2]

^ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b. [1]
^ "Eastern Europe: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine | Ecoregions | WWF".