Abstract
ABSTRACTThe mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, an initiative under the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, sets the basis for national ecosystem assessments in EU Member States, including Greece. The highly diverse and heterogeneous Greek landscape provides multiple ecosystem services (ES) and benefits to society. However, the rich knowledge base corresponds to limited research to support a national ecosystem assessment in Greece. In this paper, we apply a rapid method to map ecosystem types and quantify ES supply provided by mountainous protected areas. Using habitat type level data, we created a detailed ecosystem type map that was used as a baseline to assess the supply of provisioning and regulating and maintenance ES. We also applied a site-oriented approach to record and score the ES supply in each protected area. Summing up individual ES supply resulted in a total ES supply map which was used to identify ES hot spot areas within the Greek Natura 2000 mountainous sites. The results: (1) corroborate the hypothesis that protected areas should be treated as high value bio-physical and social-cultural complexes accounting for a significant part of the national capital; (2) highlight data gaps at the national level and limitations of ES mapping methods under such data restrictions; (3) are intended to provide to stakeholders and decision-makers, baseline information for future applied research and conservation management actions.EDITED BY Matthias Schröter
Highlights
With the adoption of the Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Birds (2009/147/EEC) Directives (Council of the European Communities 1992 and Council of the European Communities 2009, respectively) and the establishment of the Natura 2000 Network of Protected Areas (PA), all EU Member States are conducting surveillance and monitoring programs on the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora to maintain biodiversity
Our objective is to identify and assess the ecosystem services (ES) supply provided by Natura 2000 protected mountain areas of Greece
This study: (1) documents the variation among the Natura 2000 mountain sites of Greece, in terms of ES supplied; (2) is a first quantitative evidence of the significance of the Natura 2000 sites as hosts to a variety of ES; and (3) gives a first ranking of the sites that supply the greatest amount of ES
Summary
With the adoption of the Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Birds (2009/147/EEC) Directives (Council of the European Communities 1992 and Council of the European Communities 2009, respectively) and the establishment of the Natura 2000 Network of Protected Areas (PA), all EU Member States are conducting surveillance and monitoring programs on the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora to maintain biodiversity. In the past 25 years, following the obligations of those Directives, a vast amount of ecological data and information has been collected and analyzed on habitat and species conservation status, the habitats’ spatial distribution and land cover, and pressures and threats in and around each protected area. Mountain landscapes are critical for the regulation of global climate, soil erosion prevention and are home to recreational activities, inherent in the culture of many countries (Grêt-Regamey et al 2012; Egarter Vigl et al 2016). They are significant ‘science labs,’ since mountain ecosystems are highly sensitive to climate change (Beniston 2003; Löffler et al 2011). Melting glaciers at mountain areas provide strong evidence of climate change (Kohler and Maselli 2009), while rare plants and animals, adapted to specific high-altitude
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