Tsiftsis Spyros - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tsiftsis Spyros

Plants

Epipactis greuteri is an obligate autogamous orchid species. Due to large differences in the inte... more Epipactis greuteri is an obligate autogamous orchid species. Due to large differences in the interpretation of the diagnosis of this species, it is often mistakenly identified by botanists, which results in erroneous information provided in the literature about its distribution in Europe. In the present paper we review its description, including flower details, gynostemium features, and papillae morphology and compare it to E. helleborine, with which it is often confused. Based on thorough study of herbarium material (including holotype and isotype) and field research in Greece, Romania, and Poland, we confirm that gynostemium of E. greuteri has strongly reduced clinandrium and does not produce viscidium. We also discuss taxonomic treatment of E. preinensis and E. flaminia, two recently described taxa related to E. greuteri. The results of genetic analyses, as well as the range of phenotypic variability of E. greuteri individuals from various regions of Europe were presented and dis...

The Role of Ecological Factors in Distribution and Abundance of Terrestrial Orchids

Reference Series in Phytochemistry

Scientific Reports

Biotic interactions play an important role in species distribution models, whose ignorance may ca... more Biotic interactions play an important role in species distribution models, whose ignorance may cause an overestimation of species' potential distributions. Species of the family Orchidaceae are almost totally dependent on mycorrhizal symbionts and pollinators, with sexually deceptive orchids being often highly specialized, and thus the interactions with their pollinators are expected to strongly affect distribution predictions. We used Maxent algorithm to explore the extent of current and future habitat suitability for two Greek endemic sexually deceptive orchids (Ophrys argolica and Ophrys delphinensis) in relation to the potential distribution of their unique pollinator (Anthophora plagiata). Twelve climate change scenarios were used to predict future distributions. Results indicated that the most important factors determining potential distribution were precipitation seasonality for O. argolica and geological substrate for O. delphinensis. The current potential distribution o...

Δεν επιτρέπεται η αντιγραφή, η αναπαραγωγή ή η αποθήκευση με οποιαδήποτε μέσο, ηλεκτρονικό, φωτογ... more Δεν επιτρέπεται η αντιγραφή, η αναπαραγωγή ή η αποθήκευση με οποιαδήποτε μέσο, ηλεκτρονικό, φωτογραφικό, μηχανικό, θεατρικό, κινηματογραφικό ή ραδιοτηλεοπτικό, και γενικά η χρήση του κειμένου ή μέρους αυτού ή αποσπάσματος με κάθε μορφή, χωρίς προηγουμένως να υπάρχει γραπτή άδεια των συγγραφέων, του φωτογράφου και του εκδότη, σύμφωνα με τον Νόμο 221/1993 και τους κανόνες του διεθνούς δικαίου, που ισχύουν στην Ελλάδα. All rights reserved. No text, images or other part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, theatrical, cinematographic, radio, television or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the authors, the photographer and the publisher.

Mediterranean Botany, 2019

Sixty modern surface samples collected from mosses in different cypress forest communities (Cupre... more Sixty modern surface samples collected from mosses in different cypress forest communities (Cupressus sempervirens L.) on the island of Crete (Greece) were analysed for their pollen content. The samples were taken from six different cypress phytosociological associations between 23 and 1600 m asl, and fall within distinct rainfall and temperature regimes. The aims of this paper are to provide new data on the modern pollen rain from the Aegean islands, and to perform these data using multivariate statistics (hierarchical cluster analysis and canonical correspondence analysis) and pollen percentages. The discrimination of pollen assemblages corresponds to a large extent to the floristic differentiation of Cupressus sempervirens forest vegetation and indicates the existence of three new associations. Discriminación fitosociológica y ecológica de las comunidades de ciprés (Cupressus sempervirens) en Creta (Grecia) mediante análisis polínico Resumen. Sesenta muestras de lluvia polínica a...

The Role of Ecological Factors in Distribution and Abundance of Terrestrial Orchids

Turkish Journal of Botany, 2018

The pollination success of two nonrewarding orchids in two coarse habitats was examined. The comp... more The pollination success of two nonrewarding orchids in two coarse habitats was examined. The comparative results of Orchis punctulata and O. purpurea showed a significant differentiation. The fruit set of O. purpurea was significantly greater compared to O. punctulata, whereas both species also had significantly higher fruit set in the grassland compared to the forest. Although the pollination success of O. purpurea was not significantly correlated with plant height, inflorescence size, or nearest neighbor distance, these factors were found to be significantly correlated to the pollination success of O. punctulata. Among these factors, the nearest neighbor distance had the highest impact on the pollination success of O. punctulata, whereas the respective effects to the individuals of O. purpurea were found to be nonsignificant. The results demonstrate that the distribution of O. punctulata at the edges of its range is not delimited by factors related to its pollination effectiveness...

TURKISH JOURNAL OF BOTANY

Folia Geobotanica, 2012

Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Institute of Botany... more Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to selfarchive your work, please use the accepted author's version for posting to your own website or your institution's repository. You may further deposit the accepted author's version on a funder's repository at a funder's request, provided it is not made publicly available until 12 months after publication.

Neottia cordata (Orchidaceae) at its southernmost distribution border in Europe: threat status and effectiveness of Natura 2000 Network for its conservation

Journal for Nature Conservation

Abstract Neottia cordata is an orchid species that exclusively occurs in Picea abies subsp. abies... more Abstract Neottia cordata is an orchid species that exclusively occurs in Picea abies subsp. abies and Pinus sylvestris stands and forms its southernmost distribution limits in Greece. Over the last decade, it has been recorded in numerous sites, in which it forms small colonies, both in terms of population and area. This research re-evaluates the threat status of Neottia cordata based on updated chorological and population data; it also checks the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 Network as far as its conservation is concerned by applying the MaxEnt model. The recently collected data justify the classification of N. cordata as "Vulnerable". The most significant variables that affect its distribution were found to be the vegetation type and the precipitation of the warmest quarter. The results of the MaxEnt model suggest that: (i) the Natura 2000 Network is characterised by areas of higher habitat suitability values when compared to the areas that fall outside this network; and, (ii) Picea abies subsp. abies forests are more suitable for its conservation than those of Pinus sylvestris. It is concluded that the most appropriate management measure for the species conservation is the maintenance of the tree layer canopy closed.

Patterns of distribution, abundance and composition of forest terrestrial orchids

Biodiversity and Conservation

Many terrestrial orchid species are known to grow in forest ecosystems, but the patterns of their... more Many terrestrial orchid species are known to grow in forest ecosystems, but the patterns of their diversity and habitat specialization have not been sufficiently explored. Niche parameters and factors influencing the distribution, abundance and composition of forest orchids in the central Balkans were investigated in the present study. Outlying mean index (OMI) analysis was used to explore ecological niches of orchids and environmental factors affecting the patterns of their distribution. Indicator species analysis was performed to identify species presenting strong affinity for specific forest and bedrock types. In addition, similarity profile analysis was applied to classify orchid taxa into meaningful groups, whereas the multi-response permutation procedure was used to analyse differences of orchid composition between forest types. Out of a total of 40 orchid species and subspecies analysed, 29 showed significant niche marginality. The first three axes of the OMI analysis explained 68.13% of total variability. Light, temperature, moisture, nitrogen and altitude were found to be the factors most effectively influencing the distribution and abundance of orchids. Seven orchids had statistically significant strong affinity for specific forest types, whereas eight orchids were statistically significantly correlated with specific bedrock types. Overall, six ecological groups of orchids were distinguished. The results suggest that specialist orchids occur at the extreme ends of the light, temperature, soil pH, moisture and altitude gradients. Moreover, most specialist orchid species were found from low to middle elevations. The results provide a useful basis for the successful design of strategies for the conservation of forest orchids.

PLoS ONE, 2013

Understanding diversity patterns along environmental gradients and their underlying mechanisms is... more Understanding diversity patterns along environmental gradients and their underlying mechanisms is a major topic in current biodiversity research. In this study, we investigate for the first time elevational patterns of vascular plant species richness and endemism on a long-isolated continental island (Crete) that has experienced extensive post-isolation mountain uplift. We used all available data on distribution and elevational ranges of the Cretan plants to interpolate their presence between minimum and maximum elevations in 100-m elevational intervals, along the entire elevational gradient of Crete (0-2400 m). We evaluate the influence of elevation, area, mid-domain effect, elevational Rapoport effect and the postisolation mountain uplift on plant species richness and endemism elevational patterns. Furthermore, we test the influence of the island condition and the post-isolation mountain uplift to the elevational range sizes of the Cretan plants, using the Peloponnese as a continental control area. Total species richness monotonically decreases with increasing elevation, while endemic species richness has a unimodal response to elevation showing a peak at mid-elevation intervals. Area alone explains a significant amount of variation in species richness along the elevational gradient. Mid-domain effect is not the underlying mechanism of the elevational gradient of plant species richness in Crete, and Rapoport's rule only partly explains the observed patterns. Our results are largely congruent with the post-isolation uplift of the Cretan mountains and their colonization mainly by the available lowland vascular plant species, as high-elevation specialists are almost lacking from the Cretan flora. The increase in the proportion of Cretan endemics with increasing elevation can only be regarded as a result of diversification processes towards Cretan mountains (especially mid-elevation areas), supported by elevation-driven ecological isolation. Cretan plants have experienced elevational range expansion compared to the continental control area, as a result of ecological release triggered by increased species impoverishment with increasing elevation.

Species distribution models are widely applied for generating the appropriate data for designing ... more Species distribution models are widely applied for generating the appropriate data for designing networks of reserve systems. The aim of the present study is to compare the use of presence/absence and continuous suitability data, derived from species distribution models, in reserve selection, and to detect any systematic trends in the reserve networks produced on the basis of these two types of data. The MAXENT model was applied to predict orchids’ potential distribution in east Macedonia (northeast Greece). One presence/absence and one with suitability values data set was made and used in the ZONATION decision support tool in order to prioritize the cells of the study area for inclusion in a reserve network. In the selection procedure, species weighting has been applied by using the species specialization index. Results show that the presence/absence data set favors the selection of cells with more extreme climatic conditions and more distant from the mean habitat of the study area...

Mediterranean Botany, Sep 26, 2019

Factors affecting the distribution and abundance of Cloeon and Caenis (Ephemeroptera) larvae in a tropical impounded river, Nigeria

African Journal of Ecology, 2001

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2009

The establishment of a network of reserves is of fundamental importance to the loss of biodiversi... more The establishment of a network of reserves is of fundamental importance to the loss of biodiversity. Seven different area selection methods for the establishment of a reserve network were applied in the present study: (a) 5% cut-off value of the grid cells with the highest species richness or conservation value, (b) complementarity analysis using as criteria species richness or conservation value or rarest species richness, and (c) mixed complementarity analysis using as criteria species richness or conservation value. These methods were applied in the orchid taxa of east Macedonia. The conservation values of taxa were estimated on the basis of regional rarity, broad-scale rarity, and species specialization. The spatial overlap between the resulting networks and the Natura 2000 network of the study area was assessed. Furthermore, the efficiency of the latter network to protect the orchid taxa of the study area was examined. Our results suggest that: (a) a multiscale estimation of rarity is necessary for the unbiased estimation of species conservation values; (b) species specialization adds valuable ecological information to the assessment of taxa conservation values; (c) complementarity and mixed complementarity analyses on species richness or conservation value safeguard all the taxa of the region; (d) complementarity analysis on the basis of the richness of the rarest species safeguards all the rarest taxa, but not the total number of the remaining taxa; (e) the 5% cut-off value on species richness or conservation value fails to protect all the taxa of the region, including a large number of the rarest taxa; and (f) the Natura 2000 network, despite its large coverage in the study area, fails to safeguard all the taxa, including some of the rarest.

Acta Oecologica-international Journal of Ecology, 2008

Specialists Generalists a b s t r a c t

Plants

The Role of Ecological Factors in Distribution and Abundance of Terrestrial Orchids

Reference Series in Phytochemistry

Scientific Reports

Mediterranean Botany, 2019

The Role of Ecological Factors in Distribution and Abundance of Terrestrial Orchids

Turkish Journal of Botany, 2018

TURKISH JOURNAL OF BOTANY

Folia Geobotanica, 2012

Neottia cordata (Orchidaceae) at its southernmost distribution border in Europe: threat status and effectiveness of Natura 2000 Network for its conservation

Journal for Nature Conservation

Patterns of distribution, abundance and composition of forest terrestrial orchids

Biodiversity and Conservation

PLoS ONE, 2013

Mediterranean Botany, Sep 26, 2019

Factors affecting the distribution and abundance of Cloeon and Caenis (Ephemeroptera) larvae in a tropical impounded river, Nigeria

African Journal of Ecology, 2001

Biodiversity and Conservation, 2009

Acta Oecologica-international Journal of Ecology, 2008

Specialists Generalists a b s t r a c t