Kougioumoutzis Konstantinos, Kokkoris Ioannis P, Panitsa Maria, Strid Arne, Dimopoulos Panayotis
Laboratory of Botany, Department of Biology, Division of Plant Biology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
Department of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 15701 Athens, Greece.
Biology (Basel). 2021 Mar 4;10(3):195. doi: 10.3390/biology10030195.
Human-induced biodiversity decline has been on the rise for the past 250 years, due to various causes. What is equally troubling, is that we are unaware which plants are threatened and where they occur. Thus, we are far from reaching Aichi Biodiversity Target 2, i.e., assessing the extinction risk of most species. To that end, based on an extensive occurrence dataset, we performed an extinction risk assessment according to the IUCN Criteria A and B for all the endemic plant taxa occurring in Greece, one of the most biodiverse countries in Europe, in a phylogenetically-informed framework and identified the areas needing conservation prioritization. Several of the Greek endemics are threatened with extinction and fourteen endemics need to be prioritized, as they are evolutionary distinct and globally endangered. Mt. Gramos is identified as the most important conservation hotspot in Greece. However, a significant portion of the identified conservation hotspots is not included in any designated Greek protected area, meaning that the Greek protected areas network might need to be at least partially redesigned. In the Anthropocene era, where climate and land-use change are projected to alter biodiversity patterns and may force many species to extinction, our assessment provides the baseline for future conservation research, ecosystem services maintenance, and might prove crucial for the timely, systematic and effective aversion of plant extinctions in Greece.
在过去的250年里，由于各种原因，人为导致的生物多样性下降一直在加剧。同样令人担忧的是，我们不清楚哪些植物受到威胁以及它们生长在哪里。因此，我们远未实现爱知生物多样性目标2，即评估大多数物种的灭绝风险。为此，基于一个广泛的分布数据集，我们在一个系统发育信息框架内，根据世界自然保护联盟（IUCN）的A和B标准，对希腊（欧洲生物多样性最丰富的国家之一）所有的本土植物类群进行了灭绝风险评估，并确定了需要优先保护的区域。希腊的几种本土植物正面临灭绝威胁，有14种本土植物需要优先保护，因为它们在进化上具有独特性且在全球范围内濒危。格拉莫斯山被确定为希腊最重要的保护热点地区。然而，已确定的保护热点地区中有很大一部分未被纳入希腊任何指定的保护区，这意味着希腊的保护区网络可能至少需要部分重新设计。在人类世时代，预计气候和土地利用变化将改变生物多样性模式，并可能迫使许多物种灭绝，我们的评估为未来的保护研究、生态系统服务维护提供了基线，并且可能对及时、系统和有效地避免希腊植物灭绝至关重要。
