Cargando…

Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century

A synthetic and updated overview about the vascular flora and vegetation of the Island of Capo Passero (SE-Sicily) is provided. These data issue from two series of field surveys—the first carried out between 1997 and 2000, and the second between 2005 and 2019 and mostly focused on refining and imple...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sciandrello, Saverio, Cambria, Salvatore, Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro, Guarino, Riccardo, Minissale, Pietro, Pasta, Salvatore, Tavilla, Gianmarco, Cristaudo, Antonia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8065674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33916121
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants10040680
_version_ 1783682396233662464
author Sciandrello, Saverio
Cambria, Salvatore
Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro
Guarino, Riccardo
Minissale, Pietro
Pasta, Salvatore
Tavilla, Gianmarco
Cristaudo, Antonia
author_facet Sciandrello, Saverio
Cambria, Salvatore
Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro
Guarino, Riccardo
Minissale, Pietro
Pasta, Salvatore
Tavilla, Gianmarco
Cristaudo, Antonia
author_sort Sciandrello, Saverio
collection PubMed
description A synthetic and updated overview about the vascular flora and vegetation of the Island of Capo Passero (SE-Sicily) is provided. These data issue from two series of field surveys—the first carried out between 1997 and 2000, and the second between 2005 and 2019 and mostly focused on refining and implementing vegetation data. The current islet’s flora consists of 269 taxa, of which 149 (58%) are annual plants. The Mediterranean species are largely prevailing, 108 (40%) of which have a strictly Mediterranean biogeographical status. The comparison with a species list published in 1919 and updated in 1957 suggest that, despite the overall prevalence of anemochorous taxa, the vertebrate fauna represents an important vector for the plant colonization of the island, while the immigration of myrmechocorous taxa does not compensate the extinction rate. As many as 202 phytosociological relevés, 191 of which issue from original recent field surveys, enabled identifying 12 different plant communities. The comparison with a vegetation map published in 1965 suggests a strong reduction in dune habitats (2120 and 2210 according to EU ‘Habitats’ Directive 92/43), as well as a deep disruption in the succession typical of the local psammophilous vegetation series. In order to preserve rare, endangered and protected plant species (such as Aeluropus lagopoides, Cichorium spinosum, Limonium hyblaeum, L. syracusanum, Poterium spinosum, Senecio pygmaeus and Spergularia heldreichii) and to stop the ongoing habitat degradation, urgent and effective conservation measures should be adopted for this tiny, yet precious islet.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8065674
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80656742021-04-25 Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century Sciandrello, Saverio Cambria, Salvatore Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro Guarino, Riccardo Minissale, Pietro Pasta, Salvatore Tavilla, Gianmarco Cristaudo, Antonia Plants (Basel) Article A synthetic and updated overview about the vascular flora and vegetation of the Island of Capo Passero (SE-Sicily) is provided. These data issue from two series of field surveys—the first carried out between 1997 and 2000, and the second between 2005 and 2019 and mostly focused on refining and implementing vegetation data. The current islet’s flora consists of 269 taxa, of which 149 (58%) are annual plants. The Mediterranean species are largely prevailing, 108 (40%) of which have a strictly Mediterranean biogeographical status. The comparison with a species list published in 1919 and updated in 1957 suggest that, despite the overall prevalence of anemochorous taxa, the vertebrate fauna represents an important vector for the plant colonization of the island, while the immigration of myrmechocorous taxa does not compensate the extinction rate. As many as 202 phytosociological relevés, 191 of which issue from original recent field surveys, enabled identifying 12 different plant communities. The comparison with a vegetation map published in 1965 suggests a strong reduction in dune habitats (2120 and 2210 according to EU ‘Habitats’ Directive 92/43), as well as a deep disruption in the succession typical of the local psammophilous vegetation series. In order to preserve rare, endangered and protected plant species (such as Aeluropus lagopoides, Cichorium spinosum, Limonium hyblaeum, L. syracusanum, Poterium spinosum, Senecio pygmaeus and Spergularia heldreichii) and to stop the ongoing habitat degradation, urgent and effective conservation measures should be adopted for this tiny, yet precious islet. MDPI 2021-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8065674/ /pubmed/33916121 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants10040680 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sciandrello, Saverio
Cambria, Salvatore
Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro
Guarino, Riccardo
Minissale, Pietro
Pasta, Salvatore
Tavilla, Gianmarco
Cristaudo, Antonia
Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title_full Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title_fullStr Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title_full_unstemmed Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title_short Floristic and Vegetation Changes on a Small Mediterranean Island over the Last Century
title_sort floristic and vegetation changes on a small mediterranean island over the last century
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8065674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33916121
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants10040680
work_keys_str_mv AT sciandrellosaverio floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT cambriasalvatore floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT giussodelgaldogianpietro floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT guarinoriccardo floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT minissalepietro floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT pastasalvatore floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT tavillagianmarco floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury
AT cristaudoantonia floristicandvegetationchangesonasmallmediterraneanislandoverthelastcentury