20.500.12556/DiRROS-27893 Native trees of the Mediterranean region distribution, diversity and conservation challenges Purpose of Review While 38% of tree species are at risk of extinction worldwide, their inventory and occurrence at ecologically and biogeographically meaningful scales is lacking in many parts of the world, including the biodiversity-rich Mediterranean region. Here, we provide presence/absence, extinction risk, biogeography and genetic diversity data of trees in 39 climatically and ecologically Mediterranean territories (so-called “botanical territories”) in North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. Recent Findings The inventory includes 496 species and 147 subspecies from 50 families and 111 genera, including 48 species and 8 subspecies previously not considered as trees. We show that native tree species distribution is highly skewed across the tree of life with a few species-rich families such as the Rosaceae and the majority with less than 1% of all species. Endemism was not evenly distributed among botanical territories and neither was extinction risk, an assessment of which was lacking in almost half of the species. While no geographic trends were detectable, species richness was found to be positively correlated with botanical territory area and, when standardized by area, with habitat heterogeneity. Information on genetic diversity was lacking in two thirds of the species inventoried and mostly focused on species with economic importance. Summary Our data are open access and can be used by researchers and stakeholders for a wide range of purposes, including conservation and restoration. Our findings identified major native tree richness hotspots as well as key knowledge gaps and biases related to extinction risk and genetic diversity. Our findings also emphasize the importance of increased collaboration to support the conservation of Mediterranean forest trees. biogeography biodiversity natural variation in plants plant ecology seed distribution tree biology conservation strategies Mediterranean plant biodiversity biogeografija biotska raznovrstnost naravna raznolikost ekologija rastlin razširjenost semen biologija dreves strategije ohranjanja sredozemska rastlinska biotska raznovrstnost true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Znanstveno delo 2026-02-26 15:38:24 2026-02-26 15:38:24 2026-02-27 03:58:50 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 26. 2. 2026; Skupno št. avtorjev: 30; str. 1-20 iss. [article no. ]20 Vol. 11 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 630*18 2198-6436 10.1007/s40725-025-00252-w 269814019 s40725-025-00252-w.pdf s40725-025-00252-w.pdf 1 5F6C33D934AE587D4A2EF0C3CF7F9CDF b7d8694ebc54d74f3d2c05df29e2f0b0776dbd8d05a6b101bffacad93fca26f0 e6e0ccab-1320-11f1-9cb0-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=41058 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40725-025-00252-w 0 e0b7ace3-1320-11f1-9cb0-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=41057 Gozdarski inštitut Slovenije 0 0 0