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The hotspots and conservation gaps of the mega genus Astragalus (Fabaceae) in the Old-World

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Abstract

Astragalus (Fabaceae), as a mega genus, among 57 Angiosperm genera, with high diversity, has vast distribution in the World. However, there is a lack of up-to-date information about species richness, sections, centers of endemism, and distribution patterns of the genus Astragalus in the Old-World. In this study, we extracted the geographic data of the Astragalus genus from a 40 years field survey, floras, monographs, and former literature. Using this comprehensive dataset, the endemic and common species in each region of the Old-World were revealed. We identified centers of endemism and hotspots of Astragalus based on three metrics: species richness (SR), weighted endemism (WE) and corrected weighted endemism (CWE). The results showed that the genus of Astragalus has 2748 taxa and about 150 sections in the Old-World. Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan in Southwest Asia are the main centers of diversity and endemism of genus Astragalus in the Old-World. Iran plays as a migratory corridor between countries of the Old-World that has many common species with other countries. The Irano-Anatolian hotspot covered the most areas of the three metrics (SR-WE-CWE), followed by the Caucasus, Mountains of Central Asia, Himalayas, and Mediterranean Basin. These regions are the most critical hotspots with the strongest species diversification, which can be considered areas with a high degree of protection. However, nearly half of the identified hotspot areas of Astragalus (1.7 × 106‬ km2) were not covered by the global biodiversity hotspot map, which can be identified as conservation gaps and could be introduced as new reserves.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available in the https://astragalusofworld.com by Prof. Maassoumi.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Pierre Coulot for his help and edit the text; Prof. F. Khassanov for his collaboration in the Middle Asia checklist and A. Sytin from St. Petersbourg Herbarium for expert technical help. We also thank the plant taxonomy division in the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran, Iran for providing all facilities.

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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Botany Research Division, Research Institute of Forests & Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

    Ali Asghar Maassoumi

  2. Rangeland Research Division, Research Institute of Forests & Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

    Parvaneh Ashouri

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  1. Ali Asghar Maassoumi
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  2. Parvaneh Ashouri
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Contributions

AAM designed the study, collected the samples, wrote the preliminary manuscript and supervised and reviewed the entire paper; PA performed all statistical analyses and interpretation of data, and drew all maps in GIS, organized and edited the manuscript and revised it critically for important intellectual content.

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Correspondence to Parvaneh Ashouri.

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Communicated by Daniel Sanchez Mata.

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Maassoumi, A.A., Ashouri, P. The hotspots and conservation gaps of the mega genus Astragalus (Fabaceae) in the Old-World. Biodivers Conserv 31, 2119–2139 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02429-2

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