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Sustainability
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Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean
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Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability, Biodiversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2022) | Viewed by 11822

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kostas Kougioumoutzis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15701 Athens, Greece
Interests: biogeography; biodiversity; extinction risk; island biodiversity; island biogeography; conservation biogeography; conservation biology; conservation ecology; plant diversity; species distribution modelling; plant systematics; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Panayiotis Trigas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Systematic Botany, Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Interests: biogeography; conservation; plant diversity; plant systematics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More than 400,000 plant taxa are currently known to science, with nearly 2,000 taxa being described each year. This remarkable plant diversity, which is unevenly distributed on the planet, is facing unprecedented levels of threat due to human actions. Biodiversity loss at any level (taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional, genetic) has been increasing all over the globe and at all spatial scales since the Industrial Revolution as a result mainly of habitat loss and degradation. This trend is projected to continue in the next decades during the Anthropocene, which is characterized by human-induced climate change and elevated extinction rates and is challenging global ecosystem health, increasing biotic homogenization, as well as altering biodiversity patterns and biotic interactions. Even though several conservation initiatives aim to halt this extinction crisis, we are still unaware which plants are threatened, where, and why. The Mediterranean, apart from being the second largest global biodiversity hotspot, is also a global biodiversity hotspot of vulnerable taxa and is among the regions where the effects of climate and land-use change on plant diversity are expected to be the largest. There is thus an urgent need to assess current biodiversity patterns, conservation actions, practices and management plans, as well as for studies conducted on potentially threatened or socio-economically important taxa. This Special Issue aims to encourage on-going plant diversity and conservation research in the Mediterranean at any level (from molecular to ecosystem). 

Dr. Kostas Kougioumoutzis
Prof. Panayiotis Trigas
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Anthropocene
  • biodiversity patterns
  • conservation biogeography
  • conservation biology
  • conservation genetics
  • climate change
  • conservation prioritization
  • cultural ecology
  • ecosystems services
  • ethnobotany
  • ex situ conservation
  • extinction risk
  • in situ conservation
  • genetic, taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity
  • land-use change
  • plant-pollinator networks
  • phylogeography
  • physiology
  • population genetics
  • species distribution modelling
  • taxonomy

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3318 KiB  
Article
Climate Change Impacts and Extinction Risk Assessment of Nepeta Representatives (Lamiaceae) in Greece
by Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis, Alexandros Papanikolaou, Ioannis P. Kokkoris, Arne Strid, Panayotis Dimopoulos and Maria Panitsa
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4269; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074269 - 4 Apr 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2500
Abstract
The ongoing climate change has already left its imprint on species distributions, with rare, endemic species being more threatened. These changes are more prominent in regional biodiversity hotspots, such as Greece, which is already facing the short term impacts of human induced climate [...] Read more.
The ongoing climate change has already left its imprint on species distributions, with rare, endemic species being more threatened. These changes are more prominent in regional biodiversity hotspots, such as Greece, which is already facing the short term impacts of human induced climate change. Greek flora hosts numerous endemic medicinal and aromatic plant taxa (MAPs), which are economically important and provide integral ecosystem services. The genus Nepeta is one of the largest Lamiaceae genera, containing several MAPs, yet, despite its taxonomical and economical significance, it remains vastly understudied in Greece. We explore the effects of climate change on the range of the Greek endemic Nepeta MAPs, via a species distribution models (SDMs) approach in an ensemble modeling framework, using soil, topographical and bioclimatic variables as predictors in three different time steps. By doing so, we attempt to estimate the current and future extinction risk of these taxa and to locate their current and future species richness hotspots in Greece. The taxa analyzed are expected to experience severe range retractions, with minor intraspecific variation across all time steps (p > 0.05), driven mainly by soil- and aridity-related variables. The extinction risk status of only one taxon is predicted to worsen in the future, while all other taxa will remain threatened. Current species richness hotspots are mainly located in southern Greece and are projected to shift both altitudinally and latitudinally over time (p < 0.01). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean)
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23 pages, 3947 KiB  
Article
Climate-Change Impacts on the Southernmost Mediterranean Arctic-Alpine Plant Populations
by Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis, Ioannis P. Kokkoris, Arne Strid, Thomas Raus and Panayotis Dimopoulos
Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13778; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413778 - 14 Dec 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3221
Abstract
Human-induced climate- and land-use change have been affecting biogeographical and biodiversity patterns for the past two centuries all over the globe, resulting in increased extinction and biotic homogenization rates. High mountain ecosystems are more sensitive to these changes, which have led to physiological [...] Read more.
Human-induced climate- and land-use change have been affecting biogeographical and biodiversity patterns for the past two centuries all over the globe, resulting in increased extinction and biotic homogenization rates. High mountain ecosystems are more sensitive to these changes, which have led to physiological and phenological shifts, as well as to ecosystem processes’ deformation. Glacial relicts, such as arctic-alpine taxa, are sensitive indicators of the effects of global warming and their rear-edge populations could include warm-adapted genotypes that might prove—conservation-wise—useful in an era of unprecedented climate regimes. Despite the ongoing thermophilization in European and Mediterranean summits, it still remains unknown how past and future climate-change might affect the distributional patterns of the glacial relict, arctic-alpine taxa occurring in Greece, their European southernmost distributional limit. Using species distribution models, we investigated the impacts of past and future climate changes on the arctic-alpine taxa occurring in Greece and identified the areas comprising arctic-alpine biodiversity hotspots in Greece. Most of these species will be faced with severe range reductions in the near future, despite their innate resilience to a multitude of threats, while the species richness hotspots will experience both altitudinal and latitudinal shifts. Being long-lived perennials means that there might be an extinction-debt present in these taxa, and a prolonged stability phase could be masking the deleterious effects of climate change on them. Several ex situ conservation measures (e.g., seed collection, population augmentation) should be taken to preserve the southernmost populations of these rare arctic-alpine taxa and a better understanding of their population genetics is urgently needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean)
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11 pages, 1463 KiB  
Article
Citizen Science, Plant Species, and Communities’ Diversity and Conservation on a Mediterranean Biosphere Reserve
by Maria Panitsa, Nikolia Iliopoulou and Emmanouil Petrakis
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9925; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179925 - 3 Sep 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3025
Abstract
Citizen science can serve as a tool to address environmental and conservation issues. Ιn the framework of Erasmus+ project CS4ESD, this study focuses on promoting the importance of plants and plant species and communities’ diversity by using available web-based information because of Covid-19 [...] Read more.
Citizen science can serve as a tool to address environmental and conservation issues. Ιn the framework of Erasmus+ project CS4ESD, this study focuses on promoting the importance of plants and plant species and communities’ diversity by using available web-based information because of Covid-19 limitations and concerning the case study of Olympus mountain Biosphere Reserve (Greece). A questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary information, aiming to investigate pupils’ and students’ willing to distinguish and learn more about plant species and communities and evaluate information found on the web. Pupils, students, and experts participated in this study. The results are indicative of young citizens’ ability to evaluate environmental issues. They often underestimate plant species richness, endemism, plant communities, the importance of plants, and ecosystem services. They also use environmental or plant-based websites and online available data in a significantly different way than experts. The age of the young citizens is a factor that may affect the quality of data. The essential issue of recognizing the importance of plants and plant communities and of assisting for their conservation is highlighted. Education for sustainable development is one of the most important tools that facilitates environmental knowledge and enhances awareness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean)
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Review

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26 pages, 8346 KiB  
Review
Assessing the Ecosystem Services Potential of Endemic Floras: A Systematic Review on the Greek Endemics of Peloponnese
by Alexian Cheminal, Ioannis P. Kokkoris, Anastasios Zotos, Arne Strid and Panayotis Dimopoulos
Sustainability 2022, 14(10), 5926; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14105926 - 13 May 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2249
Abstract
As the interest in new, natural, sustainable products arises in many fields, wild plants are reconsidered as providers of traditional or innovative applications. The notion of ecosystem services (ES) provides a frame to evaluate their benefits, but is still scarcely applied to endemic [...] Read more.
As the interest in new, natural, sustainable products arises in many fields, wild plants are reconsidered as providers of traditional or innovative applications. The notion of ecosystem services (ES) provides a frame to evaluate their benefits, but is still scarcely applied to endemic floras. The present study reviews the available literature on the ES provided by the 494 taxa endemic to Greece that are present in Peloponnese. Six main categories are isolated: medical, aromatic, folk medicine, antimicrobial, environmental and craftsmanship interests. The literature documents such ES for 24.7% of the endemic taxa, with Lamiaceae, Asteraceae and Boraginaceae as the families with the highest numbers of documented taxa. Spatial hotspots with a high density in taxa providing ES are mapped, while gaps of knowledge on the ES of endemic taxa are highlighted. For the first time, to our knowledge, taxonomic and phylogenetic bounds between taxa are exploited as a base to explore potential properties for endemic taxa. The basis for the development of predictive tools utilizing literature review datasets is set. Final outcomes also provide robust scientific evidence to support decision and policy making for the sustainable use and management of rural areas. The development of cultivation areas for threatened taxa of interest is suggested as a potent conservation measure, by selecting fields according to habitat suitability models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Diversity and Conservation in the Mediterranean)
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