Biodiversity Hotspots: Mediterranean Basin

                                       Biodiversity Hotspots: Mediterranean Basin

The one word that most people don't know is biodiversity and even is they have heard the word most people don't know what it means. Biodiversity means the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. For this post I has chosen the Mediterranean basin. The reason for this area being considered a biodiversity hotspot is due to the regions high level of  species confined to one region and with over 12,000 species found nowhere else in the world. The Mediterranean Basin resides in the Mediterranean region and is part of over 16 different countries, examples being Greece, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Libya. The Mediterranean basin also cover around 5,000 islands scattered around the Mediterranean Sea and of mainland includes the Micronesian Islands. The Mediterranean Basin is a amazing area covering lots of countries and plenty of islands.

The Mediterranean Basin holds many ecological services and economic services. The Mediterranean Basin hold a large richness of forest and species confined to one region. This large variety of trees has been very important for the large variety of species and a large piece of their economy. The area holds about 290 indigenous tree species with around 201 endemic tree species. In this Hotspot out of 22,500 species of plants approximately 11,700 of those species are found nowhere else in the world. As of a result of the areas large amounts of plants and variety of animal species the area has              accumulated a large amount of tourism                    (Picture of the Mediterranean Basin with the highlighted countries it covers)

 from it, which is a big economic income for the area. The Mediterranean area has a large species biodiversity and due to large amounts of tourism it is declining. Due to this rise in species diversity loss the genetic biodiversity of the mediterranean basin has decreased a lot. This loss of genetic and species biodiversity has both affected both the plant population and animal population.

The Mediterranean Basin was once covered in evergreen oak forests, deciduous and  conifer forests but due to 8,000 years of human settlement and habitat modification it has greatly changed the characteristics of the region. This region used to be a lush area filled with different forests and vegetation but due to the large human involvement the area has been changed a lot. Today most of the widespread vegetation type is hard leafed sclerophyllous shrublands called Marquis or atorral. The Mediterranean Basin has faced intense human development over thousands of years which is significantly longer that most biodiversity hotspots. The greatest impact of human development over the years has been the deforestation and burning of the land for farming and agricultural uses. This as a result has greatly decreased the land on which a lot of the species live there. From the loss of vegetation of the Mediterranean this degradation of the region it has been called a biodiversity hotspot.

The Mediterranean Basin has a number of political and economic problems over the years that have caused the degradation of the region. Over the years the Mediterranean has had a number of financial crises where unemployment was at a high causing a lot of people to turn toward the environment for money. The Region has also faced a large amount of political deadlocks which caused some of the unemployment in the region. Another problem that the region has faced is the large migration of people into other countries which has caused a large amount of unemployment and the need for space which in turn affects the environment by creating space for the new people and the new resources needed for the people. The Mediterranean Basin Has dealt With alot of economic and political problems over the years which has caused the degradation of the the environment and biodiversity of 

the region, and due to the recent fall off a lot of European economies it greatly affected the economic structure of a lot of the region.

There are now roughly 300 million people living in the Mediterranean basin and because of this a lot of room is needed for these people which puts a big damper on the species biodiversity of the species there. There a a large amount of endangered species in the Mediterranean that are endangered ranging from over 90 species because of environmental                                         (The population growth of the Mediterranean basin in the 1950's)

stress that is put upon the region. There are a wide variety of endangered species varying from marine animals to land mammals and plants. some examples of these species would be the Supramonte cave

 salamander to the Morris Squill plant ,all of which have faced dangers that are now causing them to become endangered.

                                                                          (Picture of the Supramonte cave salamander) Link

                                                   

                                                                                    (Picture of the Morris squill plant) Link



 Below is a picture of a food web of the Mediterranean Chaparral Biome. The Mediterranean Basin is a large area filled with hundreds of individual food webs since the area  covers over several countries. In the picture below we can see a mountainous region with wild goats and pumas.

                                                        (Food web of an area in Greece, which is the the Mediterranean Basin)        

In the Mediterranean Basin conservation is no old new idea with the Greeks and Romans both setting apart land to be protected. But even with these efforts only 4.3 of the Mediterranean is set aside for protection. One major idea for protecting these areas is to expand the areas to help protect the species in the area, but the one fear to this plan is that the area will not be big enough to support a lot of the endangered species that need protecting. The one conservation method that has seen some success is the plan in which that land is aloud to used for it's resources but in a sustainable manner of getting them. There has been other plans set in place for the conservation of the marine animals in where new ideas are being thought up to protect marine species and a 25 year plan to reduce land pollution.

(Chart of protected Area)

(Amount of species and endemism) 

                                                                      (Species/area ratios per 100 km2 of hotspots)

(Congruence between plants and vertebrates)

(Leading Hotspots in terms of endemics)

(The eight hottest hotspots in terms of five factors)

Over my research for this subject i have learned many things about the Mediterranean basin and its many problems and species. The one thing that really sparked my interest was the long past of conservation and how even the ancient Greeks and Romans had set up areas to protect. I really thought it was interesting that there are amazing plans already set in place for the conservation of the area but what really bothered me was that only 4.3 of the area was protected. One suggestion that i have for the protection of the area would be the expansion of the protection areas already set in place and the setting in place of new protection areas. I really enjoyed doing this subject and hope to learn more about the biodiversity hotspots of the world.

Links:

• http://buteraapes.wikispaces.com/file/view/Biodiversity%20hotspots%20for%20conservation%20priorities.pdf/533909268/Biodiversity%20hotspots%20for%20conservation%20priorities.pdf
• http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150647/
• http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011842
• http://www.researchgate.net/publication/236260288_Conservation_genetics_of_an_endemic_from_the_Mediterranean_Basin_high_genetic_differentiation_but_no_genetic_diversity_loss_from_the_last_populations_of_the_Sicilian_Grape_Hyacinth_Leopoldia_gussonei
• http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/the_mediterranean_a_biodiversity_hotspot_under_threat.pdf
• http://one-europe.info/the-challenges-of-europe-and-the-mediterranean
• http://www.arkive.org/explore/species?q=endangered&theme=mediterranean-basin
• http://www.arkive.org/eco-regions/mediterranean-basin/
• http://paigemoses.blogspot.com/ (Food Web Picture)
• http://www.arkive.org/north-west-italian-cave-salamander/speleomantes-strinatii/image-G107388.html
• http://www.arkive.org/morris-squill/scilla-morrisii/