IranVeg – the Vegetation Database of Iran: current status and the way forward
Iran, situated in Southwest Asia, showcases a diverse landscape, including three phytogeographical regions and two global biodiversity hotspots. This diversity is attributed to its intricate geology, mountainous terrain, wide altitudinal range, and heterogeneous climate, fostering a rich flora characterized by a significant proportion of endemism. We present an updated version of the Vegetation Database of Iran (IranVeg) (GIVD ID AS-IR-001), comprising 13,411 plots spanning six major habitat types. These encompass deciduous forests (18.0%), woodlands and shrublands (5.6%), steppes and other grasslands (52.0%), saline depressions (9.3%), wetlands (12.2%), and anthropogenic habitats (2.9%), derived from 100 published and unpublished resources, comprising 3,919 plant species, belonging to 961 genera and 147 families. The vegetation data of Iran have been assigned to 31 valid and invalid phytosociological classes. The oldest plots were recorded in 1936 in the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran, while more than 60% of all plots were collected after 2010. Plot sizes vary from less than 1 m 2 to 10,000 m 2 with the highest species richness of 101 species recorded in a 25 m 2 montane grassland plot. IranVeg stands as the first national vegetation database in Iran, promising valuable insights into biodiversity patterns and facilitating the assessment of future environmental and anthropogenic changes. It remains open to further development through a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. This comprehensive database holds significant potential for advancing vegetation classification and survey efforts in Iran and beyond. Taxonomic reference : World Flora Online (WFO 2024).
Authors
- Soghra Ramzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5633-0864)
- Jalil Noroozi
- Mahmoud Bidarlord (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9331-3502)
- Amir Ahmad Dehghani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5237-8975)
- Narges Vasefi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0964-5345)
- Franz Essl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8253-2112)
- Jaber Sharifi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2977-4371)
- Anvar Sanaei
- Soudeh Siadati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7601-5044)
- Naimeh Naseri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7409-9897)
- Alireza Naqinezhad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4602-6279)
- Hossein Bahari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3787-2713)
- Atefeh Ghorbanalizadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3517-2956)
- Masoud B. Kasiri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9417-9122)
- Morteza Djamali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7304-7326)
- Adel Jalili (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6494-181X)
- Javad Eshaghi Rad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2359-8020)
- Somayeh Zarezadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4655-3914)
- Halime Moradi
- Habib Zare (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7026-9369)
- Mojtaba Raeisi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-6319)
- Hamid Gholizadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3694-368X)
- M Eslami
- Saeideh Mokhtari
- Parvaneh Ashouri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3094-2376)
- Milad Darzi
- Behnam Hamzeh’ee
- Asghar Kamrani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2007-9030)
- Saeed Ghasemi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8230-0634)
- A Daneshi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9189-1180)
- Omid Esmailzadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7111-1985)
- Mehdi Hosseini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3242-613X)
- Elias Ramezani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5370-1634)
- Hamid Jalilvand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0016-4104)
- Hamid Ejtehadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6128-2481)
- Farideh Attar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7320-2098)
- Saïd Lotfi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5413-677X)
- Hooman Ravanbakhsh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0990-0112)
- Samereh Tirgan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7649-5722)
- Mehdi Abedi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1499-0119)
- Mohammad Farzam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1947-0187)
- Maryam Ashouri
- Arshad Ali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9966-2917)
- Mahdis Ramezani
- Parastoo Mahdavi
- Mohaddeseh Maghsoudi
- Maral Bashirzadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6213-1020)
- Sahar Ghafari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9686-801X)
- Hajar Hamedani
- Younes Asri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4566-1756)
- Ali Esmailpoor
- Khadijeh Bahalkeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1485-0316)
- Soroor Rahmanian
- Mehdi Dehghani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8870-3098)
- Somayeh Hosseini
- Amir Talebi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5402-0728)
- Aiuob Moradi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6730-475X)
- Zahra Mehrabi
- Zeynab Kazemi Gorji
- Zahra Naqipour
- Seyed Abbas Seyedakhlaghi
- Nahid Masudian
- Raheleh Alinejad
- Seyedeh Saeedeh Tamjidi Eramsadati
Institutions
- University of Siena (IT)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (DE)
- Tarbiat Modares University (IR)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- University of Tehran (IR)
- Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Marine et Continentale (FR)
- Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (IR)
- University of Mazandaran (IR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Vegetation Classification and Survey
- Published
- 2024-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3897/vcs.114081
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Mediterranean and Iberian flora and fauna
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.80