The forest communities of Shebenik-Jabllanice National Park (Central Albania)

Aims: Albania is one of the most diverse countries in Europe (over 4560 plant taxa in 28,748 km²), but is still poorly known. We present here the phytosociological analysis of the forest communities of a mountain area in Central Albania. Study area: The Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park (SJNP; 34,000 ha), located along the bor- der with Macedonia. Methods: 84 relevés have been carried out in the years 2012-2013 and subsequently 63 of these relevés were selected and classified by the Ward’s minimum variance Clustering, using package cluster of R software, to identify the forest communities of the park. Their diagnostic species have been selected using the fidelity coefficient in Juice software and for the ecological interpretation of vegetation differentiation we per- formed a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis, using the vegan package of R. Results: The main vegetation belts in an altitudinal gradient are Quercus cerris-Quercus frainetto woodlands, Carpinus ori- entalis secondary formations, and forest dominated respectively by Quercus petraea, Fagus sylvatica and Pinus peuce. The vegetation is strikingly diverse, with 9 well characterized forest communities well segregated accord- ing to the large altitudinal gradient and the diverse geology (limestone and alluvial vs ophiolite and flysch). Conclusion: The forests of SJNP are characterized by striking β-diversity in a small area. The forests are often heavily exploited at lower altitude and the road network recently developed is causing new pressures and threats. The old growth beech forest (UNESCO World heritage site), the Balkan Pinus peuce forests and the marginal population of Pinus heldreichii deserve a careful monitoring and protection