Determining Conservation Hotspots Across Biogeographic Regions Using Rainfall Belts: Israel as a Case Study.

Citation:

Levin N, Shmida A. Determining Conservation Hotspots Across Biogeographic Regions Using Rainfall Belts: Israel as a Case Study. Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution [Internet]. 2007;53 (1) :33 - 58.

Abstract:

With the current loss of biodiversity, efforts are being amassed to prioritize biodiversity hotspots that should receive high conservation priority. These studies often compare different biogeogrpahical regions using absolute estimates of species richness or rarity. Consequently, arid, semiarid, and other areas (e.g., boreal) are often ignored or are undervalued. Here, using a regional case study, we propose and demonstrate an approach that enables us to determine plant-based hotspots over landscape units across biogeographical regions using normalized, and comparing with absolute, measures. Three botanical variables were calculated for 521 predetermined landscape units in Israel. These included plant species richness, the sum of scores of red (endangered) species, and a spatial exclusiveness score, all calculated from the Israel Plant Information Center (Rotem) database. We classified the landscape units into six rainfall belts (from extreme-arid to mesic-Mediterranean), as a normali

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