Published December 19, 2024
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IranVeg – the Vegetation Database of Iran: current status and the way forward
Authors/Creators
- Ramzi, Soghra1
- Noroozi, Jalil2
- Gholizadeh, Hamid3
- Hamzeh'ee, Behnam4
- Asri, Younes4
- Talebi, Amir5
- Moradi, Halime6
- Mahdavi, Parastoo7
- Tamjidi Eramsadati, Seyedeh Saeedeh1
- Zarezadeh, Somayeh1
- Kamrani, Asghar8
- Esmailzadeh, Omid9
- Ghorbanalizadeh, Atefeh10
- Bashirzadeh, Maral11
- Jalili, Adel4
- Sharifi, Jaber12
- Moradi, Aiuob13
- Bidarlord, Mahmoud13
- Siadati, Soudeh14
- Lotfi, Sajad1
- Attar, Farideh15
- Darzi, Maedeh Mohammadpour1
- Gorji, Zeynab Kazemi14
- Ghasemi, Sharyan1
- Dehghani, Mehdi16
- Rahmanian, Soroor17
- Esmailpoor, Ali1
- Sanaei, Anvar18
- Ghafari, Sahar19
- Ashouri, Parvaneh4
- Ali, Arshad20
- Dehghani, Abdolrahman1
- Hosseini, Somayeh1
- Hamedani, Hajar1
- Tirgan, Samereh21
- Maghsoudi, Mohaddeseh22
- Daneshi, Aliakbar23
- Eshaghi Rad, Javad24
- Eslami, Mohammadreza25
- Ramezani, Mahdis1
- Mehrabi, Zahra1
- Naqipour, Zahra1
- Naseri, Nadia1
- Bahari, Hossein1
- Ashouri, Maryam14
- Vasefi, Narges26
- Seyedakhlaghi, Seyed Abbas14
- Ejtehadi, Hamid27
- Farzam, Mohammad28
- Mokhtari, Somayeh1
- Djamali, Morteza29
- Ramezani, Elias24
- Zare, Habib30
- Masudian, Nahid31
- Alinejad, Raheleh1
- Kasiri, Mojdeh1
- Hosseini, Mahboubeh Sadat1
- Raeisi, Masoumeh1
- Ravanbakhsh, Hooman4
- Essl, Franz2
- Jalilvand, Hamid32
- Abedi, Mehdi9
- Bahalkeh, Khadijeh9
- Naqinezhad, Alireza33
- 1. University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
- 2. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- 3. University of Siena, Siena, Italy
- 4. Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran
- 5. Plant Bank, Iranian Biological Resource Center (IBRC), Research Complex of ACECR (Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture & Research), Karaj, Iran
- 6. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- 7. Thünen Institut, Braunschweig, Germany
- 8. University of Shahed, Tehran, Iran
- 9. Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Iran
- 10. Unaffiliated, Kerman, Iran
- 11. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran|University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
- 12. Forests and Rangelands Research Division, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Ardabil Province, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Ardabil, Iran
- 13. Guilan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Rasht, Iran
- 14. University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
- 15. University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
- 16. University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran
- 17. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany
- 18. Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- 19. University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
- 20. Hebei University, Baoding, China
- 21. University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran|University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
- 22. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran|University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
- 23. Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran|University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
- 24. Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
- 25. University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran|Biology Education Department, General Education Department of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, Zahedan, Iran
- 26. Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, ACECR, Tehran, Iran|University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
- 27. University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada|Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
- 28. Curtin University, Perth, Australia|Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
- 29. University of Avignon, CNRS, IRD, IMBE (Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie), Aix-en-Provence, France
- 30. Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Nowshahr Botanical Garden, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Nowshahr, Iran
- 31. Islamic Azad University, Damghan, Iran
- 32. Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran
- 33. University of Mazandaran, Balbolsar, Iran|University of Derby, Derby, United Kingdom
Description
Iran, situated in Southwest Asia, showcases a diverse landscape, including three phytogeographical regions and two global biodiversity hotspots. This diversity is attributed to its intricate geology, mountainous terrain, wide altitudinal range, and heterogeneous climate, fostering a rich flora characterized by a significant proportion of endemism. We present an updated version of the Vegetation Database of Iran (IranVeg) (GIVD ID AS-IR-001), comprising 13,411 plots spanning six major habitat types. These encompass deciduous forests (18.0%), woodlands and shrublands (5.6%), steppes and other grasslands (52.0%), saline depressions (9.3%), wetlands (12.2%), and anthropogenic habitats (2.9%), derived from 100 published and unpublished resources, comprising 3,919 plant species, belonging to 961 genera and 147 families. The vegetation data of Iran have been assigned to 31 valid and invalid phytosociological classes. The oldest plots were recorded in 1936 in the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran, while more than 60% of all plots were collected after 2010. Plot sizes vary from less than 1 m2 to 10,000 m2 with the highest species richness of 101 species recorded in a 25 m2 montane grassland plot. IranVeg stands as the first national vegetation database in Iran, promising valuable insights into biodiversity patterns and facilitating the assessment of future environmental and anthropogenic changes. It remains open to further development through a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. This comprehensive database holds significant potential for advancing vegetation classification and survey efforts in Iran and beyond.
Taxonomic reference: World Flora Online (WFO 2024).
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