Vascular flora associated to Mediterranean temporary ponds on the island of Minorca

Abstract

Fraga i Arguimbau, P. 2008. Vascular flora associated to Mediterranean temporary ponds on the island of Minorca. Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 65(2): 393-414.Mediterranean temporary ponds are a habitat with a high interest for conservation due to their particular characteristics and especially to their biodiversity. Vascular flora is a feature that stands out for its richness and diversity. Minorca has a high representation of this habitat. A complete inventory of vascular plants related to this habitat on the island is presented here for the first time. 360 taxa have been recorded in the pond areas. Most of them are usually found outside the water influence, and just 35 have been found to be exclusive to the inundation area. The quantitative analysis of additional information like abundance within the island, chorology and life forms, compared with that of all the flora on the island, reveals some particular traits for the flora of this habitat, and especially for the plants of the inundated area. Los humedales temporales mediterráneos están catalogados como hábitats prioritarios de conservación en la Unión Europea por sus características ambientales y por su elevada biodiversidad, en la que destaca su interesante flora vascular. En la isla de Menorca se encuentra una notable representación de este tipo de ecosistema acuático. En este trabajo se ofrece, por primera vez, un inventario completo de la flora asociada a estos ambientes. Se han identificado 360 táxones, de los cuales solamente 35 están relacionados con las zonas inundadas. El análisis realizado para cada taxon -abundancia en la isla, corología y biotipos-, comparado con el realizado para el conjunto de la flora de la isla, pone de manifiesto algunos aspectos peculiares de la mencionada flora de estos hábitats, especialmente para los táxones exclusivos de la zona inundada.

Diversity and ecological characteristics of vascular flora in Mediterranean temporary pools

“…Therophytes were the dominant life form, comprising 51% of the overall flora and 61 and 71% of the ter and tw subsets, respectively. This data confirms what has been already observed in several regions, such as central Italy [44], France [45], Minorca [46], Morocco [13] and California [47]. The predominance of annuals should be considered a consequence of adaptation to harsh environmental conditions [45], mainly due to the strong variability of intra-and interannual water regimes.…”

Sensitivity of ephemeral wetland swards with Isoetes histrix Bory to environmental variables: implications for the conservation of Mediterranean temporary ponds

“…In the present study, annual species were dominant in both habitat types, followed by geophytes. These data confirm observations from several Mediterranean regions, including France (Médail et al , ), Morocco (Rhazi et al , ), Minorca (Fraga i Argimbau, ), and California (Zedler, ). The predominance of annual species (i.e.…”

Experimental study of the effect of hydrology and mechanical soil disturbance on plant communities in Mediterranean temporary pools in Western Morocco

“…The predominance of annual species in the plant community is characteristic of temporary pools (Zedler, 1987;Grillas et al, 2004;Rhazi et al, 2006;Fraga i Arguimbau, 2008). Annual species frequently predominate in case of unpredictable periods and durations of flooding and drought (Mitchell & Rogers, 1985;Brock, 1986;Médail et al, 1998).…”