Important Plant Areas for algae - Natural History Museum

2.0 IMPORTANT PLANT AREAS
Juliet Brodie and David M. John
The IPA concept was conceived in 1995 at the first Planta Europa conference held in Hyères, France. An
IPA is defined as ‘a natural or semi-natural site exhibiting exceptional botanical richness and/or
supporting an outstanding assemblage of rare, threatened and/or endemic plant species and/or
vegetation of high botanic value’. Three criteria (Anderson, 2002; Box 1) have been used for recognising
IPAs and a programme developed to identify and protect a network of the best sites/areas for plant
conservation throughout Europe and in the rest of the world.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation was adopted in 2002 by the parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2002). The Strategy has 16 outcome-orientated
targets with the fifth one calling for the protection of 50% of the most important areas for plant diversity
by 2010. IPAs were considered to be the principle mechanism for identifying such areas or sites. The UK
government’s first response to the Strategy document was published in 2002 Plant Diversity Challenge
(Cheffings et al., 2004).
Knowledge of the distribution patterns and conservation status of ‘lower plant’ groups lags well behind
that for ‘higher’ plants. There is a need to use what information exists to recognise sites important for
these groups and protect them before they disappear or become irreversibly changed. This report is the
first attempt to recognise IPAs for freshwater algae and seaweeds.
BOX 1
Criteria for IPA identification
Criterion A
Site holds significant populations of one or more species that are of global or
European conservation concern.
Criterion B
Site has an exceptionally rich flora in a European context in relation to its biogeographical zone.
Criterion C
Site is an outstanding example of a habitat type of global or European plant conservation and
botanical importance.
3.0 ALGAE
Juliet Brodie and David M. John
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The ‘algae’ are an artificial assemblage of organisms grouped together in large part on the basis of their
ability to photosynthesise. Morphologically they are extremely diverse and range from single-celled
microbes through to structurally complex multicellular forms up to several metres in length. The
classification of the algae has undergone radical reorganisation in recent years and eukaryotic algae are
now placed in most of the major lineages of life on earth (Box 2). Algae are worldwide in distribution and
occupy an extremely wide range of habitats (Box 3).
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