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.     

Maximizing species conservation in continental Ecuador: a case of systematic conservation planning for biodiverse regions

Ecuador has the largest number of species by area worldwide, but also a low representation of species within its protected areas. Here, we applied systematic conservation planning to identify potential areas for conservation in continental Ecuador, with the aim of increasing the representation of terrestrial species diversity in the protected area network. We selected 809 terrestrial species (amphibians, birds, mammals, and plants), for which distributions were estimated via species distribution models (SDMs), using Maxent. For each species we established conservation goals based on conservation priorities, and estimated new potential protected areas using Marxan conservation planning software. For each selected area, we determined their conservation priority and feasibility of establishment, two important aspects in the decision-making processes. We found that according to our conservation goals, the current protected area network contains large conservation gaps. Potential areas for conservation almost double the surface area of currently protected areas. Most of the newly proposed areas are located in the Coast, a region with large conservation gaps and irreversible changes in land use. The most feasible areas for conservation were found in the Amazon and Andes regions, which encompass more undisturbed habitats, and already harbor most of the current reserves. Our study allows defining a viable strategy for preserving Ecuador''s biodiversity, by combining SDMs, GIS-based decision-support software, and priority and feasibility assessments of the selected areas. This approach is useful for complementing protected area networks in countries with great biodiversity, insufficient biological information, and limited resources for conservation.     

Multiscale monitoring of a multispecies case study: two grass species at Sevilleta

Monitoring multiple species and their interactions at multiple scales is critical for any useful habitat conservation plans and for adaptive ecosystem management programs. Viability of single species can be understood only in the context of ecological interactions with other species at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Here, we present a case study of the spatial and temporal dynamics for two perennial grasses, Bouteloua eriopoda and B. gracilis, by using long-term, high resolution transect data from 1989 to 1998 at two sites in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (Deep Well and Five Points) in central New Mexico, USA. Information entropy was used to describe the spatial distribution of each species and the fractal dimension of information entropy was used to characterize the complexity of species dynamics across scales. When considered individually, the spatial distribution of each species was scale-invariant. However, species joint occurrences changed as scale of resolution increased at both sites. Interactions changed at scales less than 3.2 m at Deep Well and less than 1.6 m at Five Points. Across years, the interactions of these species at Deep Well were significantly different in 1989 from all other years. Our results argue that monitoring multiple species at multiple spatial and temporal scales is necessary to better understand multispecies interactions and community dynamics both of which have important conservation implications under changing environmental conditions.     

Monitoring for management of conservation and recreation in Australian protected areas

Protected areas are key to conservation of biodiversity, and Australia is one of the world’s megadiverse regions. Monitoring programs provide the information to assess the state of conservation resources, the severity of threats and the success of management responses. Here we compare the management priorities, monitoring priorities and actual monitoring practices of protected area management agencies in Australia, using four sets of data at continental scale and five at a more restricted regional scale. We track changes over a period of several years and focus at successively finer levels of detail. At both continental and regional scales, most management plans emphasise fire, invasive species and visitor management; and most monitoring programmes refer to visitor numbers and impacts as well as species and ecosystems. There is only a weak match, however, between reported management priorities and actual monitoring programmes; and the effectiveness of management responses is rarely monitored. The level of detail in visitor monitor programmes varies considerably: most parks count visitors, but few know what those visitors do. Threats from fire and invasive species receive more attention that those from recreation. At regional scale, the proportion of parks with defined monitoring programmes and priorities increased significantly from 2003/2004 to 2006/2007. Whilst only a proportion of protected areas monitor endangered species populations, for those that do this is the parameter reported in most detail, with many parks reporting single records of single individuals. Some parks also maintain anecdotal records of rare species outside routine monitoring programs.     

What to do in the face of multiple threats? Incorporating dependencies within a return on investment framework for conservation

Aim Our study aimed to determine priority areas for conservation investment with explicit consideration of the impacts of multiple threatening processes, and the dependencies that exist between actions required to abate these threats. Location Australia. Methods We analysed the return on investment for two different management actions aimed at reducing the impact of invasive species on the native fauna and flora of Australia. We focussed on the management of the European red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) at two spatial scales: across 72 biogeographic regions of Australia and within one high‐priority biogeographic region. We considered each action independently and also explicitly accounted for the option of an integrated fox and rabbit management action. We accounted for the spatial distributions of the threatened species within our analysis and determined how this refined spatial information influenced both the priority areas and the timing of this investment. Results Integrated fox and rabbit management was identified as a higher priority than singular threat abatement in most bioregions, whereas rabbit control alone was the most frequent priority if dependencies between actions were ignored. At the regional scale, funding was entirely directed to integrated action when seven or more species within the priority region were impacted by more than one threat. The total allocation of funding and timing of initial investment remained relatively insensitive to differences in the spatial overlap of species distributions. Main conclusions Our findings indicate that prioritizing conservation actions without explicit consideration of the impacts of multiple threats can reduce the cost‐effectiveness of investments. The benefits expected from investment in abating one threat alone may be overestimated where other processes continue to threaten species persistence. We conclude that future attention should be directed to refining our understanding of the cost‐efficiencies delivered through integrated actions and institutional mechanisms to achieve their delivery.     

Incorporating ecological functions in conservation decision making

Systematic conservation planning has become a standard approach globally, but prioritization of conservation efforts hardly considers species traits in decision making. This can be important for species persistence and thus adequacy of the conservation plan. Here, we developed and validated a novel approach of incorporating trophic information into a systematic conservation planning framework. We demonstrate the benefits of this approach using fish data from Europe's second largest river, the Danube. Our results show that adding trophic information leads to a different spatial configuration of priority areas at no additional cost. This can enhance identification of priority refugia for species in the lower position of the trophic web while simultaneously identifying areas that represent a more diverse species pool. Our methodological approach to incorporating species traits into systematic conservation planning is generally applicable, irrespective of realm, geographical area, and species composition and can potentially lead to more adequate conservation plans.     

Identifying important areas for butterfly conservation in Italy

The current study combines the use of niche modelling with a site prioritization method to identify important areas for butterfly conservation in Italy. A novel machine learning method (bagging predictors) was used to predict the distribution of 232 species of butterflies across the Italian Peninsula. The results of the models were used to identify high-value sites with a multispecies prioritization method called zonation. In order to identify important areas for species of conservation concern, we incorporated a species weighting scheme to zonation analyses. We also used the results of the zonation analyses to identify a series of management landscapes on the basis of the similarity in species composition among sites. The basic zonation showed that most important areas for butterfly conservation are located in the Alps, the Appennine, the Apulia region and in the island of Sardinia. The inclusion of a species weighting scheme in the zonation analyses revealed the importance of two new areas located in Southern Italy and emphasized the importance of the Alps for species of conservation concern. The landscape identification procedure selected a series of landscapes, which provide protection to a full range of species ranging from the Alps to Mediterranean areas. Our study shows that the areas selected in our analyses should be given high priority in future conservation plans and monitoring schemes.     

Putting bryophyte communities in the map: A case study on prioritizing monitoring of human pressure in riverscapes

Freshwater ecosystems support biological communities with high species richness and conservation interest. However, these ecosystems are highly altered by human intervention and threatened worldwide, making them a priority in conservation planning and biodiversity monitoring. Bryophytes, including several conservation-interest taxa, are recognized indicators of ecological status in freshwaters. We aimed to develop a framework for designing monitoring networks to detect trends in aquatic and semi-aquatic bryophyte communities, prioritizing high-conservation interest communities in different contexts of human pressure (specifically, resulting from the intersection of two criteria: (i) protection status and (ii) presence of a potential impact area).The framework consists of three steps: (1) Spatial modelling of biodiversity; (2) Spatial conservation prioritization; and (3) Model-assisted monitoring network design. Community-level modelling was used to model the distribution of the main bryophyte assemblages in the study area. A conservation prioritization software was utilized to identify areas with high conservation value. The monitoring network was designed using stratified random sampling and unequal-probability sampling techniques to target high conservation value sites distributed across different contexts of human pressure.We have identified four distinct community types, each characterized both by a small group of common and dominant species, and by small group of rarer, conservation-interest species. This typification of four species assemblages occurring in the study area, also highlighted those with potentially higher conservation-interest. The most valuable areas for the conservation of aquatic and semi-aquatic bryophyte communities coincide with specific environmental zones: mountainous areas in Lusitania, large watercourses in the Mediterranean North and some locations in the Mediterranean Mountains. Finally, we obtained a potential monitoring network consisting of 64 monitoring points, unequally distributed across different contexts of human pressure, privileging locations with higher conservation value.The framework presented here illustrates the potential of combining biodiversity modelling, spatial conservation prioritization and monitoring design in the development of monitoring networks. Namely, this framework allowed us to counter data deficiencies, to identify high priority areas to monitor and to design a monitoring network considering different scenarios of human pressure at a regional scale.This framework can also be valuable for conservation efforts as an approach to monitoring conservation-interest biodiversity features in anthropogenically modified riverscapes, which present different degrees of human pressure and the cumulative effects of these different impact elements. Moreover, this approach allows for the comprehensive monitoring of biodiversity values important for management at the national and regional levels. In addition, this framework is one of the first efforts in the development of monitoring networks that target aquatic and semi-aquatic bryophyte communities, a long-neglected plant group of high ecological and conservation importance in freshwater ecosystems.     

Exclusion of agricultural lands in spatial conservation prioritization strategies: consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem service representation

Agroecosystems have traditionally been considered incompatible with biological conservation goals, and often been excluded from spatial conservation prioritization strategies. The consequences for the representativeness of identified priority areas have been little explored. Here, we evaluate these for biodiversity and carbon storage representation when agricultural land areas are excluded from a spatial prioritization strategy for South America. Comparing different prioritization approaches, we also assess how the spatial overlap of priority areas changes. The exclusion of agricultural lands was detrimental to biodiversity representation, indicating that priority areas for agricultural production overlap with areas of relatively high occurrence of species. By contrast, exclusion of agricultural lands benefits representation of carbon storage within priority areas, as lands of high value for agriculture and carbon storage overlap little. When agricultural lands were included and equally weighted with biodiversity and carbon storage, a balanced representation resulted. Our findings suggest that with appropriate management, South American agroecosystems can significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation.     

Multi-Action Planning for Threat Management: A Novel Approach for the Spatial Prioritization of Conservation Actions

Planning for the remediation of multiple threats is crucial to ensure the long term persistence of biodiversity. Limited conservation budgets require prioritizing which management actions to implement and where. Systematic conservation planning traditionally assumes that all the threats in priority sites are abated (fixed prioritization approach). However, abating only the threats affecting the species of conservation concerns may be more cost-effective. This requires prioritizing individual actions independently within the same site (independent prioritization approach), which has received limited attention so far. We developed an action prioritization algorithm that prioritizes multiple alternative actions within the same site. We used simulated annealing to find the combination of actions that remediate threats to species at the minimum cost. Our algorithm also accounts for the importance of selecting actions in sites connected through the river network (i.e., connectivity). We applied our algorithm to prioritize actions to address threats to freshwater fish species in the Mitchell River catchment, northern Australia. We compared how the efficiency of the independent and fixed prioritization approach varied as the importance of connectivity increased. Our independent prioritization approach delivered more efficient solutions than the fixed prioritization approach, particularly when the importance of achieving connectivity was high. By spatially prioritizing the specific actions necessary to remediate the threats affecting the target species, our approach can aid cost-effective habitat restoration and land-use planning. It is also particularly suited to solving resource allocation problems, where consideration of spatial design is important, such as prioritizing conservation efforts for highly mobile species, species facing climate change-driven range shifts, or minimizing the risk of threats spreading across different realms.     

Wilderness and future conservation priorities in Australia

Aim Most approaches to conservation prioritization are focused on biodiversity features that are already threatened. While this is necessary in the face of accelerating anthropogenic threats, there have been calls to conserve large intact landscapes, often termed ‘wilderness’, to ensure the long‐term persistence of biodiversity. In this study, we examine the consequences of directing conservation expenditure using a threat‐based framework for wilderness conservation. Location The Australian continent. Methods We measured the degree of congruence between the extent of wilderness and the Australian protected area network in 2000 and 2006, which was established using a threat‐based systematic planning framework. We also assessed priority areas for future reserve acquisitions identified by the Australian government under the current framework. Results In 2000, 14% of Australia’s wilderness was under formal protection, while the protected area network covered only 8.5% of the continent, suggesting a historical bias towards wilderness protection. However, the expansion of the reserve system from 2000 to 2006 was biased towards non‐wilderness areas. Moreover, 90% of the wilderness that was protected over this period comprised areas not primarily designated for biodiversity conservation. We found a significant (P < 0.05) negative relationship between bioregions considered to be a priority for future reserve prioritization and the amount of wilderness they contain. Main conclusions While there is an urgent need to overcome past biases in reserve network design so as to better protect poorly represented species and habitats, prioritization approaches should not become so reactive as to ignore the role that large, intact landscapes play in conserving biodiversity, especially in a time of human‐induced climate change. This can be achieved by using current or future threats rather than past threats to prioritize areas, and by incorporating key ecological processes and costs of acquisition and management within the planning framework.     

High focus on threatened species and habitats may undermine biodiversity conservation: Evidence from the northern Baltic Sea

Conservation policies and environmental impact assessments commonly target threatened species and habitats. Nevertheless, macroecological research provides reasons why also common species should be considered. We investigate the consequences of focussing solely on legally protected species and habitats in a spatial conservation planning context using a comprehensive, benthic marine data set from the northern Baltic Sea. Using spatial prioritization and surrogacy analysis, we show that the common approach in conservation planning, where legally listed threatened species and habitats are the focus of conservation efforts, could lead to poor outcomes for common species (and therefore biodiversity as a whole), allowing them to decline in the future. If conservation efforts were aimed solely at threatened species, common species would experience a loss of 62% coverage. In contrast, if conservation plans were based only on common species, threatened species would suffer a loss of 1%. Threatened species are rare and their ecological niches distinct, making them poor surrogates for biodiversity. The best results are achieved by unified planning for all species and habitats. The minimal step towards acknowledging common species in conservation planning would be the inclusion of the richness of common species, complemented by information on indicator species or species of high importance for ecosystem functioning. The trade-off between planning for rare and common species should be evaluated, to minimize losses to biodiversity.     

Applying conservation reserve design strategies to define ecosystem monitoring priorities

In an era of unprecedented ecological upheaval, monitoring ecosystem change at large spatial scales and over long‐time frames is an essential endeavor of effective environmental management and conservation. However, economic limitations often preclude revisiting entire monitoring networks at high frequency. We aimed here to develop a prioritization strategy for monitoring networks to select a subset of existing sites that meets the principles of complementarity and representativeness of the whole ecological reality, and maximizes ecological complementarity (species accumulation) and the spatial and environmental representativeness. We applied two well‐known approaches for conservation design, the “minimum set” and the “maximal coverage” problems, using a suite of alpha and beta biodiversity metrics. We created a novel function for the R environment that performs biodiversity metric comparisons and site prioritization on a plot‐by‐plot basis. We tested our procedures using plot data provided by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) AusPlots, an Australian long‐term monitoring network of 774 vegetation and soil monitoring plots. We selected 250 plots and 80% of the total species recorded as targets for the maximal coverage and minimum set problems, respectively. We compared the subsets selected by the different biodiversity metrics in terms of complementarity and spatial and environmental representativeness. We found that prioritization based on species turnover (i.e., iterative selection of the most dissimilar plot to a cumulative sample in terms of species replacement) maximized ecological complementarity and spatial representativeness, while also providing high environmental coverage. Species richness was an unreliable metric for spatial representation. Selection based on range‐rarity‐richness was balanced in terms of complementarity and representativeness, whereas its richness‐corrected implementation failed to capture ecological and environmental variation. Prioritization based on species turnover is desirable to cover the maximum variability of the whole network. Synthesis and applications: Our results inform monitoring design and conservation priorities, which can benefit by considering the turnover component of beta diversity in addition to univariate metrics. Our tool is computationally efficient, free, and can be readily applied to any species versus sites dataset, facilitating rapid decision‐making.     

Flexible risk metrics for identifying and monitoring conservation-priority species

Region-specific conservation programs should have objective, reliable metrics for species prioritization and progress evaluation that are customizable to the goals of a program, easy to comprehend and communicate, and standardized across time. Regional programs may have vastly different goals, spatial coverage, or management agendas, and one-size-fits-all schemes may not always be the best approach. We propose a quantitative and objective framework for generating metrics for prioritizing species that is straightforward to implement and update, customizable to different spatial resolutions, and based on readily available time-series data. This framework is also well-suited to handling missing-data and observer error. We demonstrate this approach using North American Breeding Bird Survey (NABBS) data to identify conservation priority species from a list of over 300 landbirds across 33 bird conservation regions (BCRs). To highlight the flexibility of the framework for different management goals and timeframes we calculate two different metrics. The first identifies species that may be inadequately monitored by NABBS protocols in the near future (TMT, time to monitoring threshold), and the other identifies species likely to decline significantly in the near future based on recent trends (TPD, time to percent decline). Within the individual BCRs we found up to 45% (mean 28%) of the species analyzed had overall declining population trajectories, which could result in up to 37 species declining below a minimum NABBS monitoring threshold in at least one currently occupied BCR within the next 50 years. Additionally, up to 26% (mean 8%) of the species analyzed within the individual BCRs may decline by 30% within the next decade. Conservation workers interested in conserving avian diversity and abundance within these BCRs can use these metrics to plan alternative monitoring schemes or highlight the urgency of those populations experiencing the fastest declines. However, this framework is adaptable to many taxa besides birds where abundance time-series data are available.     

Synergistic effects of climate and land-use change on representation of African bats in priority conservation areas

Bats are considered important bioindicators and deliver key ecosystem services to humans. However, it is not clear how the individual and combined effects of climate change and land-use change will affect their conservation in the future. We used a spatial conservation prioritization framework to determine future shifts in the priority areas for the conservation of 169 bat species under projected climate and land-use change scenarios across Africa. Specifically, we modelled species distribution models under four different climate change scenarios at the 2050 horizon. We used land-use change scenarios within the spatial conservation prioritization framework to assess habitat quality in areas where bats may shift their distributions. Overall, bats’ representation within already existing protected areas in Africa was low (∼5% of their suitable habitat in protected areas which cover ∼7% of Africa). Accounting for future land-use change resulted in the largest shift in spatial priority areas for conservation actions, and species representation within priority areas for conservation actions decreased by ∼9%. A large proportion of spatial conservation priorities will shift from forested areas with little disturbance under present conditions to agricultural areas in the future. Planning land use to reduce impacts on bats in priority areas outside protected areas where bats will be shifting their ranges in the future is crucial to enhance their conservation and maintain the important ecosystem services they provide to humans.     

Mapping tree species vulnerability to multiple threats as a guide to restoration and conservation of tropical dry forests

Understanding the vulnerability of tree species to anthropogenic threats is important for the efficient planning of restoration and conservation efforts. We quantified and compared the effects of future climate change and four current threats (fire, habitat conversion, overgrazing and overexploitation) on the 50 most common tree species of the tropical dry forests of northwestern Peru and southern Ecuador. We used an ensemble modelling approach to predict species distribution ranges, employed freely accessible spatial datasets to map threat exposures, and developed a trait‐based scoring approach to estimate species‐specific sensitivities, using differentiated trait weights in accordance with their expected importance in determining species sensitivities to specific threats. Species‐specific vulnerability maps were constructed from the product of the exposure maps and the sensitivity estimates. We found that all 50 species face considerable threats, with an average of 46% of species’ distribution ranges displaying high or very high vulnerability to at least one of the five threats. Our results suggest that current levels of habitat conversion, overexploitation and overgrazing pose larger threats to most of the studied species than climate change. We present a spatially explicit planning strategy for species‐specific restoration and conservation actions, proposing management interventions to focus on (a) in situ conservation of tree populations and seed collection for tree planting activities in areas with low vulnerability to climate change and current threats; (b) ex situ conservation or translocation of populations in areas with high climate change vulnerability; and (c) active planting or assisted regeneration in areas under high current threat vulnerability but low climate change vulnerability, provided that interventions are in place to lower threat pressure. We provide an online, user‐friendly tool to visualize both the vulnerability maps and the maps indicating priority restoration and conservation actions.     

中国生物多样性就地保护的研究与实践

中国是世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一,但面临着较大的生态衰退风险。中国生物多样性受到的威胁来自包括人口众多、经济发展模式单一落后、工业化进程加快、气候变化和外来物种入侵等多种因素。生物多样性的就地保护对于维护国家生态安全具有重要意义,同时也是中国可持续发展的需要。本文就中国生物多样性就地保护的研究成果和保护成就进行了回顾,提出了未来应该着重加强的研究领域。中国生物多样性的就地保护研究与实践主要集中在生物多样性资源调查、濒危物种管理和自然保护区建设等方面。中国政府在生物多样性就地保护领域开展了大量卓有成效的工作,发布实施了一系列的保护行动规划,不断提高了生物多样性的保护水平。中国的生物多样性就地保护经过了由数量发展到质量发展的阶段后,未来的研究重点应该集中在生物多样性形成与维持机制、生物多样性受胁原因与响应机制、生物多样性长期监测与评估、自然保护区有效管理和自然保护区立法等方面。     

Predicting risk of invasion in a Mediterranean island using niche modelling and valuable biota

Invasion by alien species is nowadays considered as one of the major threats to biodiversity. Thus, the identification of the areas exposed to a greater risk of invasion represents a priority for management purpose, especially in presence of habitats worthy of conservation. This paper aims to propose a method to produce a map of risk of invasion, merging together the threat of invasion by invasive plants and the distribution of habitats with high conservation value, on the case study of the Island of Elba (Tuscan Archipelago). We modelled the potential distribution of six particularly harmful invasive plants and merged these distributions into a map of threat of invasion. This map was overlapped to the map of density of Natura2000 habitats, finally obtaining a map of risk of invasion. According to our analyses, the potential distribution of the invasive species resulted highly influenced by human-related factors. The habitats more at risk are those closer to streets and anthropic habitats, which are more likely to be colonized by the invasive species we studied. We identified some rare habitats which are strongly endangered, highlighting that around 20% of the surface of the Island is exposed to some level of risk of invasion.     

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.