Plant diversity estimates of Mediterranean islands differ among biodiversity databases

Large‐scale biodiversity databases encompass three main types of data for plants, namely single species point occurrences, co‐occurrences in vegetation plots, and checklists for specific areas. Evidence shows that such data types exhibit specific biases, reporting different species assemblages at local scales. We used the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 2200 islands larger than 0.01 km 2 , to compare island vascular plant diversity patterns emerging from occurrence data (Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF), vegetation plots (European Vegetation Archive; EVA), and species checklists (Global Inventory of Flora and Traits; GIFT). We aggregated plant data at the island level and compared geographic coverage, inventory completeness, and taxonomic coverage among these data sources. The combined databases accounted for 8702 species distributed on 790 islands (35.6% of the target islands). Data availability increased from small (26.8%) over medium (75.7%) to large islands (100.0%). Spatial coverage of databases on a 30 × 30 km grid was high for GBIF (52.8%) and EVA (45.4%), and low for GIFT (21.7%). GIFT provided higher native and alien species richness values for most of the islands, whereas GBIF and EVA consistently missed a considerable fraction of the expected species richness. Taking GIFT as reference, GBIF, and to a lesser extent EVA, showed a positive bias towards perennial species and an underrepresentation of annuals. Despite their lower taxonomic coverage, GBIF and EVA data can complement our knowledge on Mediterranean islands' plant diversity, providing data for islands lacking plant inventories. Moreover, GBIF and EVA's large datasets can be used for investigating other levels of ecological organisation and modelling single species (GBIF) or population (EVA) trends over space and time. Finally, our results advocate for a coordinated effort to fill the knowledge gaps through data collection and digitisation, possibly integrating data collected by experts by means of citizen science initiatives.

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Publication Details

Journal
Ecography
Published
2026-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08128
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Plant diversity estimates of Mediterranean islands differ among biodiversity databases

Francesco Santi, Piero Zannini, Michele Lussu, Maria Panitsa et al.
Ecography
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
article

Plant diversity estimates of Mediterranean islands differ among biodiversity databases

Francesco Santi, Piero Zannini, Michele Lussu, Maria Panitsa, Emmanuel Garbolino, Johannes Foufopoulos, Riccardo Testolin, Behlul Guler, Corrado Marcenò, Irena Axmanová, Holger Kreft, Federico Veggia Bombardi, Sofia Prandelli, Lea Klepka, Fabio Attorre, Željko Škvorc, Olivier Argagnon, Marlene Volz, Diletta Santovito, Salvatore Pasta, Enrico Tordoni, Frédéric Médail, Riccardo Guarino, Juan Guillermo Campos, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Alessandro Chiarucci
article en

Abstract

Large‐scale biodiversity databases encompass three main types of data for plants, namely single species point occurrences, co‐occurrences in vegetation plots, and checklists for specific areas. Evidence shows that such data types exhibit specific biases, reporting different species assemblages at local scales. We used the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot with more than 2200 islands larger than 0.01 km 2 , to compare island vascular plant diversity patterns emerging from occurrence data (Global Biodiversity Information Facility; GBIF), vegetation plots (European Vegetation Archive; EVA), and species checklists (Global Inventory of Flora and Traits; GIFT). We aggregated plant data at the island level and compared geographic coverage, inventory completeness, and taxonomic coverage among these data sources. The combined databases accounted for 8702 species distributed on 790 islands (35.6% of the target islands). Data availability increased from small (26.8%) over medium (75.7%) to large islands (100.0%). Spatial coverage of databases on a 30 × 30 km grid was high for GBIF (52.8%) and EVA (45.4%), and low for GIFT (21.7%). GIFT provided higher native and alien species richness values for most of the islands, whereas GBIF and EVA consistently missed a considerable fraction of the expected species richness. Taking GIFT as reference, GBIF, and to a lesser extent EVA, showed a positive bias towards perennial species and an underrepresentation of annuals. Despite their lower taxonomic coverage, GBIF and EVA data can complement our knowledge on Mediterranean islands' plant diversity, providing data for islands lacking plant inventories. Moreover, GBIF and EVA's large datasets can be used for investigating other levels of ecological organisation and modelling single species (GBIF) or population (EVA) trends over space and time. Finally, our results advocate for a coordinated effort to fill the knowledge gaps through data collection and digitisation, possibly integrating data collected by experts by means of citizen science initiatives.

Ecography
University of Siena (IT), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Philipps University of Marburg (DE), Universidad de Oviedo (ES), University of the Basque Country (ES), University of Patras (GR), University of Zagreb (HR), Universität Innsbruck (AT), Dokuz Eylül University (TR), Masaryk University (CZ), University of L'Aquila (IT), University of Perugia (IT), University of Michigan (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Lecce (IT), Biodiversity Research Institute (US), Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (IT), Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (BG), Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie Marine et Continentale (FR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Conservatoire Botanique National Méditerranéen de Porquerolles (FR), University of Tartu (EE), École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (FR), University of Göttingen (DE), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), University of Palermo (IT), University of Bologna (IT), Macquarie University (AU)
European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Eesti Teadusagentuur, Eusko Jaurlaritza, Università di Bologna, Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial
Openalex Percentile: Top 44%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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