Conserving the endemic flora of the Carpathian Region: an international project to increase and share knowledge of the distribution, evolution and taxonomy of Carpathian endemics and to conserve endangered species
Abstrakt
Effective conservation of biodiversity should build on a strong basis of taxonomic and spatial distribution knowledge. The Carpathian Mountains, an iconic centre of biodiversity in temperate Europe, harbour a remarkable number of endemic vascular plants.
Current knowledge on their taxonomic status, spatial distribution and genetic diversity is, however, incomplete. Research and conservation efforts have mostly been country specific, resulting in contrasting chorological knowledge and taxonomic acceptance between neighbouring countries, and differing conservation policies.
Urgent synchronisation of cross-border conservation measures is required. Here, we present an overview of a new international project that will address these issues, outlining the current state of knowledge and theoretical background concerning Carpathian subendemics and endemics in order to improve their conservation status.
The project involves partners from eight countries, working collaboratively in conservation, research and sharing of standardised data for the Carpathian flora. Long-term seed conservation of 500 species, with a focus on endemics, regionally endangered species and range-margin populations from the Carpathians, will be used as an effective measure for the conservation of Carpathian endemics and endangered species.
Research focused on the biosystematics of selected taxa will increase our knowledge of the evolutionary processes involved in the origin of the Carpathian flora. Finally, the establishment of the Carpathian Research Network (CRN) provides an official framework for pooling, sharing and standardising scientific data on Carpathian endemics from different countries.
The CRN is developing an online database of the distribution of selected species (The Carpathian Endemics Distribution Database, CEDD) including their intrinsic and extrinsic traits and current opinion on their taxonomic status. This will be used to produce a monograph on the Carpathians' endemic flora.