The Caucasus is a hotspot of plant and animal species diversity and endemism, important for the conservation of biodiversity on a global scale. Located at a biological crossroads, species from Central and Northern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa mingle here with endemics found nowhere else. High levels of landscape diversity in the Caucasus are largely the result of temporal-spatial variability in the region. The unique geology and terrain, consisting of three major mountain chains separated by valleys and plains, permit a variety of different microclimate, soil and vegetative conditions, resulting in a broad range of landscapes and unusually high levels of species diversity for the Temperate Zone. Climatic conditions are very diverse, with precipitation ranging from more than 4,000 mm per year in the southwestern Caucasus to less than 200 mm a year in deserts in the eastern Caucasus.
More than 6,500 species of vascular plants are found in the Caucasus. A quarter of these plants are found nowhere else on Earth—the highest level of endemism in the temperate world. At least 153 mammals inhabit the Caucasus; one-fifth of these are endemic to the region. As many as 400 species of birds are found in the Caucasus, four of which are endemic to this hotspot. The coasts of the Black and Caspian seas are important stop over sites for millions of migrating birds, which fly over the isthmus each spring and autumn between their summer and winter homes. Twenty-two of the 77 reptiles in the Caucasus are endemic to the region. Fourteen species of amphibians are found in the region, of which four are endemics. More than 200 species of fish are found in the rivers and seas of the region, more than a third of which are found nowhere else.
Globally threatened species-those listed as vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List-are the primary focus for conservation at the species level in this profile. In all, 50 globally threatened species of animals and one plant were identified in the hotspot. The distribution of these species was assessed to determine important sites and corridors for conservation. The East Caucasian tur and the West Caucasian tur are among the 18 mammals identified in this hotspot. Turs are found in the Greater Caucasus Range, dwelling mainly in the high mountains and sometimes descending into the rocky gorges of the forest belt. In recent years, their numbers have declined greatly and now IUCN lists the turs as endangered and vulnerable. The Armenian mouflon, an endemic species of wild sheep and the ancestral form of domestic sheep, is another mammal listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. Mouflon populations have dwindled to fewer than several hundred in southern Armenia and in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (Azerbaijan). Dahl's jird, found in semi-desert habitats in the Araks River valley, is also endangered in the region.
Globally threatened birds in the Caucasus include the critically endangered Siberian crane that migrates along the Caspian Sea coast; the vulnerable great bustard, found in open plains in northern Iran and Turkey during migration and in the North Caucasus of Russia; the endangered white-headed duck; and vulnerable red-breasted goose that winters in wetlands in Azerbaijan, Russia and northern Iran and Turkey. In all, 11 bird species in the Caucasus are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered according to IUCN.
The 10 globally threatened reptiles in the region include the Caucasian viper, meadow viper and Dinnik's viper. These vipers are endemic to the Caucasus and occupy total ranges of only a few thousand square kilometers. The endemic Caucasian salamander, one of the four vulnerable species of amphibians, is found only in western Georgia and Turkey.
Six species of sturgeon and the beluga are endangered by overfishing and habitat degradation in the Black and Caspian seas. The Baltic (Atlantic) sturgeon, which spawns only in rivers in the Kolkheti Lowlands in Georgia, is critically endangered.
Additionally, the Caucasus has a number of important flagship and locally threatened species. Perhaps the best known is the highly endangered Caucasian leopard, celebrated in local folklore. The leopard used to be widespread throughout the Caucasus, but now it is found only in remote parts of the Greater Caucasus Range, southern Armenia, the Nakhichevan Republic (Azerbaijan), the Talysh Mountains and in bordering areas of northeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran. The main reasons for the leopard's decline are habitat loss, poaching and decline of prey species.
Other large mammal species include the striped hyena, which is now on the verge of extinction, and the Caucasian red deer, one of the most endangered species of wildlife in the southern Caucasus. Chamois and goitred gazelle are also important flagship species in the region.
Endemic species of birds in the Caucasus include the Caucasian black grouse and the Caucasian snowcock. The Caucasian black grouse occurs in all the high mountains of the Caucasus, while the Caucasian snowcock is found only in the Greater Caucasus Range.
The vegetation of the Caucasus is quite diverse as a result of the varied relief, climate and evolutionary history. Outstanding features include plants and plant associations that date back to the Tertiary Period, including in the Colchic Region in the Black Sea basin and the Hyrcanic Region in the southeastern portion of the Caucasus on the Caspian Sea coast. The abundance of relic and endemic plant species in the region is largely due to the fact that the Caucasus was spared glaciation during the last Iceage. The Colchic Refugia (Georgia, Russia and Turkey) and the Hyrcanic Refugia (Azerbaijan and Iran) harbor species found nowhere else like Imeretian and pontic oaks, Medwedew's birch, Ungern's and Smirnow's rhododendron, epigea and others. Chestnut-leaf oak, Hyrcanic poplar, danae and other plants are endemic relics of the Hyrcanic Region. Relic forests of endemic box tree occur in the northern part of the Colchic Region.
About 700 species of higher plants are listed in regional Red Books of Rare and Endangered Species, including at least 20 species of bellflower and 18 species of iris. Five species of lichens and 11 species of fungi are also locally endangered. Tigran's elder is the only globally threatened plant included in the IUCN Red List and considered in this Ecosystem Profile as a conservation target at the species level. This vulnerable shrub is an endemic found sporadically in the Shirak, Aparan, Yerevan and Darelegis regions of Armenia, in lower and middle mountain belts on dry rocky and clay soils. It is threatened by habitat loss to development and overgrazing.
The major ecosystems in the Caucasus hotspot consist of forests, high mountain habitats, dry mountain shrublands, steppes, semi-deserts and wetlands. In the North Caucasus Plain, vegetation changes from steppe communities in the west to semi-desert and desert habitats in the east. Moving south, the Greater Caucasus Range rises above the plain with several peaks above 5,000m, enveloped by broadleaf and coniferous forests and subalpine and alpine meadows, glaciers and snowfields. The Greater Caucasus Range gives way to the narrow Transcaucasian Depression to the south, with rich alder and Caucasian wing-nut swamp forests in the Kolkheti Lowlands to the west and steppes, arid woodlands, semi-deserts and deserts to the east. The Lesser Caucasus Mountain Chain rises to the south of this depression, with broadleaf and coniferous forests and alpine meadows and shrublands. The Southern Uplands abut the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, characterized by mountain steppe and grasslands. The Talysh-Alborz Mountain Range, in the southeastern corner of the hotspot, extends along the Caspian Sea from southern Azerbaijan to northern Iran, where broadleaf forest, mountain steppe and alpine meadow ecosystems are represented.
Forests are the most important biome for biodiversity conservation in the Caucasus, covering nearly one-fifth of the region. Forests in the Caucasus are highly diverse, consisting of broadleaf, dark coniferous, pine, arid open woodland and lowland forests, which are dispersed according to elevation, soil conditions and climate in the region.
Broadleaf forests, consisting of Oriental beech, oak, hornbeam and chestnut, make up most of the forested landscape of the Caucasus. Beech forests play the leading role in the region's timber industry. Careless clearcutting of mountain beech stands has permanently damaged a significant portion of valuable beech forests in the Northern Caucasus. Most oak species in the hotspot are endemic to the region. Oak forests, largely cleared for farmlands and pastures, have been spared mostly in remote canyons and on relatively poor soils. Chestnut forests in the Colchic foothills and in the northwestern Caucasus have also been logged intensively. In northeastern Turkey, broadleaf forests are cleared for tea and hazelnut plantations. In northwestern Iran, only 12 percent Arasbaran broadleaf forests remain, noted for their high number of endemic species.
Dark coniferous forests, made up mainly of Oriental spruce and Caucasian fir, are found in the western part of the Lesser Caucasus Range and on both sides of the western and central Greater Caucasus Range. Coniferous forests are logged for paper production and timber, resulting in severe depletion of these reserves. Pine forests occur in the North Caucasus, though they are also found in the southern Caucasus, especially in the Kura River watershed in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Arid open woodlands form on dry, rocky slopes in the eastern and southern Caucasus, made up of juniper and pistachio species. Lowland forests are found in floodplains and on low river terraces, generally growing on alluvial, swampy, or moist soils. Very few lowland forests have been preserved to this day; some stands remain only in the Lenkoran and Kolkheti lowlands and in the Kura, Iori, Samur and Alazan-Agrichay river valleys.
High mountain meadows are dominated by herbaceous species. About 1,000 vascular plant species are found in the Greater Caucasus high mountains and half of these are endemics. Caucasian rhododendron thickets grow on slopes with northern exposure in the Greater Caucasus Range and in the northern part of the Lesser Caucasus Mountain Chain. Alpine mats, formed by dense low-lying perennial plants, cover the terrain on the upper belts of these two mountain systems. Alpine meadows and grasslands are used intensively for livestock grazing in the summer throughout the region, resulting in decline in plant species diversity. Unique communities of cliff and rock vegetation are distributed throughout the high mountains of the Caucasus. Approximately 80 percent of the plant species found in rock and scree communities on Colchic limestone ridges in the Greater Caucasus are endemic to the hotspot.
Mediterranean and Anatolian-Iranian shrublands occur in arid mountains of the Caucasus where continental climate prevails, particularly in the foothills of the Araks River watershed.
Steppe vegetation used to be widespread on the Caucasus Isthmus, but today only fragments of primary steppe communities have survived on slopes that are unsuitable for agriculture. Steppe communities are found in the plains and foothills of the eastern and southern Caucasus. Highland steppe communities, primarily found in dry mountain regions of the southern Caucasus, are diverse in species composition and have a number of endemic plants.
Until recently, semi-deserts with elements of desert vegetation were widespread in the lowlands and foothills of the eastern part of the Caucasus Isthmus. In the past few decades, agricultural development, irrigation and winter grazing practices have significantly altered the landscape in this area. The few semi-deserts and deserts that have been preserved are made up of either predominately wormwood or salt habitat species.
Wetland ecosystems are found throughout the Caucasus and include estuaries and river deltas, marshes, swamps, lakes and streams in alpine regions. Wetland vegetation covers large areas along the lower Terek, Sulak, Kuban, Kura, Samur and Rioni rivers and the coastal zones of the Black, Azov and Caspian seas. Flora in wetlands ranges from aquatic vegetation in lakes, to swampy floodplain, brush and forest ecosystems, to sphagnum-sedge swamps in the Kolkheti Lowlands. The marshes along the Caspian coast in northwestern Iran are particularly important for waterfowl. A variety of lakes are scattered throughout the Caucasus from small alpine lakes to significant bodies of water such as Lake Sevan with highly specific fish fauna.
Protected areas have played an important role in nature conservation in the Caucasus for nearly a century. The first strict nature reserve in the region was created in 1912 in Lagodekhi Gorge on the southeastern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Range in Georgia. Since then, more than 60 strict nature reserves were created in the former Soviet part of the Caucasus, yet many of these were abolished in the 1950s. Georgia, for example, had 22 strict nature reserves prior to 1951. By the end of the protected area reform process, only one reserve remained. In time, some previously existing protected areas were re-established and new ones were created. Now, Georgia has 16 strict nature reserves and two national parks.
Today, there are 55 strict nature reserves and national parks in the Caucasus hotspot. Combined, nature reserves (IUCN categories I and II) protect a total land area of 1.2 million hectares or 2.1 percent of the Caucasus Region. Besides these protected areas, there are a large number of multiple-use sanctuaries, refuges, nature parks, hunting reserves and protected forests in the Caucasus (IUCN categories IV to VI). Altogether, approximately 8 percent of the Caucasus Region is afforded some sort of protection.
Most strict nature reserves and national parks, particularly in the southern Caucasus, are too small to guarantee long-term biodiversity conservation. Economic problems have resulted in an increase in poaching, illegal forest cutting and grazing in protected areas where the protection regime is not always enforced. Reserve employees are underpaid and equipment and transportation are lacking. Buffer zones are often non-existent, so consequences of resource use and human pressures outside reserves spill over the borders and impact protected ecosystems. Furthermore, the existing protected areas system is not entirely representative of the full range of biodiversity in the hotspot.
New protected areas need to be created in certain regions where there are none and corridors need to be created between existing protected areas. The protected status of sanctuaries with low levels of protection need to be increased in areas that are important for conservation of biodiversity and endangered species and ecosystems. Management and planning in nature reserves needs to be improved by increasing the qualifications of nature reserve staff and elaborating and implementing management plans.
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