Abstract
It is widely accepted that the Mediterranean Basin is a prominent hotspot of biodiversity hosting a significant richness of plant lineages and fauna. Projected trends in the context of global change suggest this area will cope with strong increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation with consequent effects on forests and ecosystem services. Upward shifts of species range and/or mass extinction are expected to occur on a broad scale, especially in the Mediterranean. Here, mountain ecosystems would undergo the most severe reduction and fragmentation events. Further human based impacts aggravate the effects of global warming. Among them, wars and civil disorders seriously affect mountain landscapes, marking them over time.Presently, many threats of war are occurring in the Mediterranean and mostly in mountain areas at a high level of biodiversity. Furthermore, these same scenarios are overlapped with global warming, thus exposing many species to an actual risk of extinction.The aim of this study was to find a solution to the disturbances created in the forest ecosystem by the consequences of war of an identified area in the Mediterranean basin.
Highlights
Previous studies (Medail et al 2009), have identified 52 putative refugia in the Mediterranean region obtained from the analysis of the phylogeographical patterns of 82 plant species
It is clear that there is a need to protect the mountain areas of the Mediterranean basin, for the role they have in plant species conservation
Given the peculiar administrative control exerted in West Bank by Israeli and Palestinian Authorities, a shapefile map of subzones was retrieved from the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Summary
Previous studies (Medail et al 2009), have identified 52 putative refugia in the Mediterranean region obtained from the analysis of the phylogeographical patterns of 82 plant species. These refugia mainly concern the coastal mountain areas of the Mediterranean basin, due to the fact that the microclimate of these areas protect the plant species from climate changes and other disturbances. It is clear that there is a need to protect the mountain areas of the Mediterranean basin, for the role they have in plant species conservation. The Mediterranean area is going through a period of disorders and civil wars that, in addition to the already present human pressure, risk destabilizing the natural evolution of plant species. We are witnessing a greater susceptibility of soils to degradation, but above all, to a plant biodiversity loss
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