Abstract

Italy has a rich natural heritage, which is dangerously under pressure. In recent years, there is an increased awareness of the crucial role of plants in ecosystem functioning and in providing ecosystem services. Consequently, an updated Red List of the Italian vascular flora was compiled in this work, at the request of the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection, with the scientific support of the Italian Botanical Society. The IUCN Red List criteria were applied to 2,430 Italian native vascular plant taxa to assess their current extinction risk and to highlight the major threats affecting the Italian flora. Our results revealed that 54 taxa (2.2% of the assessed taxa) are extinct or possibly extinct at regional level, while 590 taxa (24.3%) were assigned to a risk category. Moreover, 404 taxa (16.6%) were categorized as Data Deficient. The Italian vascular flora is primarily threatened by habitat modifications due to anthropic disturbance and, especially, to agriculture, tourism and residential development. Coastal areas and lowlands, where anthropogenic impacts and ecosystem destruction are more pronounced, host the greatest number of extinct or declining taxa. Our results represent an important baseline to establish conservation priorities, legislative choices and intervention strategies on a national scale.

摘要

意大利拥有丰富的自然遗产，面临巨大的压力。近年来，人们越来越意识到植物在生态系统功能和提供生态系统服务中的关键作用。因此，在意大利植物学会的科学支持下，应环境，陆地和海洋保护部的要求，在这项工作中编制了一份最新的意大利维管植物红色名录。IUCN红色名录标准已应用于2,430种意大利本土维管植物类群，以评估其目前的灭绝风险并强调影响意大利植物区系的主要威胁。我们的结果表明，有54个分类单元（占所评估分类单元的2.2％）在区域级别已灭绝或可能灭绝，而将590个分类单元（24.3％）归为风险类别。此外，有404个分类单元（占16.6％）被归类为“数据不足”。由于人为干扰，尤其是农业，旅游业和住宅开发，栖息地的改变威胁着意大利维管植物群的生存。人为影响和生态系统破坏更为明显的沿海地区和低地，拥有绝大部分或正在下降的生物分类。我们的结果代表了在全国范围内建立保护重点，立法选择和干预策略的重要基准。