Illyrian deciduous forests


The Illyrian deciduous forests is a terrestrial ecoregion in southern Europe, which extends along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It belongs to the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, and is in the Palearctic realm.

Geography

The Illyrian deciduous forests stretch along the eastern coast of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, and occupies in Northern Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Northern Italy around Trieste.
The ecoregion is bounded by the Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests, Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Dinaric Mountains mixed forests and Po Basin mixed forests.

Climate

The climate of the ecoregion is mostly of Köppen's Mediterranean type with hot summers to humid subtropical with wet winters.

Flora

Due to the wide altitudinal range of this ecoregion the highest elevations are covered with conifer forests, with a mixed broadleaf vegetation and maquis shrubland occurring lower. The conifer zone is dominated by the Norway spruce, silver fir and European black pine with the admixture of the European beech. The dominant species of the lower zones include various deciduous oaks, Carpinus orientalis, Fraxinus ornus with Cotinus coggygria, Paliurus spina-christi, Cercis siliquastrum. Evergreen trees and maquis shrubs become predominant near the coast.

Ecoregion delineation

The Illyrian deciduous forests ecoregion is delineated by the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency.
Phytogeographically, the ecoregion is shared between the Adriatic and East Mediterranean provinces of the Mediterranean Region within the Holarctic Kingdom.