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Biodiversity of Slovenia

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The Geography of Slovenia

Part of the book series: World Regional Geography Book Series ((WRGBS))

Abstract

Slovenia is a biodiversity hotspot due to its location at the junction of four biogeographical regions with different ecological conditions. Because of this, 37.87% of Slovenia’s area is currently classified as Natura 2000 sites, the highest share among the 28 EU countries. Slovenian flora comprises 3472 vascular taxa and is rich in endemic species, but unfortunately also rare and threatened species. Especially distinctive is the Illyrian floral element—that is, plants with limited distributions along the Dinaric Alps from Slovenia to Albania, mainly thermophilic and heliophilic endemic species. The vegetation of Slovenia differs from that of neighboring regions because of its rich flora as well as its different vegetation history and development after the last ice age. Slovenia is known for its extensive forest cover (58.9%), mostly dominated by beech. Slovenian fauna comprises more than 21,500 continental taxa and at least 1600 marine taxa. Slovenia is known for its Karst region, with a rich subterranean fauna, of which many species were first discovered and described in Slovenia. Three out of five species of large carnivores found in Europe are present in Slovenia: the brown bear, gray wolf, and Eurasian lynx. The extensive forest cover also makes possible a great diversity of mesofaunal carnivores and other mammals.

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  1. ZRC SAZU Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Urban Šilc, Branko Vreš, Tatjana Čelik & Matjaž Gregorič

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  1. Urban Šilc
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  2. Branko Vreš
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  3. Tatjana Čelik
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  4. Matjaž Gregorič
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Correspondence to Urban Šilc .

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  1. Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Drago Perko

  2. Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Rok Ciglič

  3. Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Matija Zorn

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Šilc, U., Vreš, B., Čelik, T., Gregorič, M. (2020). Biodiversity of Slovenia. In: Perko, D., Ciglič, R., Zorn, M. (eds) The Geography of Slovenia. World Regional Geography Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14066-3_7

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