Rossano Bolpagni, Alex Laini, Chiara Stanzani, Alessandro Chiarucci
Abstract
Italy is recognized as one of the prominent hot spot areas for plant diversity at regional and global scale, hosting a rich range of ecosystems and habitat types. This is especially true considering aquatic habitats, which represent a major portion of the total water surfaces in the Mediterranean region. Nevertheless, only a scant attention was paid to clarify the species richness of aquatic plant and its contribution to the total diversity at the country scale, despite such plants are seriously threatened at multiple scales. This paper provided the first comprehensive inventory of aquatic plants at the whole country scale, collecting data on species' distribution, trends, and explanatory determinants of species richness. We confirmed the key contribution of Italy to the regional and global aquatic plant diversity with a total of 279 species recorded since 2005, equal to the 88.5%, 55.9% and ∼10% of the richness estimated at European/Mediterranean, Palearctic and global scale, respectively. Ten species are considered extinct in the wild [among whichAldrovanda vesiculosaL.,Caldesia parnassifolia(Bassi ex L.) Parl.,Helosciadium repens(Jacq.) W.J.D. Koch, andPilularia globuliferaL.], four were doubt [among whichLuronium natans(L.) Raf.,Utricularia intermediaHayne, andU. ochroleucaR.W. Hartman.], and eight were erroneously reported in the past, among whichIsoëtes lacustrisL.,Myosotis rehsteineriWartm., andRanunculus aquatilisL. Only 18 species - mainly helophytes (14) - were present in all the 20 Italian regions, whereas hydrophytes showed most scanty regional frequencies. Temperature, latitude, area and water resources availability are the main drivers of aquatic plant spatial arrangement and diversity. Furthermore, the number of inhabitants per km2well described the number of "lost species" since 2000. The findings of the present survey call for an urgent elaboration of large-scale strategies to ensure the survival of aquatic plants, stressing on multiple functions played by aquatic plants in supporting national economy and human well-being. In this context, Italy can play a fundamental role guaranteeing temporary refuge for projected or expected species migrations along latitude and longitude gradients. Besides, in hyper-exploited landscapes man-made water bodies can further enhance the achievement of minimum conservation targets.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 May 2019.
All research outputs
#6,357,029
of 23,023,224 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Plant Science
#3,524
of 20,547 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#134,004
of 446,078 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Plant Science
#105
of 468 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,023,224 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 20,547 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.0. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 446,078 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 468 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
