Identifying areas of high importance for orchid conservation in east Macedonia (NE Greece)

Abstract

The establishment of a network of reserves is of fundamental importance to the loss of biodiversity. Seven different area selection methods for the establishment of a reserve network were applied in the present study: (a) 5% cut-off value of the grid cells with the highest species richness or conservation value, (b) complementarity analysis using as criteria species richness or conservation value or rarest species richness, and (c) mixed complementarity analysis using as criteria species richness or conservation value. These methods were applied in the orchid taxa of east Macedonia. The conservation values of taxa were estimated on the basis of regional rarity, broad-scale rarity, and species specialization. The spatial overlap between the resulting networks and the Natura 2000 network of the study area was assessed. Furthermore, the efficiency of the latter network to protect the orchid taxa of the study area was examined. Our results suggest that: (a) a multiscale estimation of rarity is necessary for the unbiased estimation of species conservation values; (b) species specialization adds valuable ecological information to the assessment of taxa conservation values; (c) complementarity and mixed complementarity analyses on species richness or conservation value safeguard all the taxa of the region; (d) complementarity analysis on the basis of the richness of the rarest species safeguards all the rarest taxa, but not the total number of the remaining taxa; (e) the 5% cut-off value on species richness or conservation value fails to protect all the taxa of the region, including a large number of the rarest taxa; and (f) the Natura 2000 network, despite its large coverage in the study area, fails to safeguard all the taxa, including some of the rarest.

Pollination Mechanisms are Driving Orchid Distribution in Space

“…Another explanation may be the calcareous substrate that occurs to a much greater extent in the Pannonian region and Carpathians than in other parts where granite is more frequent. Of these two bedrocks, calcareous substrates are greatly preferred by orchids, whereas only a few species of orchids occur in area with granite bedrock 6,58,59 . On such type of bedrock, acidic soils are formed and it is what for example Dactylorhiza viridis, Dactylorhiza maculata or Hammarbya paludosa prefer 60 .…”

“…Here, we explore the trends between climatic niche breadth and altitude for the orchid groups studied for each phytogeographical region. As a measure of niche breadth, a species specialization index (SSI), calculated for each orchid was used 58 . Specifically, in the first step, we calculated species tolerance (%) using an outlying mean index analysis 81 and the species specialization index (SSI) for each species was calculated using the following formula, according to the methodology described by Tsiftsis et al 58 :…”

Distribution of Orchids with Different Rooting Systems in the Czech Republic

“…Orchids need vegetation in which they can grow and establish new populations from seeds. Thus, the spatial distribution of suitable vegetation has a big effect on the density of orchids in different regions [ 1 , 20 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. In addition to vegetation, geological substrate plays an important role in determining the distribution of orchids [ 39 ].…”

Do richness and rarity hotspots really matter for orchid conservation in light of anticipated habitat loss?

“…In countries with high rates of habitat loss (FAO, 2010), reservation strategies are needed to counter rapid deforestation trends (IUCN & UNEP, 2013), particularly in the most diverse areas. The use of richness and rarity mapping methods such as those presented here can be very useful for designing reserve networks (M€ uller et al, 2003;Smidt et al, 2007;Tsiftsis et al, 2009). Establishing reserves is a slow process, however, and therefore ex situ strategies may also be required to protect Lepanthes spp.…”