Summary: The paper analyses developmental stages of forest trees (sallow, spruce and beech) and herbaceous plants (saffron, colts-foot, dandelion and common crocus) on Zavižan in the period 1964-2000. Zavižan is situated on northern Velebit at an approximate altitude of 1,600 m. Significant variations in the commencement and duration of individual developmental stages depend on air temperature, precipitation quantity, insolation and depth of snow cover. The commencement of a growth stage varied for up to 3 weeks from year to year. A comparative analysis of phenological data of the observed plants and meteorological data show that an important role is played not only by the accumulated temperature in the warm part of the year but also by weather conditions in the cold part of the year. In order to identify some possible climatic variations in the area of Zavižan, linear trends in developmental stages of the observed plants were analysed. They indicated a significant prolongation of the vegetation period in Zavižan in the autumn.
Key words: Developmental stages of forest trees and herbaceous plants; a sum of effective temperatures; linear trend; Zavižan |
