Establishing a database for aquatic plants – Phase 1: the relevant conducted studies at the national level

Abstract

With regards to the significant importance of aquatic plants from different point of views the creation of a comprehensive information bank potentially plays an important role in achieving the foreseen goals in related fields at the national level. After the implementation of this project, we can provide a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant existing information to the researchers as well as to the scientific and administrative planning authorities of the country in order to spend the national budget in line with the needs and scientific priorities of the country. In order to achieve the objectives of this plan, relevant information available in the country from different point of views, i.e. geographic regions (marine and inland water ecosystems), the studied taxa, types and applications of relevant studies, types of publications and … were collected. In general, with the review of various scientific sources, it can be concluded that studies and researches on aquatic macrophytes in the country's aquatic ecosystems (especially from the viewpoints of biodiversity, distribution and genetic characteristics) are relatively limited and the current scientific weaknesses, especially compared with terrestrial organisms (and even other aquatic organisms), is quite evident. On the other hand, in terms of the inland water checklists, the information gap is more evident with regard to the northern and southern ecosystems. Based on studies conducted at the national level, generally more than 284 species of aquatic and semi-aquatic vascular plants in the country is reported that the species, belonging to 127 genera and 57 families. Among them 80.3% of the species are helophytes, 13.9% submerged, 3.5% floating leaved and 2.3% free floating. In terms of distribution, the highest and lowest number of aquatic plants has been identified in the northern and eastern regions of the country, respectively.