Knowledge gaps and challenges for conservation of Mediterranean wetlands: Evidence from a comprehensive inventory and literature analysis for Sardinia

Abstract

Wetlands are some of the most important ecosystems on Earth. They play a key role in mitigating climate change‐related events and filtering polluted water, and provide habitats for a wide range of species. Despite their importance, and numerous regulations that support their conservation, wetlands continue to be destroyed. Recent reports have indicated a progressive decline in ecological character of remaining wetlands. This research reviews and extends the present status of wetland knowledge in Sardinia, the second largest Mediterranean island. For the first time, Sardinian wetlands were comprehensively mapped using satellite images and field validation. Impacts were also assessed. Trends in literature published about Sardinian wetlands since 1900 were then analysed, mainly according to the location(s) and topic(s) studied. In total, 2,501 Sardinian wetland sites were identified. The most common impacts observed in the field were vegetative degradation and water pollution. Of these wetlands, 2,274 have never been the subject of a research paper. Despite recent increases in publication rates, there was a lack of even basic knowledge about many wetlands, especially smaller ones. Larger wetlands have been studied from a range of viewpoints. In the light of these results, suggestions for improved awareness, effective management and conservation of Mediterranean wetlands were established. Future work should be directed to filling gaps in basic information, and to improvements in research and conservation, which might include multidisciplinary approaches in support of more comprehensive conservation management plans.

Conservation and Phylogeography of Plants: From the Mediterranean to the Rest of the World

“…It seems that there is an asymmetry in the dedication of economic efforts toward this research located specifically in the Mediterranean Basin. The general increasing trend in publication rates, which raised particularly rapidly over the past two decades, has been also detected by Fois et al [54], who suggest that national and international initiatives, laws, conventions, and the establishment of conservation networks could have contributed to such a trend.…”

Investigating Plant–Bird Co-Occurrence Patterns in Mediterranean Wetlands: Can They Reveal Signals of Ecosystem Connectivity?

“…Previous studies have shown that bird specialisation on specific plant partners increases towards sites with relatively uncommon and extreme environmental conditions, such as forests above 3000 m asl [13] or small islands [50]. Similar specialised plant-bird interactions might be present in small and isolated wetlands where, according to the Italian island inventory [30,56], rare and specialist plant and bird species were more common than in large wetland systems, which are also often characterised by monodominant vegetation communities and relatively low niche variability. If considering that the extent of a site increases with the % of open water, our results are partially in contrast.…”

Is the Endangered Species Act living to its full potential? The reassessment of the conservation status and recovery of Macbridea alba Chapm. as a case study

“…Much of the literature is focused on common, largeranged plant species that often offer utility to humans (Lughadha et al, 2020 and references therein). In addition to being innately vulnerable, many rare species and their functional traits and interactions within their environments are undescribed or poorly known causing their risk of extinction to be potentially underestimated (Pimm et al, 2014;Fois et al, 2021). A lack of upto-date research means that listing is prolonged due to insufficient data, and recovery efforts are often outlined and prioritized based on outdated datasets and information, which further perpetuates mismanagement and hinders plant protection and conservation (Estill and Cruzan, 1999;Le Roux et al, 2019;Molano-Flores and Coons, 2019).…”