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This work provides the ethnobotanical data concerning the traditional use of medicinal plants in Macedonia region (Northern Greece), which has, up to now, been poorly investigated. The aim of the present study was to collect, analyze, and evaluate information on the use of medicinal plants among different population groups living in Central Macedonia. The study was carried out in the area of two small cities, Edessa and Naoussa, and nearby villages. The ethnobotanical data were gathered through extensive and semistructured interviews. The informants belonged to different population groups living in the study areas and were involved, at least partially, in agriculture. Together with detailed reports on each species, data were also summarized by some indices, such as Fidelity Level (FL) and Informant Consensus Factor (Fic). A group of 96 informants was interviewed and 87 plant taxa with medicinal uses were cited. Medicinal plants are used to treat a wide range of diseases, in particular ailments of the respiratory tract and skin disorders. The importance of the traditional use of plants to cure and prevent common and some uncommon diseases had been highlighted. About 55% of medicinal plants mentioned by the informants had been previously reported to be sold in Thessaloniki herbal market as traditional remedies. Medicinal uses of some endemic taxa had been reported, e.g., Satureja montana subsp. macedonica, a member of the S. montana group restricted to Northern Central Greece, Origanum dictamnus, an endemic species of Crete, and six Balkan endemics, i.e., Achillea holosericea, Digitalis lanata, Helleborus odorus subsp. cyclophyllus, Sideritis scardica, Thymus sibthorpii, and Verbascum longifolium. Several differences in Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge (TEK) were observed in relation to social and cultural components of the population. Only 7 species (Crataegus monogyna, Hypericum perforatum, Matricaria chamomilla, Rosa canina, Sambucus nigra, Sideritis scardica, and Tilia platyphyllos) were commonly reported by all population groups, whereas 30 out of 87 taxa (34%) were exclusively mentioned by a single group. All groups are incorporated in the local society and do not identify themselves as members of different ethnic groups, although they try to preserve their distinctiveness by keeping their traditions and dialects. Nevertheless, our data show that the knowledge regarding the medicinal plant use was rarely accompanied by preservation of linguistic diversity concerning the plant names. This work contributes to improve the knowledge on the traditional use of plants in the folk medicine of a region like Central Macedonia where different population groups live together, partially maintaining their traditions. A part of data of this paper has been presented as posted at 112° Congress of Italian Botanical Society (IPSC), Parma 20-23 September 2017.

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Abstract. The structure of pollination networks is an important indicator of ecosystem stability and functioning. Livestock grazing is a frequent land use practice that directly affects the abundance and diversity of flowers and pollinators and, therefore, may indirectly affect the structure of pollination networks. We studied how grazing intensity affected the structure of plant-flower visitor networks along a wide range of grazing intensities by sheep and goats, using data from 11 Mediterranean plant-flower visitor communities from Lesvos Island, Greece. We hypothesized that intermediate grazing might result in higher diversity as predicted by the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, which could in turn confer more stability to the networks. Indeed, we found that networks at intermediate grazing intensities were larger, more generalized, more modular, and contained more diverse and even interactions. Despite general responses at the network level, the number of interactions and selectiveness of particular flower visitor and plant taxa in the networks responded differently to grazing intensity, presumably as a consequence of variation in the abundance of different taxa with grazing. Our results highlight the benefit of maintaining moderate levels of livestock grazing by sheep and goats to preserve the complexity and biodiversity of the rich Mediterranean communities, which have a long history of grazing by these domestic animals.

The structure of pollination networks is an important indicator of ecosystem stability and functioning. Livestock grazing is a frequent land use practice that directly affects the abundance and diversity of flowers and pollinators and, therefore, may indirectly affect the structure of pollination networks. We studied how grazing intensity affected the structure of plant-flower visitor networks along a wide range of grazing intensities by sheep and goats, using data from 11 Mediterranean plant-flower visitor communities from Lesvos Island, Greece. We hypothesized that intermediate grazing might result in higher diversity as predicted by the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, which could in turn confer more stability to the networks. Indeed, we found that networks at intermediate grazing intensities were larger, more generalized, more modular, and contained more diverse and even interactions. Despite general responses at the network level, the number of interactions and selectiveness of particular flower visitor and plant taxa in the networks responded differently to grazing intensity, presumably as a consequence of variation in the abundance of different taxa with grazing. Our results highlight the benefit of maintaining moderate levels of livestock grazing by sheep and goats to preserve the complexity and biodiversity of the rich Mediterranean communities, which have a long history of grazing by these domestic animals.

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Plant-pollinator network structure is the outcome of ecological and evolutionary processes, and although the importance of environmental factors is beyond doubt, our knowledge of how abiotic factors (e.g. climate) shape plant-pollinator networks remains limited. This knowledge gap is critical, as climate change poses a major threat to ecosystems, especially in the Mediterranean. This study focuses on one of the hottest parts of the Mediterranean Basin, the Aegean Archipelago, Greece, and examines how climate affects species richness and network properties (e.g. nestedness, modularity and specialisation) - either directly or indirectly through species richness. We sampled systematically 39 local plant-pollinator networks on eight islands along a north-south climate gradient in the Aegean. All plant-pollinator material used in the analyses was collected in 2012 and identified to species level. Aspects of climate used in the models were expressed as average conditions (mean temperature and annual precipitation) or as seasonal variability (isothermality and temperature seasonality). Structural properties of plant-pollinator networks were found to be strongly associated with species richness, which was in turn affected by climate, implying that pollination network structure is driven indirectly by climate. In addition, climate had a direct effect on network structure, especially on modularity and specialisation. Different aspects of climate affected network properties in different ways. We highlight that even in a relatively narrow latitudinal gradient, such as within the Aegean Sea region, climate constitutes a significant driver of plant-pollinator interactions.