Nature Conservation 2/2009 — 21. 4. 2009 — Research, Surveys and Data Management — Print article in pdf
Endemism in the Czech Republic. Plant Endemism, Part I
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Endemism may not be related only to species and subspecies, but genera or even whole families can be endemic, too.
In Europe, there are endemic genera in the Pyrenees and Alps. The high number of endemics is characteristic of some parts of the world, particularly of islands and mountain ranges, the latter being “islands” in the sea of lowlands. The main precondition for evolving endemic species is a population, isolated from others. In Europe, the high number of endemics can be found e.g. on the Mediterranean islands (Crete, Sardinia – some dozens of endemic plants) and mountain areas in South Europe (Sierra Nevada, the Alps, mountains in Greece – up to hundreds of endemic plant species). At the global scale, Pacific islands (some of them have 50–90 % of endemics in their flora) and the Ands are well-known in this respect. Other pre-condition for evolving endemic species are for a long time (over evolutionary timescale) stable natural conditions, allowing speciation processes in isolated populations. Within a population, the features making it step by step different from others, are fixed. In Europe, the number of endemic plant taxa (in animals, it will be surely similar) increases from the north to the south. A sharp increase in endemic plant taxa begins from the 46–47 parallels north. In European flora, approx. 75 genera and 3,500 species are endemic: most of them occur in the southern European mountain ranges. The above endemic distribution across Europe is related to establishing isolated populations at suitable sites in the course of wild plant and animal migrations during the glacial-interglacial cycles. More northward situated European islands, e.g. the British Isles or Iceland, although perfectly isolated, had been repeatedly covered in a glacier. Therefore, the number of endemic plant taxa is very low or no plant endemic can be found there. From the same reasons, there are relatively few endemics in the Czech Republic.
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