Vladan Ivetic 1*, Zoran Davorija 2, and Milan Knezevic 1

¹Department of Forestry, Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Kneza Viseslava 1, 11030 Belgrade,
  Serbia. *E-mail: vladan.ivetic@sfb.bg.ac.rs
²Sector for Forestry and Environmental Protection, PE Srbijasume,
  Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 113, 11070 Belgrade, Serbia.

European hop-hornbeam is a broadleaf deciduous tree, found from Southern France to
Anatolia and Transcaucasia, mainly on limestone and dolomite bedrock. The seedlings produced
in a mixture of quartz sand and peat in the ratio of 2:1 were transplanted after the first growing
season in raised beds filled with growing media of 3 different mixture ratios of peat and dolomite
stone. Detailed morphological development and nutrient concentration and content after a second
growing season were compared. An increase of the dolomite stone in the growing media has
a negative impact on the growth of European hop-hornbeam seedlings. The seedlings from growing
media with the highest content of peat in relation to the dolomite stone (70:30) had highest
values of all measured morphological attributes. Unlike morphological parameters, influence of
the dolomite stone content on studied macronutrients concentration is not conclusive.

Teodora Lyubomirova and Ivan Iliev*

Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Genetics, University of Forestry,
10 Kliment Ohridski blvd., 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. *E-mail: ivilievltu@yahoo.com

Actively growing root suckers from 4-year old shrubs of seed origin were collected in the beginning of spring (April 20, 2012) from open field grown shrubs. Softwood, apical and nodal explants (3-4 cm) were used as initial explants. For the induction of axillary shoots formation, the explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (1962) basal medium, supplemented with 0,0.5 mg·l^-1 or 1.0 mg·l^-1 BAP. The formed axillary shoots were cultivated on PGRs free MS medium, or supplemented with BAP (0.5, 1.0 or 5.0 mg·l^-1) or zeatin (0.5 or 1.0 mg·l^-1 + 0.1 mg·l^-1 IBA) for multiplication. For evaluation of the effect of subculture on the multiplication coefficient, the formed axillary shoots (≈ 30 mm) were transferred 3 times on same but fresh medium and cultured for 14 or 21 days. The subcultures did not affected the multiplication rate and maximal number of axillary shoots was reached when the MS medium was supplemented with 5.0 mg·l^-1 BAP (3.8 ± 0.4). The following variants of an inductive, half-strength MS medium were used for the rooting: free of auxin (variant 1), supplemented with 1.0 mg·l^-1 and 5.0 mg·l^-1 IBA (variant 2), supplemented with 5.0 mg·l^-1 IBA for 48, 72, and 168 h (variant 3), and supplemented with 7.5 mg·l^-1 IBA for 24, 48, and 72 h (variant 4) and then on half-strength MS medium without auxin. For comparison of the results, the shoots from variant 1 and 2 were rooted on the same medium without transfer to an expressive medium. All pulse treatments with high concentration of IBA (7.5 mg·l^-1) improved significantly the rooting (between 76.6 ± 8.0 % and 82.2 ± 4.4 %) in comparison with all other treatments. These results demonstrated that the type of initial plant material, the balance between the concentration of the used auxin and the duration of inductive phase are critical for the rooting rate and quality of the root system.

Stylianos Tampakis, Paraskevi Karanikola, Vasileios Drosos*,
and Polixeni Zachou

Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources,
Democritus University of Thrace, 193 Pantazidou str., 68200 Orestiada, Greece.
*E-mail: vdrosos@fmenr.duth.gr

Lake Pamvotida offers an array of significant advantages to the inhabitants of the city of
Ioannina that are related both to the enhancement and recreation of the landscape, and the traditional
usages of water. However, the ongoing intensification of water use, in combination with
the pollution and faulty interventions that were undertaken in the past, have created problems in
the lake as well as in the wider area. According to the inhabitants who live within the extent of the
lake, the overuse of agricultural pesticides, lack of cleansing, increase of waste, as well as the inappropriate
use of biological cleaning material are among the most serious problems that the surrounding
lakeside region encounters. Lack of signposting and a museum of natural history also
constitute part of the problem in the area. More particularly, inhabitants consider that the causes
of their inability to solve these problems are to be found in the insufficient environmental education,
scarcity of financial resources and lack of coordinated actions on the part of public stakeholders,
such as the local administration, the prefecture administration and the central power, as
well as private individuals and groups in the area, the union of hotel owners and/or freelance etc,
environmental organizations and the local press, for instance. Based on the inhabitants' evaluations
with respect to the significance of the problems facing the lake display little satisfaction
concerning the actions that they have undertaken with regard to the protection of the lake.

Alexander Tashev 1*, Koycho Koev 2, Nikolay Tashev 3,
and Stoyan Georgiev 4

¹Department of Dendrology, Faculty of Forestry, University of Forestry, 10 Kl.
  Ohridski blvd.,
  1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. *E-mail: atashev@mail.bg
²Faculty of Biology, Plovdiv University, 24 Tsar Asen str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
  E-mail: koev_k@mail.bg
³Faculty of Business Management, University of Forestry, 10 Kl. Ohridski blvd.,
 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: wanderernat@yahoo.com
⁴Faculty of Plant Protection and Agroecology, Agricultural University Plovdiv,
 12 Mendeleev blvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria. E-mail: stogeorgiev@abv.bg

During floristic studies in different floristic regions of Bulgaria in the period 2006-2012, we
found habitats of Juniperus deltoides, J. sibirica, J. pygmaea, Pinus nigra ssp. pallasiana,
Quercus coccifera, Q. dalechampii, Alnus incana, Rhamnus saxatilis, R. rhodopaeus, Astracantha
thracica, Ilex aquifolium that expand our knowledge of the vertical distribution of these species
in Bulgaria, and hence their ecological niche in the country. The work also specifies the vertical
distribution of Pseudotsuga menziesii, an adventitious species of the flora in Bulgaria, whose
vertical distribution has not been noted in any literary source.