Species diversity,endemism and conservation of the family Caryophyllaceae in Greece |
| |
Authors: | Panayiotis Trigas Gregoris Iatrou Giorgos Karetsos |
| |
Institution: | (1) Ministry of Rural Development and Food, General Directorate of Development and Protection of Forests and Natural Environment, 31 Halkokondili str., Athens, 10432, Greece;(2) Department of Biology, Division of Plant Biology, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece;(3) National Agricultural Research Foundation (N.AG.RE.F.) , Forest Research Institute, Terma Alkmanos str., 11528 Ilisia, Athens, Greece |
| |
Abstract: | The family Caryophyllaceae includes world-wide 86 genera and approximately 2100 species. Greece is one of its most important
centres of diversity and endemism. A total of 428 Caryophyllaceae taxa are distributed in Greece, 161 of them being endemic
to the Greek political territory. The endemic element represents approximately 5% of the global diversity of the family at
the species level. The aim of this paper is to discuss the distribution patterns of the Greek endemic Caryophyllaceae, as
well as those with a limited distribution range to the neighbouring areas of the Balkans and Anatolia, on the basis of the
phytogeographical regions of Greece in order to identify the important regions for their conservation. The majority of the
Greek endemic Caryophyllaceae (64.6%) are distributed in only one single phytogeographical region, or even a smaller area
indicating the extremely restricted distribution ranges of the endemic plants in Greece. Actually 83 Greek endemic Caryophyllaceae
can be grouped on cytotaxonomic criteria. Most of them belong to the category of schizoendemics (91.6%), indicating that the
endemism of Caryophyllaceae in Greece has mainly originated in an active way. Cluster analysis has been used to classify the
phytogeographical regions according to their floristic similarities. Two iterative complementarity methods were used to evaluate
the importance of each phytogeographical region in the conservation of the endemic Caryophyllaceae in Greece. Peloponnisos,
Kriti-Karpathos and Sterea Ellas are the most important phytogeographical regions in this respect, followed by North Central
and North East. When adding the Balkan-Aegean-Anatolian endemics to the analysis, Peloponnisos, North Central, Kriti-Karpathos,
North East and Eastern Aegean result as the most important areas. In every case, an elevated number of sites are required
for the conservation of Caryophyllaceae in Greece, reflecting the great dissimilarities in the floristic composition of the
various phytogeographical regions. The results provided by the different methods are compared. A catalogue of the Greek endemic
Caryophyllaceae is appended. |
| |
Keywords: | Biogeography Caryophyllaceae Conservation Diversity Endemism Greece |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|