The endemic vascular flora of Sardinia: analyses, distribution patterns, ecological processes and implications for conservation

The Island of Sardinia, situated in the centre of western Mediterranean Basin, is the second largest island, after Sicily of the Mediterranean hotspot of biodiversity. Among its peculiarities, the flora of Sardinia, as well as in other Islands, is particularly represented by exclusive species or species in common only with the closest islands of Corsica and the Tuscan Archipelago. This thesis includes six manuscripts focused on the distribution pattern of the vascular plants endemic to Sardinia. About 60,000 occurrence points of a set of 283 taxa were georefenced in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. Investigations of natural and anthropogenic drivers were carried out at both local and regional scales in order to enhance knowledge about the current distribution and possible causes of recent extinctions of these species. With a conservation perspective, further analyses were carried out to point out the areas with an exceptional concentration of endemics (i.e. micro and nano hotspots) where resources for plant conservation should be concentrated. On the other side, the effectiveness of Natura 2000 network was evaluated for the conservation of species under current and future climatic conditions. This project represents only a step further towards a more comprehensive overview of the distribution pattern of endemic plant species in Sardinia. Many other researches based on the geodatabase of plant species are currently in progress and many others could be developed.