The Balkan Peninsula, where Serbia is situated, is a dendroflora diversity centre (IUCN), home to forests comprised of relict, endemic, economically important (or potentially important) and endangered forest species, unique in time and space. Serbia's
gorges, canyon valleys and mountain massifs represent particularly rich reservoirs and treasure troves of the genofund. It is these refugia that have enabled the preservation and reproduction of the rich and varied flora, particularly tertiary relicts
and endemorelicts, and represent veritable museums in vivo of special scientific importance. The diversity of small local populations is also of particular importance, as is the diversity of those on the edges of forest belts, the most sensitive parts
of the ecosystem. The project presumes that the autochthonous forest flora and vegetation of our part of the Balkan Peninsula contain populations whose presence, specific genetic structure, chemical composition, morphophysiological and reproductive characteristics
reveal the history of the vegetation and contribute to a better understanding of the plants' adaptive potential to survive in adverse environmental conditions.
The project aims to: (1) Discover the genetic structure, chemical composition, physiological characteristics and reproductive potential of forest flora representatives in the most protected parts of the system (refugia, gorges, canyon valleys and mountain
massifs) and the most sensitive parts of the system (forests belt edges), (2) Better understand the adaptive potential of small local populations to survive in adverse environmental conditions and (3) Discover the course of migration in the distant past
and predict it in the near future.
The results expected from the research of relict, endemic, endangered, economically important (or potentially important) forest species of our part of the Balkan Peninsula should provide a stable scientific basis for the conservation of biodiversity and
directly support the implementation of international commitments on the protection of the biodiversity of forest ecosystems and endangered species. That would make them not only locally, but globally important as well.
Project team:
Dr. Srđan Bojović, project leader
Dr. Zorica Popović
Dr. Rada Matić
Dr. Vera Vidaković
Dr. Milena Stefanović
Miroslava Smiljanić