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Studies comparing species’ distribution range at different time periods provide valuable information about temporal trends, and may help to identify the factors responsible for these changes. This knowledge is vital for setting conservation priorities and applying suitable management strategies and practices focused on species’ conservation. We examined records produced before and after December 31, 1985 for determining possible changes in the distribution range of 195 orchid species recorded in Greece, using a 10 × 10 km grid as the recording unit. We used regression techniques to explore the association of species richness with environmental and spatial variables. Species richness was calculated by using the orchid records made (a) before December 31, 1985, (b) after January 1, 1986, and (c) in both time periods. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used for identifying the most significant factors associated with the distribution of the threatened orchids of Greece. Most Greek orchids showed an increasing trend in distribution from the first to the second period, with the exception of a few Critically Endangered species, whose distribution was larger in the first than in the second period. The spatial distribution of the threatened orchids was mostly explained by land area and the area of the calcareous substrates at each grid cell, whereas all variables that were used in the GLM analysis accounted for about 32% of the variance. The observed increasing trend in orchid distribution should be attributed to the extensive research efforts during the second period, especially in areas of high altitude and towards the northern parts of Greece. Our results did not support the findings of other studies, mainly from northern Europe, which showed a significant decline in the distribution range of their orchid flora. These differences in distribution trends could be attributed to the complex orographic configuration of Greece, which renders large parts of the country rather unsuitable for agricultural use or for extensive urban development.

Land abandonment is one of the main drivers of land use/land cover (LULC) change across Europe, which has already led to a significant loss of open habitats, threatening species hosted in them. We investigated LULC changes for a period of 70 years in a mountainous area of central Greece (Mt Agrafa) by mapping its land cover for the years 1945, 1996 and 2015, calculating transition matrices of land cover classes and performing intensity analysis at different levels. Subareas of the study area, with different population trends, were compared in regard to their LULC change trends. Possible drivers of LULC changes were explored by means of Random Forest modeling, and landscape metrics were calculated to assess their trends. Our results showed great changes in LULC class cover, significant shrinkage of open habitats, accelerated rates of change in the recent period and no differences in LULC change patterns in relation to different population trends. Variables expressing favorability of ecological conditions for forest establishment or probability of farmland abandonment were found as more important drivers of the spatiotemporal distribution of LULC classes, while landscape metrics revealed certain trends. Our main conclusion is that land abandonment and the subsequent vegetation succession are going through a semifinal stage, before their completeness and the almost absolute dominance of the forest, and repopulation of the countryside cannot unconditionally ensure any halting effect on the land abandonment process.

The European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) is an endangered mammal that inhabits open habitats with low vegetation in central and southeastern Europe. Its southernmost range includes northern Greece, where populations are declining due to habitat degradation and fragmentation. Limited behavioural research on Greek populations underscores the need for studies to support conservation efforts. The present study examined the species’ diet and seasonal changes in food consumption in an anthropogenic area of Central Macedonia, Greece. Between 2022 and 2023, feeding behaviour was documented recording plant parts, taxa, and feeding durations, while plant availability was assessed through surface sampling. The results revealed that Cynodon, Carex–Cyperus, Salvia, Solanum, and Plantago were the dominant plant genera in the species’ diet, while rhizomes and leaves were the most frequently consumed plant parts. Seasonal dietary shifts were observed, with ground squirrels selecting specific plants and plant parts based on availability. Under resource-limited conditions, they adapted by consuming nutritious rhizomes or the less-common, but toxic, S. elaeagnifolium. These findings highlight the species’ dietary adaptability to Mediterranean and human-modified environments, providing valuable ecological insights and informing habitat conservation and improvement strategies.

Aim: Woodlands make up a third of European territory and carry out important ecosystem functions, yet a comprehensive overview of their invasion by alien plants has never been undertaken across this continent. Location: Europe. Methods: We extracted data from 251,740 vegetation plots stored in the recently compiled European Vegetation Archive. After filtering (resulting in 83,396 plots; 39 regions; 1970-2015 time period), we analysed the species pool and frequency of alien vascular plants with respect to geographic origin and life-forms, and the levels of invasion across the European Nature Information System (EUNIS) woodland habitats. Results: We found a total of 386 alien plant species (comprising 7% of all recorded vascular plants). Aliens originating from outside of and from within Europe were almost equally represented in the species pool (192 vs. 181 species) but relative frequency was skewed towards the former group (77% vs. 22%) due, to some extent, to the frequent occurrence of impatiens parviflora (21% frequency among alien plants). Phanerophytes were the most species-rich life-form (148 species) and had the highest representation in terms of relative frequency (39%) among aliens in the dataset Apart from Europe (181 species), North America was the most important source of alien plants (109 species). At the local scale, temperate and boreal softwood riparian woodland (5%) and mire and mountain coniferous woodland (<1%) had the highest and lowest mean relative alien species richness (percentage of alien species per plot), respectively. Main conclusions: Our results indicate that European woodlands are prone to alien plant invasions especially when exposed to disturbance, fragmentation, alien propagule pressure and high soil nutrient levels. Given the persistence of these factors in the landscape, competitive alien plant species with a broad niche, including alien trees and shrubs, are likely to persist and spread further into European woodlands.

We investigated the combined effects of climate and land-use change on plant diversity in northwestern Greece, a region representative of broader European trends in land abandonment. We based our study on comprehensive field data on plants’ distribution and modelling of land-use changes based on socio-economic trends. We build distribution models for 358 taxa based on current (2015) and future (2055) conditions according to the combinations of three climate and three land-use change scenarios. We compared species distribution changes between current and future conditions for each scenario, and we investigated species trends concerning their ecological indicator values and strategies. Additionally, by analyzing the distribution changes in aggregated differential taxa representing the various plant communities in the study area, we identified patterns of distribution shifts at the community level. Our results indicated more pronounced differences between land-use scenarios than between climate ones, which was attributed to the local scale of the study area, its climatic and physiographic characteristics, and its complex land-use legacy. Both climate and land-use changes drastically reduced the distribution of some species, with species distribution loss exceeding 80% under certain combinations of socioeconomic and climate change scenarios. Species ecological indicator values and strategies showed a buffering effect of forest microclimate against climate change, which, however, may favor only species of forest communities. At the community level, land-use change had again a stronger impact than climate change, with consistent patterns within major vegetation types (forests and open habitats) but contrasting trends between them. Our results highlight the need for appropriate conservation plans to counteract the negative impacts of land abandonment and to take advantage of its positive impacts.

A central hypothesis of ecology states that regional diversity influences local diversity through species-pool effects. Species pools are supposedly shaped by large-scale factors and then filtered into ecological communities, but understanding these processes requires the analysis of large datasets across several regions. Here, we use a framework of community assembly at a continental scale to test the relative influence of historical and environmental drivers, in combination with regional or local species pools, on community species richness and community completeness. Using 42,173 vegetation plots sampled across European beech forests, we found that large-scale factors largely accounted for species pool sizes. At the regional scale, main predictors reflected historical contingencies related to post-glacial dispersal routes, whereas at the local scale, the influence of environmental filters was predominant. Proximity to Quaternary refugia and high precipitation were the main factors supporting community species richness, especially among beech forest specialist plants. Models for community completeness indicate the influence of large-scale factors, further suggesting community saturation as a result of dispersal limitation or biotic interactions. Our results empirically demonstrate how historical factors complement environmental gradients to provide a better understanding of biodiversity patterns across multiple regions. A continent-wide analysis of community assembly in European beech forests shows different emphasis on historical or environmental effects on species pools across different scales.

Due to the absence or scarcity of DNA sequence data in GenBank regarding Mediterranean, Balkan or Greek native tulip species, we performed molecular characterization of the 15 wild-growing Greek tulip species through analysis of the internal transcribed spacer nrDNA and the psbA/trnH and trnL/trnF cpDNA regions. To facilitate conservation and sustainable utilization efforts, the aim was to identify and complement the genetic distinctiveness of six Greek endemic and five Balkan or Aegean endemic and/or subendemic wild-growing Greek native tulips and two naturalized ones of Asiatic origin, among which seven are threatened with extinction. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of 148 DNA sequences was conducted, and 85 Tulipa taxa (species and subspecies) were aligned and compared to 40 new DNA sequences generated herein for the 15 wild-growing Greek tulips. These three molecular markers resulted in 354 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 20 distinct indels for all Tulipa taxa, of which 100 SNPs and 12 indels were related to the Greek tulips. Phylogenetic dendrograms were constructed for all the above-mentioned molecular markers, and the DNA sequences were analyzed separately and jointly, leading to three distinct clusters for the 15 wild-growing Greek tulips. Group 1 included Greek members of subgenus Tulipa, that is, T. scardica, T. undulatifolia, T. rhodopea, T. agenensis and T. raddii; Group 2 included only T. clusiana (subgenus Clusianae) and Group 3 included Greek members of subgenus Eriostemones, that is, *T. bakeri, T. saxatilis, T. australis, *T. cretica, *T. goulimyi, *T. orphanidea T. bithynica, *T. hageri and *T. doerfleri (asterisks indicate single-country endemics).

Ex situ conservation is a vital strategy of preserving plant species at risk, offering practical methods to obtain information regarding species-specific germination characteristics. Campanula pangea, a local endemic species of NE Greece, has been previously classified as vulnerable, partly due to the lack of knowledge about its biology. This study focused on the germination behaviour of C. pangea stored seeds by assessing their germination success under the effects of incubation temperature and gibberellic acid (GA3). To contextualize the experimental conditions, a bioclimatic profile of the species was developed using open-access temperature and precipitation data that characterize its natural habitat. The results showed that the optimal germination temperature range for C. pangea is 15–20 °C. Pre-treatment of seeds with GA3 solution (1000 mg L−1) widened the germination range of the seeds only at the low temperature of 10 °C. The experimentation results showed that the seeds of C. pangea exhibit dormancy. These findings contribute to the development of a species-specific germination protocol for ex situ propagation and conservation, enhance understanding of the species’ germination requirements, and thus support future conservation efforts and assessments of extinction risk, or other ornamental applications and/or targeted medicinal research.

The neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) could become alternative food sources in the agro-alimentary sector, enriching human and animal diets, offering the opportunity for sustainable exploitation, resilience to climate change, and production with resistance to pests and diseases. In the Mediterranean countries, these valuable resources are threatened by climate change, overexploitation, and/or monoculture. In this framework, we evaluated 399 local endemic NUPs of Crete (Greece), the Mediterranean coast, Rif of Morocco, and Tunisia, regarding their agro-alimentary potential, and assessed their feasibility and readiness timescale for sustainable exploitation with own previously published methodology. The methodological scheme was developed by experts in co-creative workshops, using point-scoring of seven attributes to evaluate the potential of the targeted NUPs in the agro-alimentary. Our results showed a diversity of promising local endemic NUPs of different families in the studied regions (Lamiaceae members are prominent), and we outlined the cases of 13 taxa with the highest optimum scores of agro-alimentary potential (>70%). Despite the diversity or the promising potential and current ex-situ conservation efforts to bridge gaps, our study indicated that only a few cases of Cretan local endemic NUPs can be sustainably exploited in the short-term. However, it is argued that many more local endemic NUPs can easily follow sustainable exploitation schemes if specific research gaps are bridged. Since NUPs can help to increased diversification of food production systems by adding new nutritional/beneficial species to human and animal diets, basic and applied research, as well as market and stakeholder attraction, is suggested as prerequisite to unlock the full potential of the focal endemic NUPs in the agro-alimentary sector.

The distribution of vascular plant species and assemblages existing in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests was compared with the distribution of beech chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotypes, aiming to identify possible interpretable trends of co-occurrence, on a small geographical scale, and to infer the relevant historical factors. Vegetation and genetic (cpSSR) data were collected from 60 plots on Mt. Menikio (northeastern Greece). Classification and ordination analyses were applied on the vegetation data, while on the cpSSR data, diversity measures and genetic structure analyses were employed. A probabilistic co-occurrence analysis was performed on haplotypes and taxa. The results show that a plant biogeographical border exists on Mt. Menikio which, in addition, has acted both as a refugium and as a meeting point of lineages for more than one glacial cycle. Significant associations of co-occurrence between haplotypes and vascular taxa were found but no common distribution patterns between the former and species assemblages were identified. The combined consideration of the distribution profiles of species assemblages, plant species and cpDNA haplotypes (corresponding to the three levels of biodiversity) provides concrete information on historical events, leading to a comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary and biogeographical processes that have shaped specific spatial patterns of biodiversity.