Biodiversity of dry grasslands in Armenia : first results from the 13th EDGG Field Workshop in Armenia

The 13 EDGG Field Workshop was conducted from the 26 June to 6 July 2019 in Armenia. The Field Workshop had two main aims: (a) to analyse the biodiversity patterns of the Armenian grasslands across multiple taxonomic groups and grain sizes, and (b) to study the syntaxonomic position of these grasslands in a general European context. We conducted our sampling in 16 sites that ensured good geographical coverage across the country. In total, we sampled 29 EDGG Biodiversity Plots (nested-plot series of 0.0001 to 100 m2) and 53 additional 10-m plots. Data of orthopteroid insects (Orthoptera and Mantodea) were recorded in 42 100-m2 plots. We found mean total species richness values of the vegetation of 7.5 species in 0.01 m2, 31.9 species in 1 m2 and 51.3 species in 10 m2. The richest grasslands for vascular plants were meso-xeric grasslands with up to 35 species in 0.1 m2 and 80 in 10 m2. Maximum orthopteroid richness in 100 m2 was 14. Syntaxonomically, the majority of stands appear to belong to the class Festuco-Brometea, with the orders Brachypodietalia pinnati (meso-xeric), Festucetalia valesiacae (xeric, non-rocky) and an unknown order of rocky dry grasslands. By contrast, the thorn-cushion communities (probably Onobrychidetea cornutae), the scree communities and the dry grasslands of lower elevations rich in annuals and chamaephytes (probably largely Astragalo-Brometea), do not fit to any vegetation class described in Europe. We found two species new to Armenia – the moss Syntrichia papillosissima and the lichen Aspicilia hispida. Our data demonstrate that Armenia is Alla Aleksanyan , Idoia Biurrun , Elena Belonovskaya , Beata Cykowska-Marzencka , Asun Berastegi , Andreas Hilpold , Philipp Kirschner , Helmut Mayrhofer , Dariia Shyriaieva , Denys Vynokurov , Thomas Becker , Ute Becker , Iwona Dembicz , George Fayvush , Dieter Frank , Martin Magnes , Itziar García-Mijangos , Marine Oganesian , Salza Palpurina , Aslan Ünal , Yuliia Vasheniak & Jürgen Dengler Department of Geobotany and Plant Eco-Physiology, Institute of Botany after A.L. Takhtajyan, NAS RA, Acharyan 1, 0040, Yerevan, Armenia; alla.alexanyan@gmail.com; gfayvush@yahoo.com Chair of Biology and Biotechnology, Armenian National Agrarian University, Teryan 74, 0009, Yerevan, Armenia Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, P.O. Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain; idoia.biurrun@ehu.es; itziar.garcia@ehu.es Department of Biogeography, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 29, 119017 Moscow, Russia; ebelonovskaya.0709@gmail.com Department of Mycology, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland; b.cykowska@botany.pl Department of Biodiversity, Environmental Management of Navarre, Padre Adoain 219 Bajo, 31015 Pamplona, Spain; aberastg@gan-nik.es Institute for Alpine Environment, Drususallee 1/VialeDruso 1, 39100 Bozen -Bolzano, Italy; andreas.hilpold@eurac.edu Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestraße 15, Innsbruck, Austria; philipp.kirschner@gmail.com Division of Plant Sciences, Institute of Biology, Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Holteigasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria; helmut.mayrhofer@uni-graz.at; martin.magnes@uni-graz.at Geobotany and Ecology Department, M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, NAS of Ukraine, Tereshchenkivska str. 2, 01601 Kyiv, Ukraine; darshyr@gmail.com; denys.vynokurov@gmail.com Department of Geobotany, University of Trier, Behringstr. 21, 54296 Trier, Germany; beckerth@uni-trier.de Green School in the Botanic Garden, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Anselm-Franz-von-Bentzel-Weg 9 b, 55128 Mainz, Germany; beckeru@uni-mainz.de Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Grüentalstr. 14, 8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland; i.dembicz@gmail.com; juergen.dengler@uni-bayreuth.de Department of Plant Ecology and Environmental Conservation, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Zwirki I Wigury 101, 02-089 Warsaw, Poland Saxony-Anhalt Environment Agency, Reideburger Str. 47, Halle 06116, Germany; dieter.frank@lau.mlu. sachsen-anhalt.de Department of Taxonomy and Geography of Higher Plants, Institute of Botany aft. A.L. Takhtajyan, NAS RA, Acharyan 1, 0040, Yerevan, Armenia; oganesianm@yahoo.com National Museum of Natural History, 1 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria; salza.palpurina@gmail.com Am Schießrain 10 , 79219 Staufen, Germany; auenal@mail.ru Department of Biology, Chemistry and Biotechnologies, Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University, 600-richya str. 21021, Vinnytsia, 21, Ukraine; arrhenatherum@gmail.com Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), Universitätsstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-JenaLeipzig, DeutscherPlatz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany *) corresponding author This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 12 P a l a e a r c t i c G r a s s l a n d s 4 6 ( J u l y 2 0 2 0 )