This is the first study on cuticular wax variability of Abies alba, A.×borisii‐regis and A. cephalonica, using 18 native populations from the assumed hybrid zone in the Balkan Peninsula. Presence of ...13 n‐alkanes with chain‐lengths ranging from C21 to C33, one primary alcohol, two diterpenes, one triterpene and one sterol was determined in hexane extracts of 269 needle samples. The multivariate statistical analyses at the population level entirely failed in supporting circumscription of Balkan Abies taxa and therefore, in identifying hybrid populations. However, performed at the species level, these analyses revealed a certain tendency of differentiation between A. alba and A. cephalonica, while individuals of A.×borisii‐regis were largely overlapped by the clouds of both parent species. Finally, the correlation analysis suggested that the observed variation of wax compounds was probably genetically conditioned and that it does not represent an adaptive response to various environmental factors.
The monograph by Hungarian historian Antal Molnár summarizes many years of research into the age of Confessionalization in the Balkans in the space of collision and coexistence of Christianity and ...Islam. In the territories that fell under the rule of the Ottoman Porte in the 14th – 16th centuries, the Holy See undertook missionary activities, the most successful in which were the Bosnian Franciscans, and cooperated with the rich and influential communities of the Ragusan merchants. The author turns to the role of the Catholic Church in the early stages of nation-building among the Albanians who had had no state tradition and explains why the idea of church union among Orthodox Serbs actually failed. The end of the Confessionalization age came with the Great Turkish War (1683–99), which saw the return to Hungary of territories that had been under the Ottoman rule for a century and a half, but which also proved tragic for Catholics who remained in the Ottoman Empire. The book is based on Italian, Hungarian and Croatian archives and offers an analysis of the historiography of the issue in a number of European languages. The author makes extensive use of methods of microhistory and cultural history, going back to broad generalizations through a detailed examination of selected well-documented cases.
Questions about how farming and the Neolithic way of life spread across Europe have been hotly debated topics in archaeology for decades. For a very long time, two models have dominated the ...discussion: migrations of farming groups from southwestern Asia versus diffusion of domesticates and new ideas through the existing networks of local forager populations. New strontium isotope data from the Danube Gorges in the north-central Balkans, an area characterized by a rich burial record spanning the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, show a significant increase in nonlocal individuals from ∼6200 calibrated B.C., with several waves of migrants into this region. These results are further enhanced by dietary evidence based on carbon and nitrogen isotopes and an increasingly high chronological resolution obtained on a large sample of directly dated individuals. This dataset provides robust evidence for a brief period of coexistence between indigenous groups and early farmers before farming communities absorbed the foragers completely in the first half of the sixth millennium B.C.
The Balkans are still an imprecisely defined and relatively unknown area in southeastern Europe. They are a historical‐political term, often provoking negative associations that are synonymous with ...underdevelopment, backwardness, and primitiveness. This research is aimed primarily at exploring how the Balkans are perceived by students of geography in Zagreb and Maribor and what associations they provoke. It further seeks to investigate whether the Balkans are primarily a cognitive construct that is spatially determined on an individual level, based on an individual’s own insights, attitudes, values, and other determinants. Therefore, a questionnaire survey regarding perceptions of the Balkans was conducted. The results indicate that the Balkans can be seen as a sort of vernacular anti‐region: the kind from which states in or near its boundaries attempt to exclude themselves, while simultaneously trying to include their neighbors to the south and east.
Enlargement fatigue has descended upon the European Union (EU) institutions, which remain focused on resolving the Brexit crisis and ongoing internal reforms. This multi-faceted phenomenon has ...directly caused the so-called accession fatigue in potential EU members, which are increasingly turning to other geopolitical alternatives. Russia and China are the new dominant powerbrokers in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, courting political and business elites in EU candidate states and offering an alternative foreign policy option which contrasts with the stalled EU enlargement process. This paper discusses the rise of these external powers in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, suggesting three scenarios for the future of the Balkan region where the EU, Russia and China are more vigorously vying for influence than ever before.
Chara gymnophylla is one of the first charophyte species reported for Serbia during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, and at that time it was the second in terms of the frequency of its ...occurrence in the country. General taxonomic misinterpretations in the past resulted in the concealment of another species, C. squamosa, within the findings attributed to C. gymnophylla. In Serbia, Chara gymnophylla was treated as C. vulgaris var. gymnophylla, and as such was not listed as a species inhabiting the country. Recent improvements in the taxonomic concept for C. squamosa prompted a revision of the rich material of C. gymnophylla, C. vulgaris var. gymnophylla, C. vulgaris var. nitelloides, and C. rohlenae, deposited in the BEOU collection. The revision process was conducted concurrently with fieldwork and the collection of new material. Our study confirmed the presence of C. squamosa in Serbia for the first time. Based on numerous revised samples from the BEOU collection, as well as recently collected specimens, the species? continuous presence in Serbia since 1976 was confirmed. Chara squamosa and C. gymnophylla were thus added to the list of Characeae species inhabiting Serbia, and categorised as Critically Endangered according to the criteria outlined by IUCN. An overview of the biogeography, ecology and taxonomy of C. squamosa in Serbia is provided, particularly in relation to C. gymnophylla. The BEOU charophyte collection proved to represent a valuable and relevant resource for critical taxonomic revisions. The results presented in this study strongly encourage further studies on C. squamosa and C. gymnophylla distribution in the Balkan region and wider area in order to gain a deeper understanding of the species? ecology and the further improvement of their taxonomic concepts.
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