DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14582514
title: Functional and habitat traits of wetland plant species in Sardinia (Italy)

description: Functional and habitat traits of wetland plant species of Sardinia (Italy)

Mediterranean wetlands are of great conservation concern given their high biodiversity, functional value, societal importance, and significant decline during recent decades. Within the contexts of species protection and functional resilience, understanding the biological and environmental factors that influence the composition and diversity of wetland plant communities could help to inform management of these critical systems. To examine such factors, we considered 13 functional and habitat characteristics in explanatory models of the nativeness, rarity, and invasiveness of a comprehensive flora of 224 vascular plant species associated with wetlands in Sardinia. We categorised 59 of the 184 native species as rare and 21 of the 40 non-native species as invasive. Our models revealed some functional and habitat characteristics that are significantly associated with plant species’ nativeness, rarity, and invasiveness in Sardinian wetlands. Specifically, native species generally have smaller flowers than non-native species, while non-native species tend to flower later and reproduce more vegetatively. Rare native species typically occur across a narrower elevation range, have shorter flowering duration, and are less likely to reproduce vegetatively than common species, while invasive species tend to have larger flowers than non-invasive species. The relatively high incidences of rarity and invasiveness in Sardinian wetlands are likely influenced by the intrinsic fragmentation of freshwater environments and profound anthropogenic modifications in the region. In addition, we suggest that differences in reproductive traits may further contribute to species’ rarity and invasiveness in these systems.

 

This is a supplemental material of a research paper, please use the following citation when using this dataset, or possible future updated versions:

Fois M, Cuena-Lombraña A, Boyd JN, Podda L, Bacchetta G (2025) Functional and habitat characteristics associated with nativeness, rarity, and invasiveness in the aquatic vascular flora of Sardinia. Global Ecology and Conservation, e03482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03482
description: Field headings:

Taxon = plant name identifier from Portale dalla Flora Italiana (https://dryades.units.it/floritaly/), accessed on 31/12/2024

IUCN (global) = Global IUCN assessments, only for native species, INTR. for introduced species. Data available online: https://www.iucnredlist.org

IUCN (Med)= Regional IUCN assessments, only for native species, INTR. for introduced species. Data available online: https://www.iucnredlist.org

IUCN (SAR) = Mainly National IUCN assessments, only for native species, INTR. For introduced species. Data available online: https://dryades.units.it/floritaly/

Bolpagni: Species reported as aquatic plants for Italy in Bolpagni et al. (2018) Aquatic Plant Diversity in Italy: Distribution, Drivers and Strategic Conservation Actions, Frontiers in Plant Science, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00116

Murphy: Species reported as aquatic plants for Palearctic Realm in Murphy et al. (2019) World distribution, diversity and endemism of aquatic macrophytes, Aquatic Botany, 158, 103-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2019.06.006

H≥9 = The Ellenberg ecological indicator for “humidity” (H), as reported by Pignatti et al. (2005), Domina et al. (2018), and Tichý et al. (2023)

Domina, G., Galasso, G., Bartolucci, F. Guarino, R. (2018). Ellenberg Indicator Values for the vascular flora alien to Italy. Flora Mediterr. https://doi.org/10.7320/FlMedit28.053 

Pignatti, S., Menegoni, P., Pietrosanti, S., 2005. Biondicazione attraverso le piante vascolari. Valori di indicazione secondo Ellenberg (Zeigerwerte) per le specie della Flora d’Italia. Braun Blanquetia 39, 1–97. https://www.scienzadellavegetazione.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/NUMERO-39.pdf

Tichý, L., Axmanová, I., Dengler, J., Guarino, R., Jansen, F., Midolo, G., Nobis, M.P., Van Meerbeek, K., Aćić, S., Attorre, F., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bonari, G., Bruelheide, H., Campos, J.A., Čarni, A., Chiarucci, A., Ćuk, M., Ćušterevska, R., Didukh, Y., Dítě, D., Dítě, Z., Dziuba, T., Fanelli, G., Fernández-Pascual, E., Garbolino, E., Gavilán, R.G., Gégout, J.-C., Graf, U., Güler, B., Hájek, M., Hennekens, S.M., Jandt, U., Jašková, A., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Julve, P., Kambach, S., Karger, D.N., Karrer, G., Kavgacı, A., Knollová, I., Kuzemko, A., Küzmič, F., Landucci, F., Lengyel, A., Lenoir, J., Marcenò, C., Moeslund, J.E., Novák, P., Pérez-Haase, A., Peterka, T., Pielech, R., Pignatti, A., Rašomavičius, V., Rūsiņa, S., Saatkamp, A., Šilc, U., Škvorc, Ž., Theurillat, J.-P., Wohlgemuth, T., Chytrý, M., 2023. Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species. J. Veg. Sci. 34, e13168. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13168  

Rarity (only native) = Yes (Y) or Not (N). According to Arrigoni (2006) Flora dell’Isola di Sardegna (Flora of the island of Sardinia). Sassari: Delfino and on experise 

Invasiveness (only introduced) = Yes (Y) or Not (N). Data from Portale dalla Flora Italiana (https://dryades.units.it/floritaly/)

Vulnerability (only native) = Yes (Y) or Not (N), according to IUCN (SAR)

Wetland type = wetland preference (all, running or standing waters). Information retrieved from According to ItIsWet, 2023. Available at: https://italiaiswet.it/

Min. Elev, Max. Elev = maximum and minimum information revised information from different sources and based on expertise

Elev. Range = Elevation range (Large or Small), according to the previous columns

Chorology (only native) = simplified in (Sub)cosmopolitan, Holartic, Euroasiatic, European, Mediterranean, Endemic

Origin = simplified in Holarctic, Paleotropical, Neotropical

Life forms = Raunkiaer life forms, Hy: hydrophytes, He: helophytes, NP/P: (nano)phanerophytes, G: geophytes, H: hemicryptophytes, T: therophytes

N months flowering = flowering duration, revised information from different sources and based on expertise

Dispersal syndrome, Mean 1000 Seed Weight_g, Seed Weight_g, Disperal agent, Storage behaviour = available from SER, INSR, RBGK, Seed Information Database (SID), 2023. Available at: https://ser-sid.org/

Future versions of this dataset will be released.