Madagascar is renowned for its impressive species richness and high level of endemism, which led to the island being recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. As in many other regions, Madagascar’s biodiversity is highly...
Abstract. Madagascar is renowned for its unparalleled species richness and levels of endemism, which have led, in combination with species extinction cause
The establishment of baseline IUCN Red List assessments for plants is a crucial step in conservation planning. Nowhere is this more important than in biodiversity hotspots that are subject to significant anthropogenic pressures, such as Madagascar. Here, all Madagascar palm species are assessed using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, version 3.1. Our results indicate that 83% of the 192 endemic species are threatened, nearly four times the proportion estimated for plants globally and exceeding estimates for all other comprehensively evaluated plant groups in Madagascar. Compared with a previous assessment in 1995, the number of Endangered and Critically Endangered species has substantially increased, due to the discovery of 28 new species since 1995, most of which are highly threatened. The conservation status of most species included in both the 1995 and the current assessments has not changed. Where change occurred, more species have moved to lower threat categories than to higher categories, because of improved knowledge of species and their distributions, rather than a decrease in extinction risk. However, some cases of genuine deterioration in conservation status were also identified. Palms in Madagascar are primarily threatened by habitat loss due to agriculture and biological resource use through direct exploitation or collateral damage. The recent extension of Madagascar’s protected area network is highly beneficial for palms, substantially increasing the number of threatened species populations included within reserves. Notably, three of the eight most important protected areas for palms are newly designated. However, 28 threatened and data deficient species are not protected by the expanded network, including some Critically Endangered species. Moreover, many species occurring in protected areas are still threatened, indicating that threatening processes persist even in reserves. Definitive implementation of the new protected areas combined with local community engagement are essential for the survival of Madagascar’s palms.
Assessing the effectiveness of Madagascar’s changing protected areas system: a case study of threatened Boraginales - Volume 45 Issue 2
The economic and ecological costs of wildfire in the United States have risen substantially in recent decades. Although climate change has likely enabled a portion of the increase in wildfire activ...
Aim We investigated whether climate change has affected the potential feeding activity of a winter active larva, the pine processionary moth (PPM), Thaumetopoea pityocampa L., and whether it may exp...
Nanjarisoa, O. P., Besnard, G., Ralimanana, H., Jeannoda, H. V. and Vorontsova, M. S. 2017. Grass survey of the Itremo Massif records endemic central highland grasses. Madagascar Conservation & Development 12, 1.
Knowledge of the dispersal mechanisms used by plants is important in phylogenetic, ecological, biogeographical, and conservation studies. Here we atte…
Background and aims – The Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Madagascar project aims to evaluate and enumerate the native and naturalized vascular plant flora of Madagascar. In light of the past two decades of intensive collecting and taxonomic work, all relevant published literature and available specimens are being reassessed in order to evaluate the taxonomic status and distribution of the native and naturalized taxa of vascular plants. Here we provide current figures for the total numbers of vascular plants and levels of endemism at the order, family, genus and species levels, comparing them to previous historical counts and analyzing the distribution of the non-endemic element of the flora. Key Results – At the time of writing (April 2010), more than a century after Baron first counted 4,100 species of vascular plants in Madagascar, the Madagascar Catalogue database had registered a total of 14,883 accepted names at all taxonomic levels (64 orders, 243 families, 1,730 genera, 11,220 species and 1,626 infraspecific taxa). Of the 11,220 species of vascular plants in Madagascar, 10,650 (95%) are angiosperms, of which 331 are naturalized introduced species. The remaining accepted indigenous angiosperm species total 10,319, of which 8,621 (84%) are endemic to Madagascar (82% endemism for all indigenous vascular plants). Among the 1,698 non-endemic species of indigenous angiosperms, a total of 1,372 (81%) also occur in Africa, of these 654 (39%) are present only in Africa and Madagascar.
The establishment of baseline IUCN Red List assessments for plants is a crucial step in conservation planning. Nowhere is this more important than in biodiversity hotspots that are subject to significant anthropogenic pressures, such as Madagascar. Here, all Madagascar palm species are assessed using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, version 3.1. Our results indicate that 83% of the 192 endemic species are threatened, nearly four times the proportion estimated for plants globally and exceeding estimates for all other comprehensively evaluated plant groups in Madagascar. Compared with a previous assessment in 1995, the number of Endangered and Critically Endangered species has substantially increased, due to the discovery of 28 new species since 1995, most of which are highly threatened. The conservation status of most species included in both the 1995 and the current assessments has not changed. Where change occurred, more species have moved to lower threat categories than to higher categories, because of improved knowledge of species and their distributions, rather than a decrease in extinction risk. However, some cases of genuine deterioration in conservation status were also identified. Palms in Madagascar are primarily threatened by habitat loss due to agriculture and biological resource use through direct exploitation or collateral damage. The recent extension of Madagascar’s protected area network is highly beneficial for palms, substantially increasing the number of threatened species populations included within reserves. Notably, three of the eight most important protected areas for palms are newly designated. However, 28 threatened and data deficient species are not protected by the expanded network, including some Critically Endangered species. Moreover, many species occurring in protected areas are still threatened, indicating that threatening processes persist even in reserves. Definitive implementation of the new protected areas combined with local community engagement are essential for the survival of Madagascar’s palms.
Grasses, by their high productivity even under very low pCO2, their ability to survive repeated burning and to tolerate long dry seasons, have transformed the terrestrial biomes in the Neogene and ...
Estimates of non-microbial diversity on Earth range from 2 million to over 50 million species, with great uncertainties in numbers of insects, fungi, …
Annales Botanici Fennici publishes research in systematics, evolution, phylogeography, taxonomy and nomenclature of plants and fungi.
Late Quaternary Stratigraphic Charcoal Records from Madagascar - Volume 28 Issue 2
Despite the severe threats to plant habitats and high levels of extinction risk for plant species in many parts of the world, plant conservation priorities
Abstract. With 72 species belonging to ten genera, Sarcolaenaceae are the largest and most diverse of Madagascar's endemic plant families. Comprising shrub
Species distribution models predict a wholesale redistribution of trees in the next century, yet migratory responses necessary to spatially track climates far exceed maximum post-glacial rates. The e...
Predicting climate change impact on ecosystem structure and services is one of the most important challenges in ecology. Until now, plant species response to climate change has been described at th...
This paper reports results of a catchment experiment on the Eastern Transvaal escarpment, South Africa. Gauging of flow from the catchments under natu…
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden contains papers focused primarily in systematic botany and evolutionary biology.
