Download Protected areas in the lowland plains of Romania and their

PROTECTED AREA IN THE LOWLAND PLAINS OF ROMANIA AND
THEIR IMPORTANCE FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
CRISTINA MUICĂ1
Key-words: nature reserves, lowlands, biodiversity
The lowland plains of Romania have of old suffered a powerful human influence, an
influence that has kept increasing over the past few centuries. Most of the natural vegetation
has been replaced by crop cultures; much of the overmoist areas (very extended particularly in
the Banat-Crişana Plain) have been drained; sandy grounds in their turn, have been affected
by management works. Even in parts where some forest vegetation was still preserved, natural
woods were severely modified by frequent and chaotic cuttings, or replaced by wood
plantations. In view of the above, the lowland fauna itself has been drastically modified.
As it is, natural, and especially social-historical conditions, have contributed to
preserving some more or less large forest areas, interesting herbal associations and even
valuable animal complexes. Often enough, mesophile, mesoxerophile and even xerophile
species combine. Beside them one finds mesohygrophile and aquatic ones wherever there is
wetter substrate (which happens where the underground sheet is closer to the surface, in
floodplains, wherever springs spread out in a diffuse sheet on the ground, in lakes, especially
on the river banks). As a result, several nature reserves have been established over the time,
enjoying a more or less strictly protected status. Some are very important for the conservation
of biodiversity. And indeed, the southern part of Romania has distinctive biogeographical
land specificity due to the complex intertwining of Central - European forest with Pontic,
Steppe and Submediterranean elements (with some outstanding Balkan or Balkan-Pontic
species). But this characteristic feature is blurred because the natural vegetation and fauna are
substituded by agrosystems over wide expanses of land. Thus, instead of forming a welloutlined strip, these vegetation complexes appear rather as pockets of a deeply fragmented
range. However, some species, better resisting the disturbing action of man, are still fairly
well-spread in the Romanian Plain, fact that confirms the natural specificity of this territory.
Sometimes, the diversity of component species makes these forests even more complex than
many associations from the hill and mountain regions.
Other interesting associations, connected with both local particularities (wetlands, salt
grounds, sands) and the presence of some Pontic-Pannonian elements, are found in the BanatCrişana Plain.
Unfortunately, today there is very little concern for preserving them and even though
they formally may list on the table of protected areas their biogeographical specificity could
be irremediably lost. There are many cases when species of scientific interest are regressing
and common species, ruderal ones even, grow in their stead. Here are some examples.
In the east of the Romanian Plain, in the Lower Siret Plain, there is "Hanu Conachi"
Reservation, remarkable for its original landscape of sand dunes with arenicolous vegetation
(including Dianthus pontederae), a very rare Balkan-Romanian species and some Pontic and
Mediterranean faunistic elements, among which is the notable Pontic-Central Asian lizard
Eremias arguta deserti, whose global limit is just here. Although wood pockets of Quercus
pedunculiflora (a Pontic species, very characteristic of the southern sylvosteppe), Quercus
robur, Quercus petraea, Betula pendula etc., are still in place, most of the sand area has been
planted with false acacia and Pinus nigra, fact that altered its natural characteristics. Protected
elements are downrightly regressing. The Frasinu and Spătaru forests, extending south of
Buzău town, contain two southern species of ash, Fraxinus angustifolia (Pontic-PannonianSubmediterranean) and Fraxinus pallissae, found only in Romania's extra-Carpathian regions
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University “Valahia” Târgoviste
Cristina Muica
and in Bulgaria. Beside, there are specimens of Quercus pedunculiflora and Quercus robur.
The herbal layer shows two floristic rarities: Serratula bulgarica (initially deemed to be an
endemic species, described by the name of Serratula caput-najae, and subsequently equated
to the Bulgarian species) and Leuzea salina (growing only in Romania and in the southwestern part of the former USSR). Here grows the protected European species Fritillaria
meleagris, and the Pontic one Tulipa bibersteiniana (protected also in the Crângul Buzăului
Reservation). Draining works and water intakes from the neighbourhood depleted the
underground sheet; the type of forest management made the herbal layer lose its specificity at
a fast pace, turning ruderal even, although the ash has still remained the dominant species.
The structure of the stands has been substantially modified, mixed species disappearing
altogether.
The two forests are send to be a true floristic unicity, however there is some evidence
that similar ones did exist in the past, but were destroyed when the terrain started being
cultivated. Supporting this assumption is the fairly widespread Fraxinus angustifolia in the
south of Romania; specimens of Fraxinus pallissae are still in the Danube Delta and in other
sylvosteppe forests of the Romanian Plain (particularly at Ciornuleasa).
In the central part of the Romanian Plain fragments of some original forest types
still cover pretty large areas. South of Bucharest, for example, Comana Forest contains a
complex of distinctively different associations in terms of microrelief and topoclimate. Large
portions are dominated by forests of Quercus cerris with Quercus frainetto alternating with
stands of Tilia tomentosa (a Balkan Pannonian species found over a pretty wide area in the
plain and hill regions of Romania) or Carpinus betulus. Towards the southern margin of the
Plain there grow Quercus pubescens and Quercus pedunculiflora. The undergrowth is
populated by southern or eastern species like Acer tataricum (Eurasian-Continental), Fraxinus
ornus (Submediterranean), Staphyllea pinnata (Submediterranean) and Pyrus elaegrifolia
(Pontic-Mediterranean). Quite interestingly, beside East-Continental species, there is the
protected Atlantic - Mediterranean Ruscus aculeatus (in the Oloaga-Grădinari sector of the
reservation), a monument of nature.
Herbs are rich and varied, with Paeonia peregrina var. romanica (a Romanian variety
of a Balkan species, sporadically spread in the south and east of the country, between Dolj
and Vaslui counties; an extreme east occurrence is recorded in the Republic of Moldova),
abounding in the Padina Tătarului sector of Comana Reservation.
Other notable species are Nectaroscordum dioscoridis (a Pontic Balkan rarity, with
sporadic occurrence in Romania between the counties of Dolj and Iaşi), Fritillaria tenella (=
orientalis), also Pontic-Balkan; Scilla autumnalis, Mediterranean; Asparagus veridicillatusMediterranean (growing in Comana Forest close to its western global limit). There are also
numerous European and Central European mesophile species: Asperula odorata, Mercurialis
perennis, Asarum europaeum. Although Crocus flavus (=moesiacus) is very common in the
Romanian Plain forests, it does contribute to the biogeographical specificity of this area,
because this Balkan species is present only in the southern counties of Romania (from CaraşSeverin to Vrancea), from the sylvosteppe to the durmast belt, but mainly in Quercus cerris
and Quercus frainetto forests. The Comana Reservation shelters a series of southern nonvertebrates of great scientific interest, as well as tortoises.
Complex stands of Quercus cerris with Q. frainetto, Q. pedunculiflora and a wealth of
Paeonia peregrina var romanica are protected in Manafu Forest south of Ghimpaţi.
Despite the exceptional value of these forests, there are parcels on which trees have been
felled to the ground and then planted with false acacia and stands dominated by Quercus
cerris alone. The result was an artificialisated landscape as a whole, and the alteration of the
herbal layer growth conditions.
The Snagov and Căldăruşani reservations boast lakes with a very interesting water
fauna and vegetation and mixed forests (durmast, lime, hornbeam, ash and Quercus cerris),
pockets of the vast forest expanses that once covered the Central Romanian Plain. At Snagov
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Protected area in the lowland plains of Romania and their importance for biodiversity conservation
there are occasional occurrences of beech, a mesophile element very seldom seen in lowland
plains (toponymy tells us that it has existed in other points of the plain, too). Nowadays, the
two reservations, but especially that at Snagov, are severely affected by tourist and
recreational activities (there is a vacation house-building boom).
The vernal flora is well developed in the majority of the Romanian Plain forests, some
notable species being Convallaria majalis ( an European species) and Erythronium dens-canis
f. niveus (an Eurasian species widely spread, which shows a special form, with white flowers
in the south of Romania) .
On the lefthandside of the Neajlov River, at 110 m alt., the complex of cold springs at
Corbii Ciungi used to shelter a rare alga (Hildebrandia rivularis), usually found at over 1000
m alt., as well as a series of non-vertebrate species specific to mountain brooks or peat-bogs.
It is a true oasis for the relict fauna and flora in its southernmost occurrence site. Despite
insistent demands for adequate protection measures to be taken, nothing has been done so far,
so these species have become very much endangered now, some might have even disappeared
(Negrea, 2001).
In the Banat – Crişana Plain the ornithological reservation at Satchinez, a remnant
of marshlands (very extended before damming and draining works began), hosts numerous
water-fowl. Several rare arenicolous species are protected in some small reservations of the
Carei Plain. Edging the Western Hills is Peţea thermal lake, the habitat of a floristic rarity, the
Tertiary relict Nymphaea lotus var. thermalis , very much endangered by increased human
pressure in the area (pollution and water use, which have largely changed the thermal regime
of the lake).
Summing up we would say that, although detailed studies have be conducted into
these reservations, and they have been listed among protected areas for some time now, their
management has sometimes failed to observe the ecological exigences of protected species. In
many forests, cuttings made on parcels were followed by rehabilitation steps to the effect of
planting or seeding monodominant species at a very great density of seedlings. In these
conditions, the whole floristic complex (inclusive of the very interesting undergrowth flora
and the herbal layer) was slow to recover. That would explain why many plant communities
have now fewer species and unspecific characteristics. Even Quercus pubescens and Q.
pedunculiflora, the tree species peculiar to the southern sylvosteppe forests, are significantly
regressing, to the benefit of Quercus cerris. Accompanying species have very much restricted
their participation. In many instances, the glades covered with silvosteppe grasses were
planted
with trees or with fodder to feed the game. The uncertain legal regime of these
forests raises doubts as to the future of some highly valuable plant and animal species.
Therefore, it is imperative to maintain a constant interest in the identification of detrimental
factors, in the implementation of environmental-friendly management measures in keeping
with the international conventions on the conservation of biodiversity Romania is a party to.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beldie Al. (l977;l979), Flora României. Determinator ilustrat al plantelor vasculare,I, II,
Edit. Academiei
Ivan Doina (Edit.) (l992), Vegetaţia României, Edit. Tehnica Agricolă, Bucureşti
Muică Cristina, Popova Ana (1996), Fenomenul de xerofitizare a covorului vegetal din
România, Rev. Geografică, II –III, Institutul de Geografie, Bucureşti
Negrea St., Negrea Alexandrina (2001), Problema conservării rezervaţiei “Complexul de
izvoare de la
Corbii Ciungi” oază acvatică cu faună relictă în Câmpia Română,
Ocrot. nat.med. înconj.42-43 (l998-1999)
Pop E., Sălăgeanu N. (l965), Monumente ale naturii din România, Edit. Meridiane
Popescu A., Sanda V.,Doltu M.I., Nedelcu G.A (1984), Vegetaţia Câmpiei Munteniei, Muz.
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