Abstracts (in descending order of the publication date)

Abstract of a poster presented at the XII OPTIMA Meeting (Pisa, Italy, 10–16 September 2007)

Alchemilla in Mediterranean Europe as revealed by Atlas Florae Europaeae

by UOTILA, P., KURTTO, A. & SENNIKOV, A.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) volume 14 is expected to be published at the end of 2007. The volume covers the genera Alchemilla (430 species in Europe, well over 1 000 in the world) and Aphanes (9 species in Europe, 22 in the world). The genus Alchemilla has never before been mapped in its entirety on a European scale. In Europe, the proportion of endemic species is 84%. The great majority of the endemics are mountain species, and many of them have very limited ranges in one or in a few 50 ? 50 km AFE grid cells only. In the Mediterranean countries, Alchemilla species are confined to high mountains. The known diversity and endemism are especially high in N. Spain and adjacent France as well as in the Balkan peninsula, but it is estimated that there are still 50 new species to be found in each of these areas (Frohner 1999). In the Cordillera Cantabrica–Pyrenees range and its subsidiary chains there are 96 species, of which 50 (52%) are endemics (incl. A. albinervia, A. benasquiensis, A. borderei, A. catalaunica, A. fulgens, A. hoppeaniformis, A. impedicellata ). The Alps are very rich in Alchemillae , and many of the species concentrated there have additional stations further south along the Apennines. Of the 41 species present in the Apennines, only 3 are endemics ( A. austroitalica, A. ceroniana, A. marsica ). The Balkan Alchemilla flora (62 species) includes the southernmost outposts of many of the Alpine and/or Carpathian species. In total there are 23 endemics (37%; incl. A. bulgarica, A. catochnoa, A. heterophylla, A. heterotricha, A. indivisa, A. pirinica, A. viridiflora ). Crimea has 20 species, of which at least 18 (90%) are endemics (incl. A. brevidens, A. camptopoda, A. crebridens, A. exuens, A. jailae ) . In the country-specific totals for Alchemilla species, the Mediterranean is well represented in the European top ten: France 123, Switzerland 100, Slovakia 98, Italy 96, European Russia 95, Spain 84, Austria 83, Ukraine 60, Germany 57, Poland 56.

Abstract of a poster in the XI OPTIMA Meeting (Belgrade, 5–11 September 2004)

New Atlas Florae Europaeae

by UOTILA, P., KURTTO, A. & JUNIKKA, L.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) is a project for mapping the distribution of vascular plants in Europe. The project was launched already in 1965 as a collaborative effort of European botanists and since the beginning the secretariat has functioned in Helsinki. The principal aim of the AFE is to offer complementary maps with taxonomic notes of species and subspecies for the Flora Europaea. So far thirteen volumes of AFE have been published, and they cover ca. 3400 species and subspecies, i.e. over 1/5 of the flora of Europe.

Volume 13 has been published in August 2004. It covers such important genera as roses (Rosa) and cinquefoils (Potentilla) in its 320 pages. The maps are bi-coloured and they number 286. Even the general layout has been improved. Earlier volumes were compiled manually, but now database programs have been put to use in collecting of data and preparation of the volume. Moreover, a well-defined amendment has been the modification of the grid systems of AFE and several European faunistic atlases to a uniform basis. Hence maps of plants and animals can be compared effectively in various conservation and biodiversity studies.

Abstract of a poster in the Third International Balkan Botanical Congress (Sarajevo, 18–23 May 2003)

New Atlas Florae Europaeae and Euro+Med Plantbase distribution mapping

by UOTILA, P.*, LAHTI, T., JUNIKKA, L., KURTTO, A. & LAMPINEN, R.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

The first volume of Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) was published in 1971, and the 13th volume, the first part of Rosaceae, is expected in 2003. As previously, data for maps will be provided by the regional collaborators. However, new software has been developed for providing the mapping data electronically. But from volume 13 onwards there will be several fundamental changes in the mapping method. The most important change is the adoption of a new grid system for AFE. The new grid extends over land and sea in a regular pattern, without any deviation for islands, capes etc. This adds ca. 330 new grid cells to Europe, many of them to the Balkan coasts. The new grid will also be used by other projects for mapping the fauna and flora of Europe. The new grid and the updated Data Editor software will be used for collecting distribution data for the Euro+Med PlantBase project. The old AFE data has been converted to the new grid, and will be put together with the new data collected by using the new grid. This dot information will be shown on the Euro+Med plant distribution web pages together with the territory level presence/absence data, including status categories, from the core database of Euro+Med PlantBase.

Abstract of a poster in International Congress for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (Patras, 9–16 Sept 2002)

From Atlas Florae Europaeae to Euro+Med Plantbase distribution mapping

by Uotila, P., Lahti, T., Junikka, L. & Kurtto, A.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

The mapping project of the vascular plants of Europe, Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE), was launched in 1965. The first volume was published in 1971, and the 12th volume, published in 1999, completed the mapping of the taxa covered by Flora Europaea volume 1. The publication of the 13th volume, the first part of Rosaceae (Rosa and Potentilla), is expected in 2002. In volumes 1-12 the contents of the text and the mapping method has largely remained unchanged. From volume 13 onwards there will be several fundamental changes in the mapping method. As previously, data for maps will be provided by the regional collaborators. However, new software, “Atlas Florae Europaeae Data Editor”, has been developed for providing the mapping data electronically, and includes an option for documentation. The most important change is the adoption of a new grid system for AFE. The new grid is still based on UTM and MGRS, but it now extends over land and sea in a regular pattern, without any deviation for islands, capes etc. This will add ca. 330 new grid cells to Europe. The new grid will also be used by other projects for mapping the fauna and flora of Europe and, because of the regular pattern it is relatively easy to make co-ordinate converting programs from national grid systems to the new grid. Even the old AFE data has been converted to the new grid. Because the new grid was calculated for a much wider area than that covered by Flora Europaea, it is possible to use it for collecting distribution data for the Euro+Med PlantBase project. The Data Editor software will also be updated to cover the Euro-Mediterranean area. Dot data collected by using the new grid, and territory level presence/absence data, including status categories, from the core database of Euro+Med PlantBase, will be shown on the Euro+Med plant distribution web pages. As far as possible AFE will use the territory divisions and other data standards adopted for the Euro+Med PlantBase project.

Abstracts of posters in the OPTIMA Meeting in Palermo (Sicily, 12–23 Sept 2001)

New face of Atlas Florae Europaeae

by Uotila, P., Kurtto, A., Junikka, L. & Lampinen, R.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Mapping of the taxa in volume one of Flora Europaea was completed in 1999 when the 12th volume of Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) was published. The preparation of the 13th volume, the first part of Rosaceae, is well advanced, and its publication is expected in spring 2002. The contents of the text and the mapping method itself largely remain the same as in the previous volumes. The basic text will be written mostly in Helsinki and the mapping work will be done mainly by the Regional Collaborators. However, special simple software “Atlas Florae Europaeae Data Editor” has been developed for providing the mapping data and to save the information as a database. A possibility for documentation has been included in the software.

However, several fundamental changes have taken place in the mapping. The most important change is adopting a new grid system for AFE. The new grid extends over land and sea following a regular pattern, without any deviation for islands, capes etc. This will add 200--300 new cells to AFE. Further, the new grid has been calculated in addition to Europe for a wider area, which includes the whole area of OPTIMA. The new grid will be used also by other European projects for mapping the fauna and flora of the continent. Because of the regular pattern it is relatively easy to make co-ordinate converting programs from national grid systems to the new grid. Even the old AFE data will be converted to the new grid.

The recent political changes in Europe will be adopted in the territory division of Atlas Florae Europaeae. In the future, only administrative borders should be used for any subdivisions of Europe, except for clearly isolated islands. This means considerable changes in the subdivision of Russia. It also means minor changes in eastern and south-eastern land border of Europe. As far as possible AFE will follow the territory division, as well as other principles adopted by the Euro+Med PlantBase project, and is now acting as one of the satellite databases of that project.

Comparison of the vascular flora of Mediterranean peninsulas on the basis of distribution mapping

by Junikka, L. & Uotila, P.
Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O.Box 7, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) is a project for mapping the distribution of vascular plants in Europe. So far 3270 maps has been published in 12 volumes, completely covering the volume one of Flora Europaea (Lycopodiaceae - Platanaceae), which include more than 20% of the European vascular plant flora.

We compared distributions of vascular plants of three Mediterranean peninsulas: the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal without the Balearic Islands and Azores), the Apennine Peninsula (Italy without Sardinia and Sicily) and the Balkan Peninsula (Albania, Bulgaria, Greece without Crete, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe and the former Yugoslavia). Altogether 2 715 species and intraspesific taxa were included (AFE vols. 1-9). On the basis of this data we formed for each peninsula a map, which displays the whole distribution in Europe of all the taxa concerned. Because of the fact that the number of taxa recorded in each grid cell often depicts more the botanical activity within the area than the real amount of taxa, we divided the peninsula taxa by the total number of taxa recorded in each grid cell. The aim was to find the phytogeographical affinities of the flora in each peninsula.

The vascular plant taxa of the Iberian Peninsula are abundant in Western Europe, which shows strong affinity with the Atlantic Province and weaker affinity with the Central European and Mediterranean Provinces. By contrast the Apennine Peninsula has a quite clear floristic affinity with islands (Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica), in the southern Alps, and in the Dinaric Alps and more generally the Central European Province, but less so with the Atlantic Province. Even many boreal taxa seem to be abundant in the Apennines. The Balkan peninsula is floristically the most diverse in this sample and distribution of taxa over Europe is extensive not only in Central European and Boreal Provinces, but also in Apennine Peninsula. Of the three South European peninsulas the Balkan peninsula is the richest in vascular plant taxa, but it also covers the most extensive area. The Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas are very similar in species number, but the Iberian Peninsula has much more "own taxa" than the Apennine Peninsula. Floristically the Balkan and the Apennine peninsulas have closer affinity than either Balkan and Iberian or Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas. Other suprising pattern revealed in the study is the similarity of peninsula taxa with southeastern part of Europe, i.e. areas E of the Sea of Azov. There are some factors, however, which obscure the picture. Low number of records in the grid cells of parts of all peninsulas, particularly in Greece, and Eastern Europe are indications lower botanical activity and the vastness of the territory.