Exploring Effective Conservation of Charismatic Flora: Orchids in Armenia as a Case Study

Abstract

Plants are the bedrock of life on Earth but are increasingly threatened with extinction. The most cost-effective way of conserving plant diversity is through Protected Areas (PAs). However, the locality, size, and management of PAs are crucial for effectively maintaining diversity and have been criticized as currently inadequate. Using Armenia as our study site and orchids as our study taxa, we sought to (1) identify spatial patterns of orchid diversity hotspots and corresponding PA network sites; (2) examine if the current PA network is effective at capturing orchid species richness and diversity and (3) explore the relationship between the range of area suitability of species and level of protection. We used data collected from herbarium, field visits and GBIF occurrence records. Using freely available mapping software, we created heatmaps of observations and species richness. We compared PA sites based on the number of species (species richness) and diversity (Shannon–Weiner Index). Species range was developed using the MaxEnt model and a correlation analysis was performed against the proportion of the range within PA. We found that 57% of PA sites have a representation of at least one species of orchid, but some threatened species are not presented within any PA site. The Tavush and Syunik province not only held the highest species richness (>10 species), but the PA network within also held high orchid diversity (2.5 diversity index value for Dilijan National Park). We did not find a significant relationship between the range of area suitability for orchids and protection; however, all our target species had less than 30% of their range under protection. Our study highlights important challenges related to the limitations of available data, and we discuss these implications towards effective conservation outcomes for orchids for the region.

A comprehensive review on threats and conservation status of orchids

“…According to the APG III classification system (2009), Orchidaceae is divided into five subfamilies, namely, Apostasioideae, Cypripedioideae, Vanilloideae, Epidendroideae, and Orchidoideae [17]. In present, there are 28,484 recognized and accepted species within the family [18]. These plants are highly sensitive to pollution in their habitats and require special attention to ensure their survival [19].…”

WASP: the World Archives of Species Perception

“…In the former direction, the focus is on the individual plant level—the researcher identifies the plant features that elicit humans’ response. Research in this path is often interested in species with visual esthetics, such as large, tall, long-lived trees ( 40 ) or colorful, spectacular flowers ( 41 , 42 ). This topic is mainly studied in tourism research for its practical implications for the tourism sector ( 40 , 42 ).…”

Impacts of physiological characteristics and human activities on the species distribution models of orchids taking the Hengduan Mountains as a case

“…Since orchids could be considered flagship taxa for biodiversity conservation due to their advanced evolution status, their biogeography studies via SDMs are instrumental in identifying conservation priorities and analyzing biogeographic patterns in biodiversity hotspots (Crain & Fernandez, 2020;Luo et al, 2003). However, in the orchid SDMs, researchers always use all occurrence data as sample inputs to the model (Crain & Fernandez, 2020;Djordjevic et al, 2020;Djordjevic et al, 2016;Faruk et al, 2021;Tsiftsis & Tsiripidis, 2020;Wan et al, 2014). Orchids have broad ecological fitness and are dependent more on the microenvironment (Kelly et al, 2013;Souza Rocha & Luiz Waechter, 2010).…”