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•We synthesize the knowledge on conservation of wood-pastures in Europe.•We present a first EU-wide quantification (203,000km2) and map of wood-pastures.•Wood-pastures have ...substantial ecological and social–cultural values.•Multi-sectorial policies are crucial for a sustainable management of wood-pastures.
Wood-pastures are archetypes of High Nature Value Farmlands in Europe and hold exceptional ecological, social, and cultural values. Yet, wood-pastures have been through a sharp decline all over Europe, mainly due to processes of agricultural intensification and abandonment. Recently, wood-pastures have found increasing attention from conservation science and policy across Europe. In this paper we (i) perform the first pan-European assessment of wood-pastures, considering individual countries and biogeographic regions, (ii) present the ecological and social–cultural values of a wide diversity of wood-pasture systems in Europe, (iii) outline management challenges around wood-pastures, and (iv) provide insights for the policy agenda targeting wood-pastures in Europe. We estimate that wood-pastures cover an area of approximately 203,000km2 in the European Union (EU). They are distributed across all biogeographical regions, but more abundantly in the Mediterranean and Eastern European countries. Substantial ecological values are revealed in terms of landscape level biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and genetic resources. Social–cultural values are related to aesthetic values, cultural heritage, and rich traditional ecological knowledge. We discuss the anthropogenic character of wood-pastures, requiring multifunctional land management, which is a major conservation challenge. Despite increasing societal appreciation of wood-pastures, their integration into effective agricultural and conservation policies has proved to be complicated, because institutional structures are traditionally organized within mono-functional sectors. We offer suggestions as to how these shortcomings might be overcome in the Common Agricultural Policy, including Rural Development policy, and the Habitats Directive of the EU. We conclude that research should be guided by a holistic vision of wood-pastures, which integrates information about ecology, societal values, and institutional arrangements.
► We mapped indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe. ► We compared these maps with the conservation status of protected habitats. ► Habitats in favourable conservation status ...supplied more ecosystem services. ► Habitats in favourable conservation status had higher biodiversity.
In the European Union (EU) efforts to conserve biodiversity have been consistently directed towards the protection of habitats and species through the designation of protected areas under the Habitats Directive (92/43/ECC). These biodiversity conservation efforts also have the potential to maintain or improve the supply of ecosystem services; however, this potential has been poorly explored across Europe. This paper reports on a spatial assessment of the relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and conservation status of protected habitats at European scale. We mapped at 10km resolution ten spatial proxies for ecosystem service supply (four provisioning services, five regulating services and one cultural service) and three proxies for biodiversity (Mean Species Abundance, tree species diversity and the relative area of Natura 2000 sites). Indicators for biodiversity and aggregated ecosystem service supply were positively related but this relationship was influenced by the spatial trade-offs among ecosystem services, in particular between crop production and regulating ecosystem services. Using multinomial logistic regression models we demonstrated that habitats in a favourable conservation status provided more biodiversity and had a higher potential to supply, in particular, regulating and cultural ecosystem services than habitats in an unfavourable conservation status. This information is of utmost importance in identifying regions in which measures are likely to result in cost-effective progress towards both new biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services targets adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020.
Paracossulus thrips (Hübner, 1818) and Lignyoptera fumidaria (Hübner, 1825), both species listed on Annex II of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC, are reported for the first time for Serbia from two ...distinct localities on Vidlič Mt. Some new localities from the edge of the range of both these species are reported from Bulgaria. Previous reports of these species in the Balkan Peninsula are summarized and comments are given on the habitats, threats and conservation requirements of both species. Serbian vernacular names for both species are proposed.
Natura 2000 (N2k) is a multinational and coordinated conservation network designated to support the long-term survival of Europe's most valuable species and habitats. It is the key conservation tool ...in the European Union. We reviewed 510 peer-reviewed publications (period 1998–2014) focusing on ecological aspects of N2k, with the aims of identifying key research gaps and proposing future research priorities for improved conservation success. We categorized the articles by spatial scale, biogeographical regions, taxonomic groups, habitat types, and the analytical methods used. The majority of studies were performed in single N2k sites or at the regional level within countries. The Mediterranean region had the greatest number of publications and the terrestrial Black Sea, Macaronesia, Pannonian and Steppic regions were overrepresented in relation to their total area and to the area of N2k sites that they comprised. Grasslands, freshwater and wetland habitats were overrepresented in comparison to their area within N2k. Plants were the most commonly studied taxonomic group and quantitative empirical studies dominated. Future N2k research should address knowledge gaps by directing more efforts towards: 1) the Boreal region, 2) alpine, agricultural, forest and marine habitats, and 3) underrepresented taxonomic groups such as reptiles, amphibians, lichens and fungi. For enhanced evaluation and realization of the conservation potential of N2k, more studies will need to encompass large spatial scales and utilize modelling approaches to effectively address future climate and land-use changes.
•We conducted a review of ecological research on Natura 2000 network.•Regional or single-site studies, and those from the Mediterranean region dominate.•Research gaps include alpine, agricultural, forest and marine habitats.•Underrepresented were reptiles, amphibians, lichens, fungi and Boreal region.•Future studies should focus on larger spatial scales and use modelling approaches.
Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ...ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the supply capacity (Climate regulation, Protection from wind and aerosol, Erosion regulation, Recreation and Tourism and Existence value of biodiversity) of natural dune ecosystems of European conservation concern; ii) upscaled this data to create an inventory of ES supply for all dune N2K sites in the study area; iii) explored the trade-offs among ES; and iv) summarized and spatially compared the overall multi-service value of the N2K sites.
The study provides a method for quantifying the role of N2K sites in supplying benefits for our society. We found that the multi-service capacity of coastal dunes is uneven within sites and within administrative regions. This variability is related to both ecological (e.g. distribution, ecological integrity, extent and conservation status of dune habitats) and administrative (e.g. local implementation of the Habitats Directive) characteristics of the analysed area. ES are not coupled as several sites with high values for one ES show very low values for others.
The results suggest that conservation actions should favour restoration of the natural dune zonation, since this underpins multi-service ES supply. The approach can distinguish regions with high ES values and regions where the paucity of protected areas represents a gap in ES supply, fact that offers an incentive to enhance the protection strategy but also suggests an urgent need to improve the N2K network by enlarging existent sites and including new ones.
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•We proposed ES supply indicators tailored for natural dune ecosystems.•We explored the role of coastal dune conservation sites in providing five ES.•ES indicators were normalised and synthesized in one multiservice ES value per site.•ES supply varies along the coast due to both extent and integrity of dune systems.•Management of integrity is crucial for maintaining optimum levels of ES supply.
European semi-natural dry grasslands are among the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems, being recognised as habitats of community interest by the EU Habitats Directive. The occurrence and ...preservation of these habitats depend on a combination of anthropogenic and natural factors, although little is known regarding the role of past land-use changes. Here, we investigated the role of time since cultivation abandonment as a major driver of grassland successional dynamics in the Mediterranean agro-pastoral system of Alta Murgia, southern Italy. By integrating cartographic information on the past agricultural land-use with the main abiotic constraints (patch area, slope and aspect), we used generalised additive mixed models to test for the probability of occurrence of current grassland habitat types along time since cultivation abandonment (10 to 200 years). Our results disclosed the successional sequence of grassland plant communities since crop abandonment in the study area, highlighting that the distribution of semi-natural grassland communities largely depends on land use history besides current environmental patterns. Among the habitat types protected under the EU Habitats Directive, we highlighted that xero-thermic communities may represent an intermediate step of grassland succession after cultivation abandonment, while more mesic perennial communities indicate a late successional stage. These successional dynamics are further modulated by mesoclimatic conditions associated with slope and aspect, especially in case of long-standing pastures that were not historically affected by agricultural transformations. Our findings can contribute to a deeper understanding of dynamics relevant to spontaneous vegetation recovery in open environments, which is a prerequisite for setting up effective grassland conservation and restoration actions. Furthermore, our results underline the value of integrating historical maps and current information for the assessment of habitat conservation status.
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•We investigated the role of time since cultivation abandonment as a driver of grassland succession.•We integrated information on the past agricultural land use with the main abiotic constraints•Successional patterns highlight spontaneous grassland recovery in agro-pastoral systems.•Land use history and current environment shape the distribution of protected grasslands.•Information on past land use changes can support habitat conservation.
This manuscript summarizes the outcomes of the 6th EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium. Special emphasis was laid on presenting and discussing monitoring activities under the umbrella of the Habitats ...Directive (EU Council Directive 92/43/EEC) for habitat type 8310 "Caves not open to the public" and the Emerald Network. The discussions revealed a high level of variation in the currently conducted underground monitoring activities: there is no uniform definition of what kind of underground environments the "cave" habitat should cover, how often a specific cave has to be monitored, and what parameters should be measured to evaluate the conservation status. The variation in spatial dimensions in national definitions of caves further affects the number of catalogued caves in a country and the number of caves to be monitored. Not always participants are aware of the complete national monitoring process and that data sets should be freely available or easily accessible. The discussions further showed an inherent dilemma between an anticipated uniform monitoring approach with a coherent assessment methodology and, on the contrary, the uniqueness of caves and subterranean biota to be assessed – combined with profound knowledge gaps and a lack of resources. Nevertheless, some good practices for future cave monitoring activities have been identified by the participants: (1) Cave monitoring should focus on bio- and geodiversity elements alike; (2) Local communities should be involved, and formal agreements envisaged; (3) Caves must be understood as windows into the subterranean realm; (4) Touristic caves should not be excluded ad-hoc from regular monitoring; (5) New digital tools and open FAIR data infrastructures should be implemented; (6) Cave biomonitoring should focus on a large(r) biological diversity; and (7) DNA-based tools should be integrated. Finally, the importance of the 'forgotten' Recommendation No. 36 from the Bern Convention as a guiding legal European document was highlighted.
Taxonomic and aesthetic biases permeate biodiversity conservation. We used the LIFE program—the European Union's funding scheme for the environment—to explore the economic dimension of biases in ...species- and habitat-level conservation. Between 1992 and 2020, animal species received three times more funding than plants. Within plants, species at northern latitudes, with broader ranges, and with blue/purple flowers received more funds regardless of their extinction risk. Conversely, species online popularity was only weakly positively associated with conservation expenditure. At the habitat-level, we found no relationship between expenditure and conservation status of the habitat. Our results can inform ways forward to achieve conservation goals that are comprehensive, sustainable, and cost-effective.
•Plant conservation is much less financed than animal conservation.•Plants at high latitude, with wider ranges and attractive flowers receive more funds.•Plant conservation funds are distributed regardless to extinction risk.•Habitat level conservation is less biased compared to species-level conservation.•Conservation areas are equally financed across Europe.
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