Long Database Report |
Corresponding author: Alireza Naqinezhad ( anaqinezhad@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Jürgen Dengler
© 2024 Soghra Ramzi, Jalil Noroozi, Hamid Gholizadeh, Behnam Hamzeh’ee, Younes Asri, Amir Talebi, Halime Moradi, Parastoo Mahdavi, Seyedeh Saeedeh Tamjidi Eramsadati, Somayeh Zarezadeh, Asghar Kamrani, Omid Esmailzadeh, Atefeh Ghorbanalizadeh, Maral Bashirzadeh, Adel Jalili, Jaber Sharifi, Aiuob Moradi, Mahmoud Bidarlord, Soudeh Siadati, Sajad Lotfi, Farideh Attar, Maedeh Mohammadpour Darzi, Zeynab Kazemi Gorji, Sharyan Ghasemi, Mehdi Dehghani, Soroor Rahmanian, Ali Esmailpoor, Anvar Sanaei, Sahar Ghafari, Parvaneh Ashouri, Arshad Ali, Abdolrahman Dehghani, Somayeh Hosseini, Hajar Hamedani, Samereh Tirgan, Mohaddeseh Maghsoudi, Aliakbar Daneshi, Javad Eshaghi Rad, Mohammadreza Eslami, Mahdis Ramezani, Zahra Mehrabi, Zahra Naqipour, Nadia Naseri, Hossein Bahari, Maryam Ashouri, Narges Vasefi, Seyed Abbas Seyedakhlaghi, Hamid Ejtehadi, Mohammad Farzam, Somayeh Mokhtari, Morteza Djamali, Elias Ramezani, Habib Zare, Nahid Masudian, Raheleh Alinejad, Mojdeh Kasiri, Mahboubeh Sadat Hosseini, Masoumeh Raeisi, Hooman Ravanbakhsh, Franz Essl, Hamid Jalilvand, Mehdi Abedi, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Alireza Naqinezhad.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Ramzi S, Noroozi J, Gholizadeh H, Hamzeh’ee B, Asri Y, Talebi A, Moradi H, Mahdavi P, Tamjidi Eramsadati SS, Zarezadeh S, Kamrani A, Esmailzadeh O, Ghorbanalizadeh A, Bashirzadeh M, Jalili A, Sharifi J, Moradi A, Bidarlord M, Siadati S, Lotfi S, Attar F, Darzi MM, Gorji ZK, Ghasemi S, Dehghani M, Rahmanian S, Esmailpoor A, Sanaei A, Ghafari S, Ashouri P, Ali A, Dehghani A, Hosseini S, Hamedani H, Tirgan S, Maghsoudi M, Daneshi A, Eshaghi Rad J, Eslami M, Ramezani M, Mehrabi Z, Naqipour Z, Naseri N, Bahari H, Ashouri M, Vasefi N, Seyedakhlaghi SA, Ejtehadi H, Farzam M, Mokhtari S, Djamali M, Ramezani E, Zare H, Masudian N, Alinejad R, Kasiri M, Hosseini MS, Raeisi M, Ravanbakhsh H, Essl F, Jalilvand H, Abedi M, Bahalkeh K, Naqinezhad A (2024) IranVeg – the Vegetation Database of Iran: current status and the way forward. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 237-256. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.114081
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Iran, situated in Southwest Asia, showcases a diverse landscape, including three phytogeographical regions and two global biodiversity hotspots. This diversity is attributed to its intricate geology, mountainous terrain, wide altitudinal range, and heterogeneous climate, fostering a rich flora characterized by a significant proportion of endemism. We present an updated version of the Vegetation Database of Iran (IranVeg) (GIVD ID AS-IR-001), comprising 13,411 plots spanning six major habitat types. These encompass deciduous forests (18.0%), woodlands and shrublands (5.6%), steppes and other grasslands (52.0%), saline depressions (9.3%), wetlands (12.2%), and anthropogenic habitats (2.9%), derived from 100 published and unpublished resources, comprising 3,919 plant species, belonging to 961 genera and 147 families. The vegetation data of Iran have been assigned to 31 valid and invalid phytosociological classes. The oldest plots were recorded in 1936 in the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran, while more than 60% of all plots were collected after 2010. Plot sizes vary from less than 1 m2 to 10,000 m2 with the highest species richness of 101 species recorded in a 25 m2 montane grassland plot. IranVeg stands as the first national vegetation database in Iran, promising valuable insights into biodiversity patterns and facilitating the assessment of future environmental and anthropogenic changes. It remains open to further development through a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. This comprehensive database holds significant potential for advancing vegetation classification and survey efforts in Iran and beyond.
Taxonomic reference: World Flora Online (
biodiversity, Iran, macroecology, phytogeography, phytosociology, relevé, Southwest Asia, vegetation-plot database
Iran, located in Southwest Asia and spanning over 1,648,000 km2 between 25° and 40° northern latitude and 44° and 63° eastern longitude, features a diverse topography with approximately 62% of its terrain situated above 1,000 m a.s.l. (
The huge climatic, topographic and edaphic variation lead to a rich floral history and high evolutionary potential (
The northern slopes of the Alborz Mountain range, extending from the Caspian Sea shores up to 2,800 m a.s.l., are covered by temperate deciduous Hyrcanian forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (
Despite its location in the arid region of Southwest Asia, Iran boasts 26 internationally recognized Ramsar wetland sites, covering approximately 1% of its total surface area, as reported by the Ramsar Organisation (
The history of botanical surveys in Iran is rich, with contributions from distinguished publications such as
Pioneering efforts in vegetation description, classification and mapping using physiognomic-ecological approach by
Vegetation-plot databases play a pivotal role in large-scale analyses such as vegetation classification and mapping, floristic diversity studies, habitat management, biogeographical analysis and biodiversity assessment and monitoring (
Iran’s vegetation data, collected since the 1930s through extensive fieldwork, have now been consolidated into the IranVeg database, representing an important national effort to catalog and organize the country’s diverse plant communities. This comprehensive resource aims not only to provide a platform for advancing vegetation ecology research but also to address critical questions related to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and climate change resilience. The IranVeg database offers a wealth of information for researchers, conservationists, and policymakers alike, facilitating large-scale analyses of vegetation patterns, species distributions, and habitat dynamics across Iran’s varied landscapes. By integrating decades of field observations with modern analytical tools, it paves the way for interdisciplinary studies, fostering collaborations between community ecology, macroecology, and conservation biology. This paper offers a detailed overview of the IranVeg Vegetation Database, highlighting its foundational objectives, methodological framework, and the transformative potential it holds for future ecological research and sustainable development in Iran and beyond. With this database, we hope to inspire and empower vegetation scientists and ecologists to explore new frontiers in understanding vegetation and plant biodiversity in arid and semi-arid regions of Western Asia and beyond.
The Vegetation Database of Iran (IranVeg) was unveiled during the 9th International Meeting on Vegetation Databases at Hamburg University, Germany, in February 2010. At the meeting, the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Database (GIVD) was launched (
IranVeg is a self-governed consortium in which every data contributor becomes a member. The Custodian and a Deputy Custodian were provisionally elected to coordinate the database, with A. Naqinezhad the current Custodian and J. Noroozi and S. Ramzi the Deputy.
Since January 2022, we have initiated a comprehensive work plan to update the Vegetation Database of Iran and add newer data. This involved conducting a thorough survey of all available vegetation literature and collaborating with authors. Consequently, our database consists of data from published resources by either digitizing old literature or access to direct stored excel spreadsheets/TURBOVEG xml files of the authors (68%) and unpublished data (32%) (Suppl. material
Management of the database is done with TURBOVEG (
Finally, we assigned the plots in IranVeg to six major habitat types to better describe them. This classification was not based on statistical analysis but was rather a descriptive grouping. However, since phytosociological classification analyses have been performed on most of the sources from which the plots were extracted, we were able to assign these plots with greater accuracy. Species richness was also reported within these predefined groups. Given that plot size is an important driver of biodiversity, we excluded plots with sizes outside the central 95% percentile when reporting area/species richness relationship in each habitat.
The updated edition of the “Vegetation Database of Iran (IranVeg)” now comprises 13,411 plots spread across Iran, averaging 0.8 plots per 100 km2, with a notable concentration in the northern regions (Figure
Out of 13,411 plots compiled in IranVeg, 7,375 have already been included in the emerging version 4.0 of the global database sPlot (https://www.idiv.de/en/sdiv/working-groups/wg-pool/splot/splot-database.html; see
The predominant methods of vegetation survey employed by vegetation ecologists working in Iran were the 7-step and 9-step versions of the Braun-Blanquet cover-abundance scales, derived from the Zurich-Montpellier School (
Plot sizes varied wildly from less than 1 m2 to 10,000 m2, while in 8.4% of the plots size was not reported (Fact Sheet, Figure
The dataset encompasses several crucial environmental variables. The most frequently recorded variables are altitude, slope, and aspect recorded in 80%, 60%, and 50% of the plots, respectively. Furthermore, some plots have documented edaphic factors from which pH (28.7%), and physical soil characteristics such as the proportions of sand, silt, and clay (25%) constitute the most recorded soil data (Table
IranVeg comprises records of 3,912 species of vascular plants and seven species of bryophytes, distributed across 961 genera and 147 families. The dominant families include Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae, with Astragalus being the most species rich genus in the database. Species richness within the stored plots varies, ranging from 1 (in plots of 4, 16 and 25 m2) to 101 (in 25 m2), with approximately two-thirds of the plots containing fewer than 20 species.
Variable | Measurement unit | Availability in the database (%) | Min. | Max. | Mean | Median |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Altitude | m a.s.l. | 80 | -26 | 4799 | 2019 | 2100 |
Slope | ° | 60 | 0 | 85 | 23 | 22 |
Slope aspect | ° | 50 | 0 | 360 | 142 | 140 |
Total cover | % | 32 | 0.2 | 165 | 64 | 70 |
Microrelief | cm | 9 | 0 | 400 | 48 | 30 |
Organic matter | % | 21 | 0.03 | 47.7 | 7 | 6.2 |
pH | - | 29 | 2.7 | 8.8 | 7 | 6.9 |
N | % | 22 | 0 | 5.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
P | ppm | 13 | 0 | 122 | 16 | 4.4 |
K | ppm | 14 | 3.9 | 4022 | 470 | 346 |
CaCO3 | % | 11 | 0.5 | 37.5 | 2 | 6.2 |
Electrical conductivity | µS/cm | 17 | 0.15 | 4280 | 242 | 112 |
Sand | % | 25 | 0 | 99.7 | 50 | 54.9 |
Silt | % | 25 | 0.06 | 66.7 | 24 | 24 |
Clay | % | 25 | 0 | 71 | 18 | 14.6 |
Given that the compilation of Iranian vegetation data is an ongoing project and still far from completion, any classification of habitats or large physiognomic vegetation types should be grounded in the plots collected thus far. Currently, based on the available plot data, six major habitat types can be distinguished in IranVeg.
1) Deciduous forests: The deciduous temperate forest in northern Iran represents 18.0% of the plots in the database (Figures
Recent comprehensive phytosociological surveys of the Hyrcanian forests identified eight alliances and 26 associations belonging to five orders and four classes, namely Alnetea glutinosae, Alno glutinosae-Populetea albae, Carpino-Fagetea sylvaticae and Quercetea pubescentis (
2) Woodlands and shrublands: Woodlands and shrublands account for 5.6% of all plots in the current database (Figures
The syntaxonomic classification of this habitat type is still far from complete. There are 10 validly published associations from this habitat, belonging to four alliances, four orders and three classes, namely Pistacietea verae (
3) Steppes and other grasslands: Over half (52.0%) of the available plots encompass a diverse array of habitats broadly categorized as steppes and other grasslands. The term “steppe and other grasslands” is used as a broad sense (see
3.1) Lowland steppes (7.9% of all plots; Figures
Syntaxonomic classification of this habitat type is not fully dealt with. However, two main invalid phytosociological classes, Artemisietea fragrantis anatolica (
3.2) Montane steppes (35.8% of all plots; Figures
Notably,
3.3) Alpine steppes (8.3% of all plots; Figures
Valid syntaxa for the alpine steppes in northern and northwestern Iran have been proposed by
4) Saline depressions: Saline and sabkha ecosystems, comprising 9.3% of all compiled plots, are mainly located at low and medium altitudes in coastal and inland salt depressions and playas in northern, southern and central Iran (Figures
5) Wetlands: A total of 12.2% of the compiled plots belong to wetland habitats (Figures
6) Anthropogenic habitats: This major habitat type encompasses all plots collected from habitats strongly modified by humans, including arable fields and urban green spaces, currently accounting for 2.9% of plots (Figures
Photos of the major habitat types of Iran. Deciduous forests: a) Hyrcanian forest landscape, northern Iran; b) beech forests of the Hyrcanian ecoregion, northern Iran; c) unique yew (Taxus baccata) stand in the Hyrcanian forest, northern Iran; woodlands and shrublands: d) Quercus steppe woodlands in Zagros, western Iran; e) pistachio-almond steppe shrublands in Kerman, southern Iran; f) Juniperus polycarpos woodlands in Semnan, northern Iran; g) Cupressus sempervirens woodlands in Hassanabad-Chalus, northern Iran; h) savanna-like woodlands, southern Iran; lowland steppes: i) Artemisia community in central Iran; j) inland sand dunes in central Iran; k) coastal dunes in Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve, northern Iran; l) Punica granatum coastal shrublands in Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve, northern Iran. Photos by A. Naqinezhad (a–b, d–g, i, k–l); A. Talebi (h, j); O. Esmailzadeh (c).
Photos of the major habitat types of Iran. Montane steppes: a) montane steppe in Taftan Mts., southeastern Iran; b) thorn-cushion grasslands in Baharkish Mts., eastern Iran; c) rock vegetation of Dionysia in Zagros Mts, western Iran; alpine steppe: d) alpine vegetations of Sahand Mts., northwestern Iran; e) alpine-subnival screes in Tuchal Mts., central Alborz, northern Iran; f) thorn-cushion grasslands in alpine zone in Bozgush Mts., northwestern Iran; saline depressions: g) Halocnemum strobilaceum communities in Mond Protected Area, Bushehr, southern Iran; h) Halocnemum-Siedlitzia communities of southern Iran; i) mangrove forests in Bushehr, southern Iran; wetland: j) Nelumbo nucifera community in the Anzali Ramsar Site, northern Iran; k) riparian habitats in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, western Iran; l) montane mires in the Alborz Mountains, northern Iran; anthropogenic habitats: m) rice fields of northern Iran. Photos by A. Naqinezhad (a, g, i–m) ; J. Noroozi (c–f); A. Talebi (h); S. Rahmanian (b).
The IranVeg database stands as a vital repository, not only providing a snapshot of Iran’s current and past vegetation but also laying the groundwork for future ecological research and conservation endeavors. While certain vegetation types and regions have received considerable attention, others remain poorly studied or are completely absent from our dataset. For instance, extensive areas across the Alborz Mountain range, particularly near the capital city, Tehran, have been extensively sampled due to their proximity to research centers, resulting in relatively well studied vegetation types in these regions. Conversely, vast stretches of land (see Figures
Several factors contribute to this disparity in data coverage. Challenges such as limited funding and logistical difficulties in remote areas are particularly prevalent, especially for oak woodland communities in the massive mountains of Zagros and savanna-like grasslands in the subtropical Saharo-Sindian regions of southern Iran. Furthermore, decreasing interest among scholars in vegetation ecology topics has hindered comprehensive vegetation studies in Iran. Additionally, barriers such as insufficient incorporation of vegetation data in land use planning and limited emphasis on vegetation ecology in university curricula further exacerbate the situation.
To address these challenges, it is imperative to emphasize the importance of vegetation data, both nationally and internationally. Expanding and enhancing vegetation data from Iran is essential for several reasons. Locally, such data are invaluable for diversity analyses, vegetation classification, landscape planning, land management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem restoration efforts. Internationally, Iran’s diverse vegetation serves as a crucial component of global biodiversity and ecosystem function. Thus, better understanding and documenting Iran’s vegetation contribute not only to national conservation goals but also to broader global biodiversity conservation efforts. These kinds of datasets play a pivotal role in fostering macroecological investigations on a continental or global scale. Notably, selected datasets from this Iranian repository have already been utilized in macroecology research through opt-in projects registered in sPlot (
A total of 31 phytosociological classes, along with numerous subordinate syntaxa, have been proposed for the vegetation types in Iran. However, only a small fraction of these proposed syntaxa have been validly published. Considerable effort is still required to complement and validate the remaining syntaxa. The slow progress in the syntaxonomic classification of Iran can be attributed to several factors. Primarily, the standardization of phytosociological work in the country has lagged behind the international pace. Moreover, many Iranian authors are reluctant to follow standard phytosociological nomenclature, believing that without comprehensive surveys and further data collection, any decision regarding the validation of proposed syntaxa would be premature. Consequently, many of these proposed syntaxa have been regarded as provisional. In this paper, we do not aim to validate these syntaxa, as that would require a separate and extensive effort, particularly given the complex vegetation structure and vast geographical scope of Iran.
While our database represents a significant achievement, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. We cannot claim to have digitized 100% of all relevant data to date. Indeed, a considerable portion of vegetation data likely remains undocumented in publications, theses, and personal notebooks. To provide a more accurate assessment, future efforts should aim to estimate the fraction of existing data captured in our database compared to data available elsewhere. Moreover, it is essential to recognize other major databases in the region, such as those for Turkey (
In conclusion, IranVeg represents a collaborative effort toward understanding and conserving Iran’s botanical heritage. Moving forward, continued collaboration among researchers and the development of a cooperative network are crucial for further enhancing the database and addressing the complex ecological challenges facing Iran and the broader region. Researchers holding relevant vegetation data are encouraged to contribute to IranVeg, while those seeking to utilize the database for research purposes are welcome to submit proposals to the custodians. The proposal could be submitted by one or a group of leading researchers who are responsible for collected data. The most important benefits of contributing plots into this national database are opt-in options to the papers extracted from this collective national database and also own access of the contributing authors to the full database as this is the case in other collaborative databases such as GrassPlot (
Access to the database is restricted; however, interested researchers may obtain the data by submitting a formal request to the database manager.
AN, JN and PM perceived the idea and registered the preliminary dataset. AN, JN and SR coordinate the IranVeg Consortium as Custodian and Deputy Custodian, respectively. SR aggregated new datasets, performed analysis and prepared the draft with main contribution by AN. SST aggregated data. JN, HG, BH, YA, and AT read and approved the final version of the article. The other co-authors have collected the field data and read/modified the final version.
A considerable part of the plots in IranVeg were contributed by all the published materials of the following colleagues: Jean Cloud Klein, Jean Léonard, Hossein Akhani, Farhang Assadollahi, Mostafa Naderi, Mostafa Nemati Peykani, Asadollah Mataji, Amirhossein Kashypazha, Nayereh Rastin, Hassan Nazarian, Ahmad Ahmadi, Hassan Dorostkar, Khadijeh Salari Nik, Jinus Jashni, Ahmad Mossadegh, Gholamreza Bakhshi Khaniki, Mohammad Hossein Djazirei and Mohammadreza Borji.
Data sources utilized in the IranVeg database (*.pdf)