Habitat monitoring in Europe: a description of current practices

Monitoring of biodiversity at the level of habitats is becoming increasingly common. Here we describe current practices in habitat monitoring based on 150 schemes in Europe. Most schemes were initiated after 1990 in response to EU nature directives or habitat management/restoration actions, with funding mostly from European or national sources. Schemes usually monitor both the spatial distribution and the quality of the habitats, and they frequently collect data on environmental parameters and potential causes of changes. Many schemes are local or regional rather than national or international in scope, and sampling effort varies greatly across spatial and temporal scales. Experimental design is used in half of the schemes, however, data are rarely analysed by advanced statistics. Most schemes require two months or less per year in manpower and are typically run by professionals rather than by volunteers. Estimated salaries plus equipment costs average 650,000 Euro per year per scheme, and add up to 80 million Euros annually. Costs are particularly high for schemes based on European or international law and for schemes funded by European or national sources. Costs are also high in schemes in which sampling sites are selected subjectively rather than based on sampling theory, and in schemes that do not use field mapping or remote sensing to document spatial variation in habitats. Our survey demonstrates promising developments in European habitat monitoring but also underlines the need for better spatial coverage, documentation of spatial variaton, improved sampling design and advanced data analysis. Such improvements are essential if we are to judge progress towards the 2010 biodiversity targets.     

Priorities for biodiversity monitoring in Europe: A review of supranational policies and a novel scheme for integrative prioritization

Trends and status of species and habitats need to be measured to assess whether global biodiversity policy targets have been achieved. However, it is impossible to monitor all species and habitats with a justifiable effort. Therefore, it is critical to prioritize the monitoring of specific biodiversity components. Priorities must be linked to key nature conservation policies to ensure that monitoring efforts are relevant to policy needs, achieve maximum impact, and obtain governmental support. Here we discuss priority setting in biodiversity monitoring in view of monitoring obligations and priorities in supranational biodiversity legislation and policies in Europe and assess overlaps in priorities among policies. While most supranational biodiversity regulations require monitoring of biodiversity, obligations are legally enforceable only for the Nature Directives, the Water Framework Directive, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the European Union. Of the assessed international conventions and other relevant policy instruments about 50% explicitly designate priority species and most focus on vertebrates. Lower emphasis is given to habitats and geographical priorities are even less pronounced. Also, an overarching system for monitoring prioritization is still missing. Our prioritization system is based on three main criteria: (1) legal requirement for reporting, (2) wording used to define priority or importance, and (3) inclusion in lists that indicate importance of monitoring due to e.g. threats or relevance of a region for a species. Our system contains five main priority levels, within which an additional division differentiates priorities according to national/European responsibility criteria. Based on this system, we provide recommendations for allocating species and habitats enlisted by the reviewed policy tools to explicit non-overlapping priority levels. Our approach will facilitate synergies between monitoring activities for different policy needs, and contribute to alleviate the notorious resource shortage for biodiversity monitoring.     

Evaluation and mapping of the conservation significance of habitats using GIS: an example from Crete, Greece

To ensure the long-term future of NATURA 2000 sites across Europe, effective techniques are required for evaluating and monitoring their conservation significance. This paper describes a GIS-based method that uses multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) to determine the conservation significance of vegetation communities and habitats for a case study of a proposed NATURA 2000 site on the northwest coast of Crete, Greece. The method uses the most frequently used criteria for the selection of priority areas for nature conservation—species and habitat diversity, rarity of species and habitats, naturalness, threat of human disturbance and replaceability. For each community and corresponding habitat type, each criterion was scored according to field data and expert knowledge using a numerical scale. The final conservation score for each community was derived using MCE within a GIS and mapped. The results demonstrated that the method is an effective tool for evaluating and comparing conservation significance and could be applied to other sites across Europe and to monitor change.     

生物多样性监测指标体系构建研究进展

生物多样性监测是为确定与预期标准相一致或相背离的程度,而对生物多样性进行定期或不定期的监视,目前已成为生物多样性研究和保护的热点问题。生物多样性监测指标则是一些简化的生物或环境特征参数,说明生物多样性现状和变化趋势,以及人类活动压力对生物多样性的影响,以促进科学界、政府和公众间的沟通,提高生物多样性管理水平。近10年来,国际组织、政府机构和各国学者对生物多样性指标体系的构建进行了大量的探索工作,取得了很多进展,其中有些指标已经应用于实际监测项目。本文综述了生物多样性监测指标筛选的一般标准和指标体系构建的主要理论,梳理目前已提出或应用的主要生物多样性监测指标,以期为我国构建国家或区域尺度生物多样性监测指标体系提供参考。在此基础上分析提出：生物多样性概念的泛化、指标含义模糊以及知识和数据的缺乏是构建生物多样性监测指标的主要困难。我国未来的生物多样性监测指标体系构建需要关注以下两个方面：（1）紧密联系实际,构建适应性的监测指标体系,加强对典型生态系统区域的监测;（2）发展经济社会发展方面的指标,分析生物多样性变化的驱动力,为生物多样性保护和区域可持续发展提供科学依据。     

A review of dystrophic lake and pool habitat in Europe: An Irish perspective

Freshwater lakes and pools contained within peatlands are unique habitats that support rare and specialised species. Despite this, these ecosystems have been overlooked in conservation and management practices. One of these habitats, ‘3160 Natural dystrophic lakes and ponds’, is protected under the European Union (EU) Habitats Directive with a concerning proportion of these habitats having an “unfavourable-bad” or an “unfavourable-inadequate” conservation status across Europe. Our current understanding of the key physico-chemical and ecological features of this habitat is inadequate which is hindering the implementation of effective conservation measures. This review summarises the current knowledge of this protected lake habitat as defined under the EU Habitats Directive. With a focus on Ireland, we demonstrate how the current monitoring and assessment methods used to characterise and assess the structure and function and conservation status of this habitat, which relies largely on the use of macrophyte community composition and surrogate physico-chemical data collected under the EU Water Framework Directive, is ineffective. We propose the incorporation of further or alternative ecological metrics including, but not limited to, algae and macroinvertebrates which are needed to improve our understanding of the structure and function of this priority lake habitat. In addition, application of such data via ecological metrics would allow for the quantification of biodiversity and species rarity metrics which would aid in identifying sites of conservation importance.     

Effectiveness of a large reserve network in protecting freshwater biodiversity: a test for the Iberian Peninsula

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Bridging the gap between the Natura 2000 regional conservation status and local conservation objectives

Natura 2000 targets the sustainable conservation of Europe's biodiversity. An important cornerstone of Natura 2000 is the Habitats Directive, which is currently implemented across European member states. However, straightforward implementation is not obvious since the favourable conservation status of habitats and species needs to be achieved at the member state level, while conservation objectives need to be formulated at the protected site level. To bridge this gap, we propose to start from regional conservation objectives before site level objectives are formulated. These regional conservation objectives have the advantage of providing a framework according to which conservation objectives can be allocated both within and outside the protected sites of the Natura 2000 network. Especially since they all contribute to the national or regional conservation status. Recently, Flanders (northern Belgium) has adopted this approach and has quantified conservation objectives at the regional scale. As the current regional conservation status of habitats and species is mostly unfavourable, regional conservation objectives entail a drastic increase in area (42%) for habitats, and active conservation measures for 78% of the species. We are convinced that the method outlined here, may substantially contribute to a helpful discussion about implementing and streamlining Natura 2000 across European member states.     

Stand characteristics and biodiversity indicators along the productivity gradient in boreal forests: Defining a critical set of indicators for the monitoring of habitat nature quality

Abstract

We quantified the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on the structure and biodiversity of boreal forests on acidic soils and created a statistically supported rational set of indicators to monitor the stand “naturalness”. For that, we surveyed various traits of tree layer, understory, herb layer, forest floor and several widely accepted biodiversity epiphytic indicators in 252 old‐aged boreal stands in Estonia, mostly dominated by Scots pine or Norway spruce. Multifactorial general linear model analyses showed that many forest characteristics and potential indicators were confounded by the gradient of soil productivity (reflected by the forest site type), local biogeographic gradients and also by stand age. Considering confounding effects, boreal forests in a near‐natural state have more large‐diameter trees (diameter at breast height >40 cm) and larger variety of diameter classes, higher proportion of spruce or deciduous trees, a larger amount of coarse woody debris in various stages, a more closed tree canopy and denser understory than managed mature forests. By increasing light availability above the field layer, forest management indirectly increases the coverage of herbs and lichens on the forest floor but reduces the alpha‐ and beta‐diversity of herbs and the proportion of graminoids. Human disturbances reduce the relative incidence of many commonly accepted biodiversity indicators such as indicator lichens, woodpeckers, wood‐dwelling insects or fungi on trees. The test for the predictive power of characteristics reacting on disturbance revealed that only a fraction of them appeared to be included in a diagnostic easy‐to‐apply set of indicators to assess the nature quality of boreal forest: the amount of dead wood, the proportion of deciduous trees, the presence of specially shaped trees and woodpeckers and, as an indicator of disturbances, the forest herb Melampyrum pratensis. Many of these indicators have already been implemented in practice.     

Linking biodiversity indicators,ecosystem functioning,provision of services and human well-being in estuarine systems: Application of a conceptual framework

Assuming that human well-being strongly relies on the services provided by well-functioning ecosystems, changes in the ecological functioning of any system can have direct and indirect effects on human welfare. Intensive land use and tourism have expanded in recent decades along coastal ecosystems, together with increasing demands for water, food and energy; all of these factors intensify the exploitation of natural resources. Many of the interrelations between ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services (ES) still require quantification in estuarine systems. A conceptual framework to assess such links in a spatially and temporally explicit manner is proposed and applied to the Mondego estuary (Portugal). This framework relies on three consecutive steps and discriminates among biodiversity structural components, ecosystem functioning and stability and the services provided by the ecosystem.Disturbances in abiotic factors were found to have a direct effect on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ES. The observed changes in the species composition of communities had a positive effect on the ecosystem's productivity and stability. Moreover, the observed changes in the estuarine ES provision are likely to arise from changing structural and abiotic factors and in the present case from the loss or decline of locally abundant species. This study also indicates that linear relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services provision are unlikely to occur in estuarine systems. Instead, cumulative and complex relations are observed between factors on both temporal and spatial scales. In this context, the results suggest several additional conclusions: (1) biodiversity and ecosystem functioning interaction with human well-being need to be incorporated into decision-making processes aimed at the conservative management of systems; (2) the institutional use of research results must be part of the design and implementation of sustainable management activities; and (3) more integrative tools/studies are required to account for the interactions of estuarine ecosystems with surrounding socio-economic activities. Therefore, when performing integrated assessments of ecosystem dynamics, it becomes essential to consider not only the effects of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning on services provision but also the effects that human well-being and ES provision may have on estuarine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.The proposed framework implies taking into account both the functional and the commodities points of view upon natural ecosystems and by this representing a line of thought which will deserve further research to explore more in detail the conceptual links between biodiversity–ecosystem functioning–services provided.     

The habitat function of mangroves for terrestrial and marine fauna: A review

Mangroves are defined by the presence of trees that mainly occur in the intertidal zone, between land and sea, in the (sub) tropics. The intertidal zone is characterised by highly variable environmental factors, such as temperature, sedimentation and tidal currents. The aerial roots of mangroves partly stabilise this environment and provide a substratum on which many species of plants and animals live. Above the water, the mangrove trees and canopy provide important habitat for a wide range of species. These include birds, insects, mammals and reptiles. Below the water, the mangrove roots are overgrown by epibionts such as tunicates, sponges, algae, and bivalves. The soft substratum in the mangroves forms habitat for various infaunal and epifaunal species, while the space between roots provides shelter and food for motile fauna such as prawns, crabs and fishes. Mangrove litter is transformed into detritus, which partly supports the mangrove food web. Plankton, epiphytic algae and microphytobenthos also form an important basis for the mangrove food web. Due to the high abundance of food and shelter, and low predation pressure, mangroves form an ideal habitat for a variety of animal species, during part or all of their life cycles. As such, mangroves may function as nursery habitats for (commercially important) crab, prawn and fish species, and support offshore fish populations and fisheries. Evidence for linkages between mangroves and offshore habitats by animal migrations is still scarce, but highly needed for management and conservation purposes. Here, we firstly reviewed the habitat function of mangroves by common taxa of terrestrial and marine animals. Secondly, we reviewed the literature with regard to the degree of interlinkage between mangroves and adjacent habitats, a research area which has received increasing attention in the last decade. Finally, we reviewed current insights into the degree to which mangrove litter fuels the mangrove food web, since this has been the subject of long-standing debate.     

Reliable,verifiable and efficient monitoring of biodiversity via metabarcoding

To manage and conserve biodiversity, one must know what is being lost, where, and why, as well as which remedies are likely to be most effective. Metabarcoding technology can characterise the species compositions of mass samples of eukaryotes or of environmental DNA. Here, we validate metabarcoding by testing it against three high‐quality standard data sets that were collected in Malaysia (tropical), China (subtropical) and the United Kingdom (temperate) and that comprised 55,813 arthropod and bird specimens identified to species level with the expenditure of 2,505 person‐hours of taxonomic expertise. The metabarcode and standard data sets exhibit statistically correlated alpha‐ and beta‐diversities, and the two data sets produce similar policy conclusions for two conservation applications: restoration ecology and systematic conservation planning. Compared with standard biodiversity data sets, metabarcoded samples are taxonomically more comprehensive, many times quicker to produce, less reliant on taxonomic expertise and auditable by third parties, which is essential for dispute resolution.     

Characteristics of Australia's rangelands and key design issues for monitoring biodiversity

Abstract We explored the key issues that are most likely to influence any set of guiding principles for developing biodiversity monitoring programmes in Australia's rangelands. We defined the Australian rangelands and came up with an overview of their climate extremes, land‐use pressures and biodiversity loss, and then focussed on issues underpinning the design phase of any monitoring programme. Using Noss's 1990 framework of compositional, structural and functional attributes of biodiversity and its new revisions by others, we showed how the elusive, abstract concept of biodiversity can be used to identify many measurable attributes that can form a minimum and necessary set of indicators for any biodiversity monitoring task. We then described the steps in the monitoring process, with a particular focus on the reasons for monitoring biodiversity as they strongly influence the selection of indicators. We concluded by compiling a table of key issues as background information for developing guiding principles (Table 4). The list is by no means an exhaustive list for the design phase but it does indicate that considerable attention needs to be given to this phase when developing monitoring programmes. We have intentionally not addressed the equally important issues associated with the planning and delivery phases of developing a monitoring programme, as Wallace et al. and Watson and Novelly cover these in their papers in the present issue of Austral Ecology.     

The loss of biodiversity conservation in EU research programmes: Thematic shifts in biodiversity wording in the environment themes of EU research programmes FP7 and Horizon 2020

Society has been seeking ways to express biodiversity's value to stimulate its protection. Economic valuation of ecosystem services has had limited success to motivate biodiversity protection and reaching the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy targets is in danger of failure. The expression of biodiversity's value in policy documents thus becomes a topic of discussion, because it greatly influences the ways policy makers think about environmental problems. We present an analysis of the word use related to biodiversity conservation versus ecosystem services in the environment themes of the FP7 and Horizon 2020 research work programs of the European Commission in the period of 2007–2014, and the projects accepted under these themes. We conclude first that biodiversity was lost as a topic in the transition from FP7 to Horizon 2020, accompanied by a three-quarters loss of biodiversity topics in the projects accepted under these research work programs. Moreover, the use of ‘ecosystem services’ was 1.5 times higher at the end of that period compared to the beginning in the research work programs, to the detriment of the use of ‘sustainability’ and ‘conservation’ which halved during that same period. In the light of international commitments to biodiversity conservation, the focus toward ecosystem services and away from conservation is of great concern.     

中国森林生物多样性监测: 科学基础与执行计划

中国森林生物多样性保护和恢复措施的制订依赖于生物多样性的监测信息。设计一个有效的生物多样性监测网络是一项复杂的系统工程。监测网络的设计框架可分为监测目标、监测对象、监测指标、取样策略、数据采集和处理、网络维护以及组织工作等几个部分。目前, 国际上已有5个得到广泛认可的生物多样性监测网络, 包括地球观测组织-生物多样性监测网络、全球森林监测网络、热带生态评估与监测网络、泛欧洲森林监测网络和亚马逊森林清查网络, 它们的监测目标、监测内容和方法、样地布局及部分监测成果各有特色。我们试图在全国生物多样性监测、森林资源清查和森林生态系统定位研究的基础上, 通过网络布局、建设和运行, 形成中国森林生物多样性监测网(Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network, Sino BON-CForBio)及其监测规范体系。该网络的科学目标是, 在全国尺度上研究不同典型地带性森林的生物多样性维持机制、监测森林生物多样性变化并阐明其机理、研究生物多样性变化的效应。该网络布局以《中国植被区划》中的森林植被区划成果作为顶层设计和监测样地选择的核心依据, 设计了4个层级的监测系统; 其监测指标体系以生物多样性核心指标为主, 并结合我国传统森林群落调查方法进行拓展; 预期建成国家水平上的森林生物多样性监测网络, 阐明森林生物多样性维持机制和生物多样性变化的效应, 同时对重大生态保护工程的生物多样性保护效果进行有效性监测和验证型监测。     

Prioritization of natural habitats: A methodological framework applied to the French Mediterranean

Long-term preservation of habitats has become a cornerstone of modern conservation policies. As resources allocated to conservation actions are often limited, developing relevant prioritizing methods is necessary. Although many studies have been published on species prioritization, habitats have been the subject of less research. This study aims to develop a simple prioritization method suitable for habitats and appropriate to any typology. We analyzed literature to select criteria that would be the most accurate to rank habitats. Our final method consists in calculating a score based on four criteria: legal obligation, territorial responsibility, conservation condition and an extra criterion designed to fit local interests and objectives. The method is applied on habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) on the territory of RESEDA-Flore, a network of stakeholders involved in the conservation of Mediterranean flora. Results highlight that dune habitats show the highest conservation values, while rocky habitats and caves obtain relatively low scores. At the top of the ranking, Mediterranean temporary ponds (3170), Dunes with Pinus pinea and/or Pinus pinaster forests (2270) and Coastal dunes with Juniperus spp. (2250) appear to be a high priority. These results can be used to design and implement habitat conservation strategies in the French Mediterranean.     

Valuing biodiversity and nature conservation at a local level

At a time where much of the discussion about major issues in nature conservation is necessarily undertaken at a global level, it is still important to consider the needs of the smaller organizations who do much of the grass roots work in the protection of wildlife and biodiversity. This study focuses on one such group, and examines how the contingent valuation method can be used to help to inform its decisions relating to the management of its portfolio of reserves in order to maximize benefits to its members. This paper argues that at a local level, where actions will not have significant global effects, contingent valuation methodology can inform decisions by assessing the value of additional reserves or particular conservation programmes to members in terms of their willingness to pay to acquire or implement them.     

Securing a future for China's plant biodiversity through an integrated conservation approach

The severely threatened Chinese flora urgently needs a new, well adapted to China and properly formulated conservation strategy. The present review provides a detailed conservation methodology that complements previously described guidelines for preservation of plant species with extremely small populations (PSESP) in China. This review adds to the above concept in several aspects, making it relevant to all threatened Chinese plant species. The proposed integral conservation strategy has the following crucial components: -ecoregional basis for conservation planning and implementation; -a unified scoring system that is used in regional systematic planning for reserve design, monitoring and assessment of efficiency of a reserve network, and creation of seed banks and living collections; -a focus on population demography and the presence of naturally occurring regeneration as the key criteria for defining the conservation status of a species and the appropriate major focus of the species recovery plan; -creation of multi-species living collections that preserve species genetic variation and provide material for in situ actions; -experimental translocation of threatened species into multiple locations within and outside their known range. Adopting and implementing these strategies successfully and more fully in China requires that the country changes PA legislation and improves PA management, the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) re-prioritizes the type of research that receives research funds, and local scientists improve their approach toward information sharing.     

Integrating the spatial proximity effect into the assessment of changes in ecosystem services for biodiversity conservation

The assessment of the value of ecosystem services is a valuable tool for biodiversity conservation that can facilitate better environmental policy decision-making and land management, and can help land managers develop interventions to compensate for biodiversity loss at the patch level. Previous studies have suggested that it is appropriate to assess the value of biodiversity for conservation planning by considering both the condition of the landscape and the spatial configuration of adjacent land uses that can be reflected as a proximity effect. This research examines the influence of spatial proximity on biodiversity conservation from the ecosystem service perspective based on the assumption that the variation in the proximity effect caused by land cover change has positive or negative impacts on ecological services. Three factors related to the spatial characteristics of the landscape were considered in this approach: the relative artificiality of the land cover types, the distance decay effect of patches and the impact of one land cover type on others. The proximity effect change (PE_C) parameter reflected the relationship between the spatial proximity effect and biodiversity conservation. The results of a quantitative and spatial comparative analysis of the proposed method and the conventional method in Yingkou for the periods of 2000–2005 and 2005–2010 showed that the former can account for the temporal and spatial changes in ecosystem services for biodiversity conservation that were caused by patch-level changes as well as the interaction between the altered and adjacent patches from a spatial perspective. The metric can also identify the most critical areas for biodiversity protection and inform the efficient allocation of limited land resources for nature conservation to maximize the benefit to biodiversity by guiding the process of land-use change, particularly urbanization and agriculture. Future studies should focus on the other important factors that are applicable to the assessment of the value of biodiversity conservation in socio-ecological systems, where society and nature are mutually capable of fulfilling their roles.