Species extinction and species protection in the Iranian high mountains
FWF project: Areas of endemism in the high-mountain flora of Iran
Interview with Assoc. Prof. Mag. Dr. Gerald Schneeweiss, Department of Botany and Biodiversity
Research: http://www.botanik.univie.ac.at/plantchorology/index.htm
Gerald Schneeweiss
In your current FWF project you are investigating a so-called “hotspot of biodiversity”, namely the
“Irano-Anatolian floristic sub-region”. How did you come to choose this region and what characterizes
it as a “hotspot”?
Research on high-mountain plants has a certain tradition in our department, whether the approach
be systematic-taxonomic, phytosociological, ecological (especially in the context of global change) or,
in the case of our work group, biogeographic. The current FWF project was developed in cooperation
with Dr. Jalil Noroozi, who will work for two years as a postdoc within this project. For years, Dr.
Noroozi has been investigating vegetation ecology and biogeography of the Iranian high-mountain
flora and he wrote his dissertation on this subject at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity
Research, Division of Nature Conservation, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology. Hence, this project
reflects our overlapping research interests in the mountain flora of Southwest Asia, a region whose
enormous diversity – including many endemics, i.e., taxa whose ranges are restricted to a specific
area – remains insufficiently studied.
Fieldwork: Jalil Noroozi with Onocyclus Iris
These investigations encompass many fields of interest – biogeography, evolutionary biology as well
as ecology. Where do you position yourself or, asked differently, to what extent is interdisciplinary
cooperation necessary?
The three disciplines are tightly interrelated: you cannot fully grasp biogeography without
considering evolutionary biology and ecology. This is particularly true if one wants to go beyond pure
description and documentation of patterns to understand their underlying factors. This simply makes
interdisciplinarity a scientific necessity rather than a mere (overused) catchword.
Much of the project’s time is devoted to systematically working up material, researching in
herbariums and studying the literature, conducting analyses etc. What other methods are you
applying and what role do field studies themselves play?
The data extractable from herbaria and from the scientific literature cover the Iranian high
mountains very unevenly. Reaching a comparable state of knowledge for all Iranian high mountain
ranges requires additional field studies in previously insufficiently surveyed regions. These are
currently being conducted by Dr. Noroozi. Once all the distribution data have been entered into a
database, the biogeographical analyses can start – bare-bones computer work.
Map, showing the studied region
Based on studies in alpine regions, climate change has triggered recognizable shifts in the flora. Is this
valid for the studied region as well and, if yes, what are the underlying factors?
Survey areas from the Iranian mountains have been included in the global network GLORIA (GLobal
Observation Research Initiative in Alpine environments: www.gloria.ac.at) since 2007 (Alborz Range)
and 2011 (Sahand Range). This period is not yet long enough to obtain comparative data (as opposed
to the European high mountains), thus hindering quantifying changes in the high-mountain flora.
Many of the species restricted to the alpine (i.e. above the tree line) and especially the subnival
altitudinal zone (i.e. above the border of closed vegetation) have a local distribution, reflecting the
geographical isolation of the respective regions. One fear is that the habitats of such species will
become increasingly restricted or, in a worst-case scenario, disappear entirely due to the expected
upward shifts of species from lower altitudes in the course of global warming. Even if it merely
involves fighting the symptoms, concerted conservation measures such as establishing protected
areas around threatened high-mountain sites could be helpful. This ongoing FWF project is yielding
the data required to take such steps.