COST Action E 52 - vTI - Bund.de

place and the species has extended its range in the other direction to the south – Little Caucasus,
and turned into large beech forests which are a common occurrence when old relict species become
acclimatized and the result is an enlargement of their natural habitat area. Oriental beech is a good
example of this.
Despite the negative human impact on the forest ecosystem, oriental beech shows a strong
sustainability and shows a much better sustainability than Georgian oak species. Georgian oak is
one of the main constituents of Armenian forests. Description of oriental beech forests in Northern
Armenia is given in Tables 1 and 2.
As a result of intensive unregulated forest removal, many of oriental beech stands have been seriously
damaged. The natural regeneration recovery is slow and generally unsatisfactory and urgent
reafforestation activities are needed in those parts of the distribution area (Fig. 1, 2).
The main part of the mesophilic forest ecosystem of Armenia can be considered as relict. A number
of former relict plant species have now become acclimatized in forest ecosystems. There are both very
common and rare tree species and grass among these plants. For example, Betula, Tilia, Lonicera,
euonymus, Pyrola, Cornus mas, Carpinus betulus, Rhus coriaria, Tamus communis, Juglans regia,
Platanus orientalis, Zelcova carpinifolia, Atropa bella-donna species are considered relict species of
Armenian forests.
Oriental beech grove dominance is found in 82.2% of the forest area, accounting for ,9 0 ha while
83.2% of general resource or 1 ,0 4,059 m3 are distributed in the northern part. In the same location
Fig. 2: Regrowth of coppiced stump of oriental beech (A. Ghulijanyan, 2009)
28