Toma Tonchev, Violeta Dimitrova^*, Marius Dimitrov, and Ivan Mihov

University of Forestry, 10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd. 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria,
Е-mail: toma_tonchev@yahoo.com; ^*vilydi@abv.bg; mariusdimitrov@abv.bg

Beech forests are among the most widely spread forests in Bulgaria. They have a significant economic importance for the country and for that reason they are an object of a great number of studies. The aim of the present study was to analyse the growth and the increment of beech communities in five permanent sample plots and to quantify the distribution of aboveground phytomass of the trees together with the annual increment for two beech communities. The studied phytocoenoses are related to the associations Festuco drymejae-Fagetum sylvaticae and Asperulo odoratae-Fagetum sylvaticae (habitat Asperulo-Fagetum - 9130) and to the association Luzulo luzuloidis-Fagetum sylvaticae (habitat Luzulo-Fagetum - 9110) in the region of Petrohan (the West Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria). The results for the phytomass stores (between 488 t·ha^-1 and 612 t·ha^-1) and for the annual biomass increment (correspondingly between 12 t·ha^-1 and 23 t·ha^-1) were obtained using the method of the average tree model. These values allow us to relate the phytocoenosis of the first plot to the middle productive plant communities while the second phytocoenosis can be assigned to the high productive plant communities.

Boyan Milchev

University of Forestry, Department of Wildlife Management, 10 Kl. Ochridski Blvd.,
1765 Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: boyan.m@abv.bg

The study bases on pellet analyses of Barn owl (Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)) in 27 breeding localities with total 18,314 preyed small mammals in the Kazanlak valley. Five species: Sorex araneus (Linnaeus, 1758), Sorex minutus (Linnaeus, 1766), Suncus etruscus (Savi, 1822), Muscardinus avellanarius (Linnaeus, 1758), and Myodes glareolus (Schreber, 1780) were found for the first time in the study area. The distribution of Microtus subterraneus (de Selys-Longchamps, 1836) was found to be much wider than reported. Suncus etruscus was the only Mediterranean and typical lowland inhabitant among them and the new localities mark the northern border of its distribution in Bulgaria. The other five species are common mountainous inhabitants with single localities in lowlands. The adjacent high mountains favor their distribution in the Kazanlak valley but they were rare preys of Barn owls between 0.01 % and 0.68 % among the small mammals.