Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Plant Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 10;9(1):12991. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49417-1.
Endemism is one of the most important concepts in biogeography and is of high relevance for conservation biology. Nevertheless, our understanding of patterns of endemism is still limited in many regions of high biodiversity. This is also the case for Iran, which is rich in biodiversity and endemism, but there is no up-to-date account of diversity and distribution of its endemic species. In this study, a comprehensive list of all endemic vascular plant species of Iran, their taxonomic composition and their geographical distribution are presented. To this end, a total of 2,597 (sub)endemic vascular plant species of Iran were documented and their distribution in three phytogeographical regions, two biodiversity hotspots and five areas of endemism were analysed. The Irano-Turanian phytogeographical region harbours 88% of the Iranian endemics, the majority of which are restricted to the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot (84%). Nearly three quarters of the endemic species are restricted to mountain ranges. The rate of endemism increases along an elevational gradient, causing the alpine zone to harbour a disproportionally high number of endemics. With increasing pastoralism, urbanization, road construction and ongoing climate change, the risk of biodiversity loss in the Iranian mountains is very high, and these habitats need to be more effectively protected.
特有现象是生物地理学中最重要的概念之一，对保护生物学也具有重要意义。然而，在许多生物多样性丰富的地区，我们对特有现象模式的理解仍然有限。伊朗就是这种情况，它拥有丰富的生物多样性和特有现象，但却没有关于其特有物种多样性和分布的最新记录。在这项研究中，我们提出了伊朗所有特有维管植物物种的综合清单，包括它们的分类组成和地理分布。为此，共记录了 2597 种（亚）特有维管植物物种，并分析了它们在三个植物地理区域、两个生物多样性热点和五个特有现象地区的分布情况。伊朗-图兰植物地理区拥有 88%的伊朗特有物种，其中大多数局限于伊朗-安纳托利亚生物多样性热点地区（84%）。近四分之三的特有物种局限于山脉。特有现象的发生率沿海拔梯度增加，导致高山地区拥有不成比例的大量特有物种。随着畜牧业、城市化、道路建设和正在发生的气候变化的增加，伊朗山区的生物多样性丧失风险非常高，这些栖息地需要得到更有效的保护。
