Ecoregions delineation for the territory of Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to more precisely define the borders of ecoregions shared on the territory of Serbia, in regard to the original concept provided by Illies (1978) and accepted by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000). The borders of Illies’s ecoregions are defined rather coarsely and could not be used as a basis for water typology. According to data on the macroinvertebrate communities, as well as based on general natural characteristics of the area and selected bio-geographical works, the territory of Serbia is a part of 5 ecoregions: ecoregion 5 – Dinaric Western Balkan; ecoregion 6 – Hellenic Western Balkan; ecoregion 7 – Eastern Balkan; ecoregion 10 – Carpathian; and 11 – Pannonian Lowland. Four of these ecoregions (5, 6, 7, and 11) comprise wide areas within the country, while ecoregion 10 comprises only a restricted area in Northeast Serbia. Although ecoregion 10 is restricted to a narrow area, the influence of the Carpathians is evident in Northeast Serbia. A detailed discussion on the position of ecoregion boundaries is provided in the paper.