Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation

We studied the ecology, distribution, and phylogeography of Tephroseris balbisiana, a rare plant whose range is centered to the South-Western Alps. Our aim was to assess the extent of intraspecific variability within the nominal species and the conservation status of isolated populations. We studied genetic diversity across the whole species range. We analyzed leaf traits, which are distinctive morphological characters within the Tephroseris genus. A clear pattern of genetic variation was found among populations of T. balbisiana, which clustered according to their geographic position. On the contrary, there was a strong overlap in the morphological space of individuals across the species’ range, with few peripheral populations diverging in their leaf morphology. Studying habitat suitability by means of species distribution models, we observed that T. balbisiana range is primarily explained by solar radiation and precipitation seasonality. Environmental requirements could explain the genetic and morphological uniformity of T. balbisiana in its core distribution area and justify genetic, morphological, and ecological divergences found among the isolated populations of the Apennines. Our findings emphasize the need to account for the whole diversity of a species, comprising peripheral populations, in order to better estimate its status and to prioritize areas for its conservation

Sobre la presencia de Fumaria bicolor Nicotra (Papaveraceae) en la Península Ibérica, 3-7

Sur la présence de Fumaria bicolor Nicotra (Papaveraceae) dans la péninsule Ibérique. Les auteurs relatent la découverte de Fumaria bicolor Nicotra pour la région de Catalogne. Ils présentent des illustrations et une carte actualisée de sa répartition en Espagn

SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed - Database of Southeastern France vegetation

The SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed database (GIVD EU-FR-006) is a regional database managed by the Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen dealing with occurrence data of the vascular flora of Southeastern France. It covers the following departments: Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault, Gard, Lozère, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Alpes-Maritimes. It includes around 19,300 phytosociological relevés of various vegetation types from the mediterranean coastal area to the alpine vegetation belt. Vegetation plots are unpublished relevés as well as digitized data from bibliographic sources (around 310 references). Almost all relevés are geolocalized. The oldest ones date from 1915 and the most recent from 2021 and the integration of new data is done continuously. The taxonomical scheme follows the French national taxonomic repository TAXREF (currently v.15). The database is part of the European Vegetation Archive under semi-restricted regime and will be updated every year. Some of the bibliographic data featured in SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed may also be present in SOPHY database (EU-FR-003). All the bibliographic data of SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed undergo a curation process regarding georeferencing, taxonomic nomenclature updates and syntaxonomic interpretation. Abbreviations: CBNMed: Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen

SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed - Database of Southeastern France vegetation

The SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed database (GIVD EU-FR-006) is a regional database managed by the Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen dealing with occurrence data of the vascular flora of Southeastern France. It covers the following departments: Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault, Gard, Lozère, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Alpes-Maritimes. It includes around 19,300 phytosociological relevés of various vegetation types from the mediterranean coastal area to the alpine vegetation belt. Vegetation plots are unpublished relevés as well as digitized data from bibliographic sources (around 310 references). Almost all relevés are geolocalized. The oldest ones date from 1915 and the most recent from 2021 and the integration of new data is done continuously. The taxonomical scheme follows the French national taxonomic repository TAXREF (currently v.15). The database is part of the European Vegetation Archive under semi-restricted regime and will be updated every year. Some of the bibliographic data featured in SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed may also be present in SOPHY database (EU-FR-003). All the bibliographic data of SIMETHIS-Flore-CBNMed undergo a curation process regarding georeferencing, taxonomic nomenclature updates and syntaxonomic interpretation. Abbreviations: CBNMed: Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen

Le portail des données naturalistes SILENE en région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

SILENE est un portail internet de diffusion de données naturalistes développé en partenariat par plusieurs organismes producteurs et gestionnaires de données, les services de l’Etat et du Conseil Régional. Seront ici présentés les principes de son fonctionnement aussi bien au niveau technique qu’organisationnel pour la région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur ainsi qu’un premier retour d’expérience après les premières années de mise en œuvre. SILENE apparaît aujourd’hui comme un outil important pour la diffusion des connaissances sur la biodiversité dont il favorise la prise en considération, à plusieurs niveaux, dans l’aménagement du territoire régional. Par son exemple, SILENE montre toute l’importance de l’échelon régional comme relais entre l’acquisition locale d’informations et les bilans nécessaires aux niveaux national ou international

Climate change impacts on Mediterranean vegetation are amplified at low altitudes

International audienceAim: In the face of ongoing climate warming, we wanted to quantify impacts on vegetation at one of the major climatic and biogeographical boundaries of Europe, the limit between the Mediterranean and Eurosiberian biogeographical regions. We analyse temperature and moisture requirements of plants along altitudinal gradients at regional scale in the period 1980–2020 and we explore if changes coincide with observedchanges in the same regions in terms of measured climatic data.Location: Southern France.Time period: 1980–2020.Taxa: Vascular plants.Methods: We calculated shifts in plants’ temperature and moisture requirements for a large floristic database from south-eastern France (SIMETHIS) during the period 1980–2020 along altitudinal gradients by using ecological indicator values (EIV). Additionally, we analysed standardized weather station data from the same area and period, to investigate whether floristic changes are synchronized with climatechanges.Results: Vegetation data suggest a linear increase in temperature requirements of plant communities from 1980 to 2020 with a greater change at low altitudes. Upward shifts in temperature requirements coincided with observed climate change although warming did not show a general trend towards greater increases at low altitudes. Data on vegetation and climate suggest an upward shift of respectively 150 and 300 m for the boundary between Mediterranean and temperate belts. Moisture requirements of vegetation indicate an increase of the frequency of dry adapted species at low altitudes but an increase towards higher moisture requirements at high altitudes. Comparing vegetation responses with climate data suggests that responses are faster at low altitudes.Main conclusions: Our analyses show that strong general changes in vegetation are underway and highlight faster responses of vegetation to warming in low altitudes compared to high altitudes and demonstrate the need for reliable data on vegetation and climate changes, especially on water balance

Various chromosome data

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How to hierarchise species to determine priorities for conservation action? A critical analysis

International audienceHierarchisation and prioritisation methods represent a crucial step to determine priorities and implement actions in conservation biology: they are required to determine how to allocate available resources to the different components of biodiversity. However, they are very heterogeneous in terms of targets and goals. The main differences are presented with a focus on hierarchisation methods targeting species. This paper reviews 40 studies using 24 different point-scoring or rule-based methods aiming to determine conservation concerns for species. Only the hierarchisation methods targeting species were compared and their differences where highlighted in terms of study area, taxa, criteria assessment and summa-risation. Then six different studies using the same hierarchisation method for species were compared as well. This study enables to analyse the different existing methods in order to perform more relevant methodological choices adapted to the objective and the context of each selection process. A consistent framework is designed to help managers to choose an appropriate method using well-defined goals, study areas and taxonomic targets, and take into account data availability

Calibrating ecological indicator values and niche width for a Mediterranean flora

International audienceBioindication of ecological variables such as humidity, temperature or pH by ecological indicatorvalues of plants is a powerful tool for research in plant ecology, e.g. to detect early vegetationchanges. Here, we provide a data set of ecological indicator values including niche width for anentire regional flora. We used an extensive data-base with floristic relevés from Southern Franceto recalibrate indicator values for light (L), temperature (T), continentality (K), air humidity (A),soil moisture (F), pH (R), productivity (N), soil texture (G), soil organic matter content (O) andsalinity (S). Values were recalibrated using average values from co-occurring plants, enabling todevelop indicator values for species not yet evaluated previously. Recalibrated values are on acontinuous scale and we add standard deviation, median, first and third quartile for each indicatorvalue. Linear regression of average indicator values against measured factors showed highercorrelation with recalibrated values compared to original indicator values for temperature, pH andnitrogen, and comparable R 2 for moisture. Individual indicator systems performed better than acombination and applying different weighting procedures demonstrated the usefulness of inversevariance. We further illustrate graphically how recalibrated values and niche width increaseecological knowledge on plants