Conservation and Management of Island Ecosystems

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2019) | Viewed by 14876

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Islands have always played a leading role in biodiversity (from the species level to ecosystems and landscapes), in biogeography and in conservation biology. Islands harbor evolutionary and ecologically-unique biota, which are strongly influenced by diverse global environmental changes related to land-use practices, climate change, sea level rise, forest fires and biological invasions (Borges et al. 2018, Medail 2017). Island ecosystems, usually intensively influenced by humans, provide significant challenges when considering how to conserve biodiversity (Nogué et al. 2017). They consist great natural laboratories, providing innumerable replicated ‘experiments’ in the factors controlling the distribution, character, and diversity of species and offering the opportunity for rapidly advancing our understanding of fundamental aspects of human relationships with nature, and of conservation strategies (Whittaker et al. 2018, Whittaker and Fernández-Palacios 2007). We welcome your contributions to this Special Issue that provides a platform to highlight new research and significant advances concerning the conservation and management of island ecosystems.

Ass. Prof. Maria Panitsa
Guest Editor

Borges, P.A.V., Cardoso, P., Kreft, H. et al. (2018). Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS): a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota. Biodiversity and Conservation 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1553-7

Médail, F. (2017). The specific vulnerability of plant biodiversity and vegetation on Mediterranean islands in the face of global change. Reg Environ Change 17 (6): 1775-1790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1123-7

Whittaker R. J. & Fernández-Palacios J. M. (2007). Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Whittaker, R.J., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Matthews, T.J., Borregaard, M.K. & K. A. Triantis (2017). Island biogeography: Taking the long view of nature’s laboratories. Science 357(6354): 876-885.

Nogué, S., de Nascimento, L., Froyd, C.A., Wilmshurst, J.M., de Boer, E.J., Cofey, E.D., Whittaker, R.J., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Willis, K.J. (2017). Island biodiversity conservation needs palaeoecology. Nat Ecol Evolut 1:0181. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0181.

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Keywords

  • Island
  • Ecosystem
  • Habitat
  • Conservation
  • Management
  • Biodiversity
  • Threats
  • Pressures
  • Monitoring
  • Conservation status
  • Restoration

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 4502 KiB  
Article
Plant Diversity Patterns and Conservation Implications under Climate-Change Scenarios in the Mediterranean: The Case of Crete (Aegean, Greece)
by Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis, Ioannis P. Kokkoris, Maria Panitsa, Panayiotis Trigas, Arne Strid and Panayotis Dimopoulos
Diversity 2020, 12(7), 270; https://doi.org/10.3390/d12070270 - 7 Jul 2020
Cited by 48 | Viewed by 8975
Abstract
Climate change poses a great challenge for biodiversity conservation. Several studies exist regarding climate change’s impacts on European plants, yet none has investigated how climate change will affect the extinction risk of the entire endemic flora of an island biodiversity hotspot, with intense [...] Read more.
Climate change poses a great challenge for biodiversity conservation. Several studies exist regarding climate change’s impacts on European plants, yet none has investigated how climate change will affect the extinction risk of the entire endemic flora of an island biodiversity hotspot, with intense human disturbance. Our aim is to assess climate change’s impacts on the biodiversity patterns of the endemic plants of Crete (S Aegean) and provide a case-study upon which a climate-smart conservation planning strategy might be set. We employed a variety of macroecological analyses and estimated the current and future biodiversity, conservation and extinction hotspots in Crete. We evaluated the effectiveness of climatic refugia and the Natura 2000 network of protected areas (PAs) for protecting the most vulnerable species and identified the taxa of conservation priority based on the Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) index. The results revealed that high altitude areas of Cretan mountains constitute biodiversity hotspots and areas of high conservation and evolutionary value. Due to the “escalator to extinction” phenomenon, these areas are projected to become diversity “death-zones” and should thus be prioritised. Conservation efforts should be targeted at areas with overlaps among PAs and climatic refugia, characterised by high diversity and EDGE scores. This conservation-prioritisation planning will allow the preservation of evolutionary heritage, trait diversity and future ecosystem services for human well-being and acts as a pilot for similar regions worldwide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Management of Island Ecosystems)
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20 pages, 2413 KiB  
Article
Habitat Islands on the Aegean Islands (Greece): Elevational Gradient of Chasmophytic Diversity, Endemism, Phytogeographical Patterns and need for Monitoring and Conservation
by Anna Kontopanou and Maria Panitsa
Diversity 2020, 12(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/d12010033 - 17 Jan 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5090
Abstract
The Aegean archipelago, characterized as a natural laboratory for research concerning plant species diversity and phytogeography has a complex geological and paleogeographical history that varies among its phytogeographical areas. A different combination of factors of variable intensity and duration time drives patterns of [...] Read more.
The Aegean archipelago, characterized as a natural laboratory for research concerning plant species diversity and phytogeography has a complex geological and paleogeographical history that varies among its phytogeographical areas. A different combination of factors of variable intensity and duration time drives patterns of its impressive plant species richness and endemism. Cliffs, a conspicuous feature of the Aegean landscape, consist of biologically closed communities that serve as refugia for obligate chasmophytes, the majority of which are Greek or Aegean endemics, and for this reason, they are also considered as habitat islands on the Aegean islands. A synoptic analysis is presented concerning chasmophytic plant diversity focusing on endemic obligate chasmophytes. Phytogeographical patterns of obligate chasmophytes, and especially the endemic ones as well as their elevational range and distribution and zeta diversity, are analyzed and discussed in the frame of climatic change, mentioning that the most threatened endemic obligate chasmophytes are those specialized in high elevation areas, and focusing on the need for monitoring and conservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Management of Island Ecosystems)
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