“CRVENI POTOK” NATURE RESERVE
The nature reserve “Crveni potok” is located on the Mitrovac in the central part of the Tara National Park. It got its name from the fact that a stream flows through it, which in its upper course spills over the soil composed of red loam, so that during heavy rainfall it acquires a red color. The reserve is overgrown with a mixed forest of spruce, fir, alder and Pancic spruce. Until the declaration of the reserve at the Crveni potok locality, there was no more intensive exploitation of the forests, which is why the rainforest type forest has been preserved here.
The TEPIH LIVADA locality is part of a forest of trestle in the center of the reserve. This locality got its name because it is not yet completely overgrown with peat forest and because of the softness of the substrate due to the deformation of the peat layers.
The peatland in the “Crveni potok” nature reserve was created by the retention of the surface water of the Crveni potok due to the impermeable geological foundation. Lack of oxygen, excess water, acidic environment and low temperatures prevented decomposition and led to the deposition of undecomposed plant remains. In the conditions of a cold and humid climate, predominantly plant communities of the genus Sphagnum sp., white moss, which die off form deposits of white peat, thrive in this habitat. Peat began to accumulate in the postglacial period, at the end of the Ice Age. It is thousands of years old and still grows about 1mm per year.
PHOTO GALLERY
ONE OF THE PLACES WHERE YOU CAN SEE FOSSILS
CRVENI POTOK
CRVENI POTOK nature reserve is a natural object of exceptional importance for science. Fossilized pollen grains are preserved in the peat layers of this reserve, which store information about the history of the plant world, climate changes, habitat conditions of Tara and the whole of Serbia.
