Russian Red Data Book Orchids: What Anthropogenic Factors are Leading to their Extinction in Regions?

The research of drivers leading to plant extinction is primary task in global biodiversity conservation. Despite Russia covers a large area, there is a lack of data on factors leading to plant extinction there, including orchids. We aimed to evaluate the anthropogenic drivers threaten orchids included in the Russian Red Data Books. For this purpose, we generalized and systematized data on orchids included in all relevant (i.e. published during recent 10–11 years) regional Red Data Books available online by 31 December 2020. For each Red Data Book orchid, we identified threats, i.e. drivers leading to species extinction, according to sections “Limiting factors” or “Limiting factors and threats” of regional Red Data Books. We found the total taxonomic list of Red Data Book orchids in the analyzed regions of Russia. The similarity of the lists of orchid taxa in analyzed regions has been established on the basis of Jaccard index. In regards of extinction drivers, we found what of them are most serious threats to orchids in the regions of Russian Federation. We believe that the conducting of the similar study for the whole amount of threatened plants of Russia will provide highly valuable results demanded all over the world.