Climate Change in Southwestern Anatolia (Turkey) and Its Possible Impacts on Plant Biodiversity

Biodiversity is of great importance for ecosystems such as protecting soils against erosion, increasing soil fertility, providing clean water to streams/rivers, contributing to the healthy continuation of nutrient cycling, pollinating plants, acting as a buffer against diseases. These characteristics of biodiversity are called “ecosystem functions” or “ecosystem services”. However, many factors threaten biodiversity, such as changes in land cover and land use, pollution, invasion of exotic species and climate change. Among these, it would not be wrong to say that the anthropogenic climate change experienced today is one of the most important threats to biodiversity. As is known, the Mediterranean basin is one of the most sensitive areas in terms of global climate change. This study aimed to reveal the possible effects of climate change on plant biodiversity in south-western Anatolia. For this purpose, daily, maximum and minimum temperature data and daily total precipitation data of 10 meteorological stations located in the research area were evaluated. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was used to test the changing trends in temperature and precipitation. Then, the possible effects of changes and trends in temperature and precipitation on plant biodiversity in the study area are explained.