Diversity in isolation : dissecting the drivers of endemic plant richness on Mediterranean islands and archipelagos

Effective conservation of island floras requires a ‘benchmark’ of expected relative species richness to compare results against. The framework for this process is provided by the theory of island biogeography that predicts island area and proximity to a mainland as being fundamental drivers of species diversity. [excerpt]peer-reviewe

Wetland plants in Mediterranean islands : a collaborative initiative to collect information for their conservation

In the Mediterranean Basin, the conservation of plants faces critical challenges due to the historic and ongoing impacts of human land use, placing biodiversity under pressure. This issue is particularly pronounced on islands, where the intrinsic fragmentation of freshwater environments is exacerbated by the limited land area. Consequently, island wetlands, which are generally smaller than their continental counterparts, are more fragile and often overlooked in conservation efforts. [excerpt]peer-reviewe

Topographic Complexity Is a Principal Driver of Plant Endemism in Mediterranean Islands

The frequency of endemism in the flora of Mediterranean Islands does not follow a straightforward species–area relationship, and the determinants of endemism are several and complex. The aim of this study was to estimate the explanatory power of a small number of variables on the species richness of vascular plants on selected Mediterranean islands and archipelagos, and on the proportion of narrow endemism in each. We used a novel approach whereby the topographic complexity and isolation of an island were estimated through more detailed methods than those utilised previously. These parameters, along with island area and human population density, were used in a number of regression models with the number of taxa or proportion of endemics as the dependent variables. The results demonstrated that ‘topography’, a factor that was not specifically included in previous models for Mediterranean islands, exerted a consistent, statistically significant effect on both the number of taxa as well as the proportion of endemic taxa, in all models tested. The ‘isolation’ factor was not a significant predictor of the number of taxa in any of the models but was a statistically significant predictor of the proportion of endemic taxa in two of the models. The results can be used to make broad predictions about the expected number of taxa and endemics on an island, enabling the categorisation of islands as ‘species-poor’ or ‘species-rich’, potentially aiding conservation efforts