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In the recent history, climatic changes have taken place at a planetary scale and organisms needed to adapt to these changes. The last glaciation is one of most documented climatic events responsible for the current distribution of living organisms. In the last two decades, conservationists have intensively discussed how extant organisms, some of w...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Only two species, L. (L.) Cass. (Fig. 1) and L. glauca (L.) O. Hoffm. colonized Europe (Chater, 1976; Liu et al., ...
Context 2
... and central China being considered as the original area for Ligularia ( Liu et al., 1994). It is assumed that the genus Ligularia appeared in mid-Cretaceous and its dispersal routes extended mainly along the mountains in southern Asia, with a few species dispersing to northeast Asia ( Liu et al., 1994). Only two species, L. sibirica (L.) Cass. (Fig. 1) and L. glauca (L.) O. Hoffm. colonized Europe (Chater, 1976;Liu et al., 1994). Currently, L. sibirica has a wide Euro-Siberian distribution range. The main continuous distribution range is from East Asia (Japan, Korea, China and Mongolia) to southern Siberia and to the European part of Russia, Byelorussia, and Ukraine ( Ohwi et al., ...
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Citations
... During the first two designation stages, the process was highly biased towards overlapping existing national protected areas (Iojă et al., 2010;Manolache et al., 2017), and thus, even if the CBD 17% target is met, the effectiveness of Natura 2000 in representing habitats and species is questionable. For example, Iojă et al. (2010) confirmed that overlapping existing national protected areas resulted in a suboptimal representation of plants and invertebrates; Miu et al. (2018) highlighted underrepresentation of agricultural landscape in Dobrogea, while Mânzu et al. (2013) and Popescu et al. (2013) concluded that the Natura 2000 network would not protect plants, reptiles, or amphibians if species ranges shift under climate change scenarios. ...
Background:
The European Union strives to increase protected areas of the EU terrestrial surface to 30% by year 2030, of which one third should be strictly protected. Designation of the Natura 2000 network, the backbone of nature protection in the EU, was mostly an expert-opinion process with little systematic conservation planning. The designation of the Natura 2000 network in Romania followed the same non-systematic approach, resulting in a suboptimal representation of invertebrates and plants. To help identify areas with very high biodiversity without repeating past planning missteps, we present a reproducible example of spatial prioritization using Romania's current terrestrial Natura 2000 network and coarse-scale terrestrial species occurrence.
Methods:
We used 371 terrestrial Natura 2000 Sites of Community Importance (Natura 2000 SCI), designated to protect 164 terrestrial species listed under Annex II of Habitats Directive in Romania in our spatial prioritization analyses (marine Natura 2000 sites and species were excluded). Species occurrences in terrestrial Natura 2000 sites were aggregated at a Universal Traverse Mercator spatial resolution of 1 km2. To identify priority terrestrial Natura 2000 sites for species conservation, and to explore if the Romanian Natura 2000 network sufficiently represents species included in Annex II of Habitats Directive, we used Zonation v4, a decision support software tool for spatial conservation planning. We carried out the analyses nationwide (all Natura 2000 sites) as well as separately for each biogeographic region (i.e., Alpine, Continental, Pannonian, Steppic and Black Sea).
Results:
The results of spatial prioritization of terrestrial Natura 2000 vary greatly by planning scenario. The performance of national-level planning of top priorities is minimal. On average, when 33% of the landscape of Natura 2000 sites is protected, only 20% of the distribution of species listed in Annex II of Habitats Directive are protected. As a consequence, the representation of species by priority terrestrial Natura 2000 sites is lessened when compared to the initial set of species. When planning by taxonomic group, the top-priority areas include only 10% of invertebrate distribution in Natura 2000. When selecting top-priority areas by biogeographical region, there are significantly fewer gap species than in the national level and by taxa scenarios; thusly, the scenario outperforms the national-level prioritization. The designation of strictly protected areas as required by the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 should be followed by setting clear objectives, including a good representation of species and habitats at the biogeographical region level.
... models are used frequently and are considered essential tools for studying species' ecology at various spatial and temporal scales (Guisan and Thuiller 2005). Previously, ENMs have been applied successfully to study a wide range of biogeographical and ecological topics, such as predicting species distributions (e.g., Jimenez-Valverde et al. 2011) and disease spread (e.g., Peterson et al. 2007b;Mueller et al. 2013), invasive species (e.g., Welk et al. 2002;Peterson et al. 2003), conservation (e.g., Peterson et al. 2002;Peterson and Martínez-Meyer 2007;Manzu et al. 2013), and climate change effects (e.g., Siqueira and Peterson 2003; Thomas et al. 2004;Sahlean et al. 2014). Despite their established utility in ecology, biogeography, and conservation, the process of calibrating ENMs is not always straightforward. ...
Due to their complexity, coral reefs are difficult to study especially when considering the role that the interplay between the terrestrial and marine environments has in shaping distribution of marine, terrestrial, and amphibious species. Many organisms live in remote areas of the ocean and inhabit both terrestrial and marine environments. Such amphibious lifestyle poses analytical difficulties due to broad distribution and scale of coral reefs. Ecological niche modeling is a widely used technique that allows to estimate the environmental set of conditions (niche) in which organisms can survive and reproduce. Estimating the distributions of species with complex life histories (i.e., dependent on various natural resources) at broad geographic scales is crucial, as many of these taxa are threatened (i.e., amphibians, aquatic reptiles, birds, and mammals). However, distribution estimates of such species remain challenging; thus, here we propose an approach to account for marine and terrestrial environmental domains to estimate the distribution of amphibious species. We also test whether inclusion of both environments leads to improved estimates of these species’ distributions. First we calibrated ecological niche models for marine and terrestrial domains separately, and subsequently we outlined a method to combine the marine–terrestrial potential distributions by integrating estimates of the two ecological niches into a single predictive model. Our ecological niche models produced inaccurate distribution predictions of species with amphibious life histories when only one of the environments was used in model calibration. When both aquatic and terrestrial environments were included, our models predicted narrower and more accurate potential distributions. Accounting for the dual environments involved in shaping the niches of amphibious species and their distributions is essential for studying the ecology and proposing conservation management actions for the species studied here. Models that take into account only a subset of the environmental factors are prone to overestimating species’ distributions and should be interpreted with caution.
... Another important issue is the lack of information on the status of the populations. For example, in Romania the geographic range of the glacial relict Ligularia sibirica is relatively well known, but information on the population size or structure is lacking , Mânzu et al. 2013. ...
Although the taxonomic issue of Ligularia glauca remains a subject for further research, the "Fânațele seculare de la Calafindeşti" Nature Reserve, maintains its scientific relevance. Dependent on different author's opinion, this site preserves either the only L. glauca population from Romania, or the only L. carpatica population from the lower altitude xero-mesophylic meadows from Romania. Vegetation description dates from the last 40 years ago and is lacking information regarding the size of L. glauca population. Therefore, within the aim of our study is to inventory L. glauca population from Calafindesti and to highlight the main factors of anthropic origin with a negative effect on this population.
... Another important issue is the lack of information on the status of the populations. For example, in Romania the geographic range of the glacial relict Ligularia sibirica is relatively well known, but information on the population size or structure is lacking , Mânzu et al. 2013. ...
Although the taxonomic issue of Ligularia glauca remains a subject for further research, the "Fânațele seculare de la Calafindeşti" Nature Reserve, maintains its scientific relevance. Dependent on different author’s opinion, this site preserves either the only L. glauca population from Romania, or the only L. carpatica population from the lower altitude xero-mesophylic meadows from Romania. Vegetation description dates from the last 40 years ago and is lacking information regarding the size of L. glauca population. Therefore, within the aim of our study is to inventory L. glauca population from Calafindesti and to highlight the main factors of anthropic origin with a negative effect on this population.
... For assessing the evaluation of L. sibirica distribution at the national level and its populations size, of interest are those management plans which provide at least (certain) location data and population evaluation, such as ROSCI0244 (provides only population estimation), ROSCI0247 Tinovul Mare Poiana Stampei, ROSCI0086 Găina -Lucina, ROSCI0089 Gutâi -Creasta Cocoșului, ROSCI0037 Ciomad -Balvanyos, ROSCI0007 Bazinul Ciucului de Jos, ROSCI0194 Piatra Craiului, ROSCI0013 Bucegi, ROSCI0242 Tinovul Apa Roșie, ROSCI0113 Mlaștina după Luncă, and ROSCI0074 Făgetul Clujului -Valea Morii. All these seem to further support the conclusions stated by Mânzu et al. (2013) on the low efficiency of the Natura 2000 network in Romania for L. sibirica. We further consider L. sibirica as data deficient regarding the size and structure of the populations at the national level (Mânzu et al., 2013;Mihăilescu et al., 2015) (of the 35 analysed Natura 2000 sites, only in 8 are provided data on population size). ...
... All these seem to further support the conclusions stated by Mânzu et al. (2013) on the low efficiency of the Natura 2000 network in Romania for L. sibirica. We further consider L. sibirica as data deficient regarding the size and structure of the populations at the national level (Mânzu et al., 2013;Mihăilescu et al., 2015) (of the 35 analysed Natura 2000 sites, only in 8 are provided data on population size). ...
... According to the map, L. sibirica populations are located in all major subdivisions of the Carpathians (except for the Western Carpathians), being abundant in the western depressions of the Eastern Carpathians (Dornelor, Bilbor, Giurgeu, Ciuc). This was also noticed by Pop (1954) and supported by Mânzu et al. (2013) mentioning that the distribution of the species is determined by the increasing continentality of the climate in the eastern regions of Romania. Considering the fact that the L. sibirica populations can be found from Gutâi-Igniș Mountains to Postăvarul Mountain, (based on the existent distribution data) we can conclude that the Eastern Carpathians (especially their northern and western regions) provide the best environmental conditions for this species (since here is the most abundant). ...
The conservative value of glacial relict species is recognised at European level by including some of them (such as Ligularia sibirica) in the Annexes of the Habitats Directive. Hence that the distribution and population data of Ligularia sibirica are deficient, both.at European and national level, we aimed to update the species' chorology data from Romania. For this purpose, historical distribution data have been corroborated with recent data (published beginning with 2000) and with personal observations collected from the field. The results show the conservative importance of the western and northern regions of the Eastern Carpathians, and of the southern region of the Southern Carpathians. L. sibirica populations near Cluj-Napoca and Neamț County are disjointed, isolated from the continuous distribution area of the species from Romania.
... In Romania, the L. sibirica populations can be found in all the major subdivisions of the Eastern and Southern Carpathians ( fig. 1A), being abundant in the Western depressions of Eastern Carpathians (Mânzu et al. 2013). Before the discovery of an enclave in the Rila Mountains (Bulgaria), the Southern Carpathians had been considered the Southern-most limit of the species distribution range (Stoicovici 1977). ...
... Also, the studies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Heinken-Šmídová 2012) provided an argument in favour of limiting grazing in L. sibirica habitats, giving that the populations from nitrogen-poor habitats have a lower probability of extinction than those from nitrogen-rich habitats. Mânzu et al. (2013) determined the favourable niche of L. sibirica as being covered in Romania only in a proportion of 33% by the Natura 2000 Network. The real efficiency of the Natura 2000 Network is in fact even lower, in the absence of conservative management practices. ...
Background and aims – Ligularia sibirica is a glacial relict plant species in Europe. Its populations are rare and endangered in most of the European localities. Studies on glacial relics are insufficient; among them only a few focus on the population characteristics and their reproductive capacity. We aimed to determine the habitat requirements of L. sibirica populations; which factors affect the reproductive output of the populations and how the interaction of ecological and biological parameters influences their germination capacity. Methods – We described habitat conditions in terms of the Ellenberg indicators (for nitrogen availability, moisture, light, soil reaction, and temperature) in each analysed population. To determine which factors affect the population viability we performed a series of regression analyses. Germination experiment was carried under laboratory-controlled conditions at a 14/10 h. photoperiod and 24/16°C temperature, for 32 days, with cold stored seeds (at 4°C), and seeds stored at room temperature on a different substrate (moist filter paper and oligotrophic soil). The parameters influencing population germination rate were determined with general linear models. Key results – We found that the soil humidity, nitrogen availability, temperature, and lighting are the ecological factors influencing the morphological features of L. sibirica populations. The largest seeds are in the middle part of the inflorescence though this parameter has no influence on germination rate. The seeds germinated better on moist filter paper. Cold stored seeds did not show higher germination rate. Germination increased with the altitude of the populations and the seeds mass, whilst higher values of density had a negative influence on it. Conclusions – Our results suggest that habitat conditions and population characteristics are highly related to the germination success of L. sibirica. The prosperity of a population (expressed by the number of individuals) is not a guarantee of reproductive success, the densest populations having the lowest rates of germination. All rights reserved. © 2018 Meise Botanic Garden and Royal Botanical Society of Belgium.
... They have been used mostly in forest management [20,13] and soil mapping [7,22]. Only a few published articles make use of GIS maps and databases in planning the conservation measures for community interest species and habitats within the Natura 2000 Network [14,12]. ...
... Patches of alluvial forest and some Ligularia sibirica populations extend beyond the site boundaries, in the near vicinity. Extending the site boundaries to include them would be desirable, as these areas may prove important for the conservation of the habitat and of Ligularia sibirica in the future, particularly since the populations of this species are not considered to be well protected within the Romanian Natura 2000 Network [12]. ...
This paper focuses on the distribution of habitats in the Natura 2000 ROSCI0086 Găina-Lucina site, as well as on their conservation status and human impacts. The site analyzed is part of the Natura 2000 Network in Romania and is located in the region of Moldova. It has a total area of 848 ha. The habitat types for which the site has been declared are: 7110*-Active raised bogs, 91D0*-Bog woodland and 91E0*-Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae, Salicion albae). Aside from the habitat types listed in the standard form, five additional ones of community interest have been identified: 6520-Mountain hay meadows, 6510-Lowland hay meadows (Alopecurus pratensis, Sanguisorba officinalis), 9410-Acidophilous Picea forests of the montane to alpine levels (Vaccinio-Piceetea), 7140-Transition mires and quaking bogs and 6430-Hydrophilous tall herb fringe communities of plains and of the montane to alpine levels. The data collected in the field has served to verify and correct the existing Standard Natura 2000 Form of the site. It represents the scientific foundation of the Management Plan, providing information on the distribution of the habitats, their conservation status, current and potential sources of human impact, and conservation measures needed to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for these habitats.
The viability of the rare plant species populations, including also the relict species, indicates a population decline due to the independent or simultaneous action of several factors such as: habitat quality, population size and genetic diversity. This paper aims to synthesize the studies conducted over time both on Ligularia sibirica species and Ligularia genus. The main objective of the paper is to identify the following research steps necessary for the optimal characterization, monitoring and conservation of the studied species and of its related populations. Ligularia genus includes species adapted to different climatic and environmental conditions from the European and Asian continent. Following the collected scientific material which holds data about L. sibirica, the author found a total of 166 bibliographic sources, of which 107 belong to Romania. The number of scientific materials found in Romania is correlated with the distribution of the L. sibirica species in the country. At European and Asian level, have been carried out phytosociology, genetics, biochemistry, biotechnology and phytopathology studies on Ligularia, while in our country taxonomic studies predominate, being part of some floristic surveys, monographs, etc., which need to be updated and completed. It can be noticed that biochemical and cytotoxical studies could bring new perspectives on L. sibirica benefits.
