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Vegetation Diversity of the Russian Part of the Caucasus in the Era of Climate Change

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Climate Change Impacts on High-Altitude Ecosystems

Abstract

The plant diversity in the North Caucasus is notable for its complexity and originality, due to the variety of physiographical conditions, latitudinal zonality, and altitudinal variations. The plant cover in this area has passed through a long evolutionary track, followed by disintegration of the floristic complexes, all reflected in its vegetation cover. The region includes 1255 species of endemics related to the Caucasian region out of which 338 are endemics for the Russian part of the Caucasus. A total of 187 taxa are included in the Red Book of Russian Federation and 790 species are in the Red Books of the regions and neighbouring republics. We find dry sub-Mediterranean forests, damp subtropical Colchic woods, broad-leaved and dense coniferous forests, subalpine and alpine meadows, and semi-deserts and deserts in here. This chapter evaluates the latest situation on the species richness of plants in different parts of the North Caucasus. Attempts have been made to include original information on the flora of different habitats at high altitudes, the degree of endemism together with the distributional features. Moreover, a summary of the plant communities and their spread in the area has been included. An analysis has been made of the problems related to the conservation of species, protected areas in the light of future climate scenarios.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geoecology and Natural Management, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia

    Svetlana Litvinskaya

  2. Laboratory of Flora and plant resources of Mountain Botanical Garden of RAS, Makhachkala, Russia

    Ramazan Murtazaliev

Authors
  1. Svetlana Litvinskaya
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  2. Ramazan Murtazaliev
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Correspondence to Svetlana Litvinskaya .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

    Münir Öztürk

  2. Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

    Khalid Rehman Hakeem

  3. Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

    I. Faridah-Hanum

  4. Department of Geogaraphy, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey

    Recep Efe

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Litvinskaya, S., Murtazaliev, R. (2015). Vegetation Diversity of the Russian Part of the Caucasus in the Era of Climate Change. In: Öztürk, M., Hakeem, K., Faridah-Hanum, I., Efe, R. (eds) Climate Change Impacts on High-Altitude Ecosystems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12859-7_20

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