Human-Mediated Seed Dispersal in the Islands of Tuz Lake: The Case of Tuzla Island

In isolated ecosystems like islands, the floristic structure is typically shaped by natural dispersal filtersand environmental conditions. It is known that anthropogenic effects disrupt this isolation in suchecosystems. To evaluate these effects, the flora of an island in the west of Tuz Lake was investigated.This island is seperated from others because a road, used by a nearby salt pan’s operations, runs throughit. Compared to 52 neighboring islands, it was determined that only 10 of the total 90 species andinfraspecific taxa found on the study island were unique to it. The species found exclusively on theisland with road were Atriplex lasiantha, Carex divisa, Carthamus lanatus, Centaurea iberica,Cichorium intybus, Delphinium peregrinum, Elymus elongatus, Lepidium draba, Myosotis stricta andScolymus hispanicus determined as species that predominantly spread in ruderal and disturbed habitats.Since the island’s only connection to the mainland is the road, which is frequently and periodically usedby trucks for salt pan’s activities, suggest these species arrived on the island via vehicles. The restricteddispersal on this island demonstrates human-mediated dispersal through vehicle movements and theselective establishment of species with high colonization potential. This situation indicates that sensitiveecosystems, such as inland islands, can have their natural dispersal filters invalidated even by minimalphysical connections, thus potentially causing significant changes in their plant communities.