Abstract
This study presents a first, national scale approach on ecosystem condition assessment for Greece, through integrating the available surveillance and monitoring data for habitat types, at the plot level, within the Natura 2000 network. The study consists of two parts: (a) ecosystem condition assessment for ecosystem types in Greece, using the conservation degree at plot level as an indicator and (b) a large scale analysis of the forest types' condition using, as indicators, the pressures and typical plant Typical species richness, as an exemplary case to interpret the outcomes of the assessment. The main results of this study revealed that: (i) the majority of the ecosystem types are in above good condition, with the higher percentages of bad condition recorded for wetlands, rivers and lakes, marine inlets and transitional waters, (ii) forest categories in their majority are at above-adequate condition, (iii) at forest ecosystem categories specific pressures (e.g. grazing, cultivations, forestry clearance) act as main drivers forecosystem condition change, (iv) Mediterranean deciduous forests are the most floristic-rich forest category, regarding typical plant Typical species. Simultaneously, it is highlighted that already available datasets could be used for immediate and rapid framework assessments, which will guide future steps on ES studies, research and decision-making.
Highlights
The diverse Greek landscape and its biological assets, provide a variety of relevant ecosystem types, which in turn support the actual and potential provision of ecosystem services (ES), that are essential for sustaining human welfare (Perring et al 1992, Daily 1997, Cardinale et al 2012)
The national scale assessment for the condition of each ecosystem type, resulted in the following: 1. the largest proportion of the ecosystem condition for all ecosystem types, except wetlands, is excellent and good (i.e. 57% and 12% of the grasslands are in excellent and good conditiion, respectively); 2. grasslands, woodland and forests, heathland and shrub, sparsely vegetated land and marine inlets and transitional waters in their majority are in excellent condition, 3. wetlands are assessed mostly (44%) in adequate condition; 4. amongst all ecosystem types, the higher percentages of bad condition are recorded for the wetlands (20%), rivers and lakes (18%), marine inlets and transitional waters (18%)
This study revealed that ecosystem condition assessment is a multivariate concept which should include and unify all environmental information available for each ecosystem type; it is the keystone of the whole Action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 (Maes et al 2018)
Summary
The diverse Greek landscape and its biological assets, provide a variety of relevant ecosystem types, which in turn support the actual and potential provision of ecosystem services (ES), that are essential for sustaining human welfare (Perring et al 1992, Daily 1997, Cardinale et al 2012). Until recently, the capacity of the relative state administrative units, as well as of the scientific staff, was unfamiliar with the ES concept, as proposed by the European Biodiversity Strategy 2020 (European Commission 2011) and could not use these data for integrated ES assessments. To overcome this shortcoming, the Hellenic Ecosystem Services Partnership (HESP), came up with a first approach of the MAES conceptual framework and since an action plan guides the production of a set of national ecosystem type and condition maps (Dimopoulos et al 2017b)
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