Baixo Sabor: Construction and Reservoir Filling Phases – Vascular Flora and Habitats: species from prioritary conservation habitats - [2010-2014]

Sampling was designed to cover the whole valley of the lower Sabor river and some of its tributaries, according to the specific target (communities or weirs). Plant inventories were performed at each site, one per season (spring, summer, autumn and winter), encompassing beetween 14 and 20 work-days.

They were carried out on samples of variable size, depending on its stratification (ie, the number of strata) and its linearity (riparian galleries are linear structures). In this way, samples from floodplain formations were 100m2 (10x10m), those of boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) dominated scrublands and riparian galleries, 200 m2 (20x10m), and those of holm-oak and cork-oak communities, 400 m2 (20x20 m).

Each inventory included (a) the identity of the taxa present, (b) an estimate of their relative abundance and (c) a brief description of the type of lithology, altitude, exposure and slope (in the bottom edapho-hygrophilous vegetation of valley it is considered that the slope and the exposure have no ecological significance, so they weren't collected).

The abundance of floristic elements was assessed visually using the scale with 8 classes of coverage of Braun-Blanquet (1932): “+”: <1% cover; “1”: 1-5 %; “2a”: 5-15%; “2b”: 15-25%; “3”: 25-50%, “4”: 50-75%, “5a”: 75-90%; “5b”: 90-100%. However, until the winter of 2010, a 6 class scale, adapted from the previous one was used: “+”: <1% cover; “1”: 1-5 %; “2”: 5-25%; “3”: 25-50%, “4”: 50-75%, “5”: 75-100%.

Most species were identified “in loco” although, in some cases, samples were collected to further identification in the laboratory. The nomenclature is mostly in accordance with Flora Ibérica (Castroviejo et al., 1986-2009) for the volumes already published and for Nova Flora de Portugal (Franco, 1971, 1984; Franco & Rocha Afonso, 1994, 1998 and 2003) for the remaining groups.