European Biogeographic Regions Research Articles

Use of lure sticks for non‐invasive genetic sampling of European wildcat populations: lessons learnt and hints for future insights

Abstract Non‐invasive genetic sampling is an increasingly common approach in wildlife research. It allows the gathering of first‐hand data on wild mammalian populations without capturing or handling individuals. For this reason, it has proved to be particularly useful when applied to elusive species living at low population densities and/or hard to identify in the field. The European wildcat represents an interesting case study in this respect. Several papers have been produced in the last decades, in which non‐invasive genetic sampling has been applied. Nevertheless, evidence from different case studies presents a complex scenario, where the efficiency of the method can vary considerably. This paper aimed to analyse possible interpretations of such differences and to identify potential drivers and barriers. 20 papers on the subject have been reviewed and compared, although differences in several details reported in the examined papers limited an in‐depth comparison. The review showed that the overlap of the study period with the reproductive season does not affect the final results of lure stick hair sampling research on the European wildcat. Moreover, valerian lure sticks generally provided positive results in the Continental ecoregion, whereas, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions, outcomes were absent or very scarce. Most of the other working hypotheses remain still plausible, despite not yet being definitely provable. Setting up future wildcat monitoring schemes based on effective non‐invasive genetic sampling in different biogeographical regions of Europe is certainly a scope to be pursued. Some suggestions are provided in this respect (e.g. the set of parameters needed to allow further comparisons; the need to test other types of attractants, to make the application of the method possible where the use of valerian was proven to be inefficient or scarcely efficient, in order to allow a better comparison of future results).

Environmental thresholds for plant species richness of black alder (Alnus glutinosa) forests in Central Europe

The diversity of vascular plants in temperate floodplain forests varies between biogeographical regions of Europe. Our study aims to identify the key environmental drivers of plant species richness in forests dominated by black alder (Alnus glutinosa) in Central Europe with four regions: Pannonian lowland, Matricum as the southern part of the Western Carpathians, High Western Carpathians and Polish Plain. We analysed plant species richness and quantified 15 environmental characteristics (soil, climatic and landscape characteristics) in 140 vegetation plots (35 per region). We used model-based regression trees to test the influence of predictors on the richness of both native and alien species. The regression tree analysis identified eight significant variables controlling species richness in three regions and all bioregions together but found no significant predictor in Matricum. The analysis of the joint dataset indicates that native plant richness was controlled by the effects of catchment slope, soil reaction and precipitation of the warmest quarter. In contrast, the richness of alien species was influenced by the precipitation of the warmest quarter, soil phosphorous and temperature. The species richness of native plants in the High Western Carpathians was driven by soil reaction and the presence of artificial surfaces around the plots, while the richness trend in the Pannonain lowland was determined by annual temperature. Alien richness was affected by the proportion of agricultural areas in the High Western Carpathians, by the stream power index in the Polish Plain and by soil reaction in the Pannonian lowland. The explanatory power of the tree models ranged from 22 to 36%. Our results suggest that the predictability of the richness patterns is contingent upon the specific regions, which differ in the length of environmental gradients.

A multitaxonomic assessment of Natura 2000 effectiveness across European biogeographic regions.

The Natura 2000 (N2K) protected area (PA) network is a crucial tool to limit biodiversity loss in Europe. Despite covering 18% of the European Union's (EU) land area, its effectiveness at conserving biodiversity across taxa and biogeographic regions remains uncertain. Testing this effectiveness is, however, difficult because it requires considering the nonrandom location of PAs, and many possible confounding factors. We used propensity score matching and accounted for the confounding effects of biogeographic regions, terrain ruggedness, and land cover to assess the effectiveness of N2K PAs on the distribution of 1769 species of conservation priority in the EU's Birds and Habitats Directives, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, fishes, mollusks, and vascular and nonvascular plants. We compared alpha, beta, and gamma diversity between matched selections of protected and unprotected areas across EU's biogeographic regions with generalized linear models, generalized mixed models, and nonparametric tests for paired samples, respectively, for each taxonomic group and for the entire set of species. PAs in N2K hosted significantly more priority species than unprotected land, but this difference was not consistent across biogeographic regions or taxa. Total alpha diversity and alpha diversity of amphibians, arthropods, birds, mammals, and vascular plants were significantly higher inside PAs than outside, except in the Boreal biogeographical region. Beta diversity was in general significantly higher inside N2K PAs than outside. Similarly, gamma diversity had the highest values inside PAs, with some exceptions in Boreal and Atlantic regions. The planned expansion of the N2K network, as dictated by the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, should therefore target areas in the southern part of the Boreal region where species diversity of amphibians, arthropods, birds, mammals, and vascular plants is high and species are currently underrepresented in N2K.

The fingerprint of tropospheric ozone on broadleaved forest vegetation in Europe

Tropospheric ozone (O3) increased globally in the 20th century, contributes to climate change and can have adverse effects on terrestrial ecosystems. The response of forest vegetation to ozone is modulated by species- and site-specific factors and visible foliar symptoms (VFS) are the only direct evidence of ozone effects on vegetation. VFS have been observed and reproduced under (semi-) controlled conditions and their field assessment has been largely harmonized in Europe. We analyzed ozone concentration and VFS data as measured at (respectively) 118 and 91 intensive monitoring sites of the International Co-Operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) spanning over five European biogeographic regions from 2005 to 2018. Average values for VFS were calculated accounting for the number of species present and their observed frequency. Spatial and temporal variation of ozone concentrations, VFS, and their relationships across Europe were then investigated by applying Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) and combined GLMMs. Ozone concentrations exceeded 40 ppb on 37.3 % of the sites and were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the Alpine and the Mediterranean regions. Over the 2005–2018 period there was a substantial stagnation of ozone concentrations with a tendency towards decreasing values in the Alpine-Boreal sites and increasing values in the Atlantic sites. Ozone left a “fingerprint” in terms of VFS on 38 % of the observed broadleaved woody species across Europe, with no significant difference among biogeographic regions. Overall, and again with the exception of an increase at the Atlantic sites, the frequency of VFS remained unchanged or has been slightly declining over the investigated period. We found positive relationship between ozone concentrations and VFS across Europe (p < 0.05), while their temporal trends (both insignificant) were not related. The species with the highest frequency of VFS were those classified as sensitive species under controlled/semi-controlled experimental conditions. Frequency of VFS tends to be modulated by vegetation traits such as specific leaf area and leaf thickness (p < 0.10). Our results showed that, although ozone levels suggested a North-to-South gradient of increasing potential risk to vegetation with hot spots in the Alps and in the Mediterranean, VFS observed on the actual species assemblage at the sites modifies this picture. According to frequency of VFS, ozone risk for vegetation may be higher in parts of the Alpine and Continental Europe than in the Mediterranean region.

Conservation of unmanaged pan-European forest landscapes as a priority natural heritage for epiphytic lichens at different ecological and biogeographical scales - A review

The European forestry landscape represents an important priority for biodiversity and needs adequate management strategies. The main focus of this review is the importance of European forest areas for epiphytic lichen richness under the impact of different management practices assessed in the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. In total, 88 scientific articles were reviewed (based on the first author’s archive and by query in Web of Science), which examined epiphytic lichen richness within managed and unmanaged European forests. Biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe were not taken into account in the reviewed articles, but we used them for statistical analyses in the present work according to the geographical position of the investigated sites published in the reviewed articles. We also analysed the dissimilarities in epiphytic lichen richness among European biogeographical and ecological regions. Additionally, we analysed the impact of different silvicultural management practices (within assessed forests) on epiphytic lichen richness across the different biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. The main results indicate that epiphytic lichen richness is significantly different across the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. Epiphytic lichen richness is significantly greater in Western European broadleaf forests in the Carpathian and Caledonian mountain areas and significantly lower in the Central European mixed forests and East European forest steppe. Management practices applied within studied forests had a negative impact on epiphytic lichen richness, while epiphytic lichen richness was higher within unmanaged forests. The main conclusion is that forests within highland areas of Europe that are not subjected to anthropogenic activities or management practices harbour greater epiphytic lichen richness and therefore should be conserved and protected due to their biological and ecological importance.

Impact of landscape configuration and composition on pollinator communities across different European biogeographic regions

IntroductionHeterogeneity in composition and spatial configuration of landscape elements support diversity and abundance of flower-visiting insects, but this is likely dependent on taxonomic group, spatial scale, weather and climatic conditions, and is particularly impacted by agricultural intensification. Here, we analyzed the impacts of both aspects of landscape heterogeneity and the role of climatic and weather conditions on pollinating insect communities in two economically important mass-flowering crops across Europe.MethodsUsing a standardized approach, we collected data on the abundance of five insect groups (honey bees, bumble bees, other bees, hover flies and butterflies) in eight oilseed rape and eight apple orchard sites (in crops and adjacent crop margins), across eight European countries (128 sites in total) encompassing four biogeographic regions, and quantified habitat heterogeneity by calculating relevant landscape metrics for composition (proportion and diversity of land-use types) and configuration (the aggregation and isolation of land-use patches).ResultsWe found that flower-visiting insects responded to landscape and climate parameters in taxon- and crop-specific ways. For example, landscape diversity was positively correlated with honey bee and solitary bee abundance in oilseed rape fields, and hover fly abundance in apple orchards. In apple sites, the total abundance of all pollinators, and particularly bumble bees and solitary bees, decreased with an increasing proportion of orchards in the surrounding landscape. In oilseed rape sites, less-intensively managed habitats (i.e., woodland, grassland, meadows, and hedgerows) positively influenced all pollinators, particularly bumble bees and butterflies. Additionally, our data showed that daily and annual temperature, as well as annual precipitation and precipitation seasonality, affects the abundance of flower-visiting insects, although, again, these impacts appeared to be taxon- or crop-specific.DiscussionThus, in the context of global change, our findings emphasize the importance of understanding the role of taxon-specific responses to both changes in land use and climate, to ensure continued delivery of pollination services to pollinator-dependent crops.

Neophyte invasions in European heathlands and scrub

Human-assisted introduction of alien plants is causing ecosystem transformations worldwide and is considered an important threat to biodiversity. We provide a European assessment of habitat levels of invasion in heathlands and scrub and identify successful alien plants and invasion trends across biogeographical regions. We analysed a geographically stratified data set of 24,220 dwarf shrub and scrub vegetation plots sampled across Europe. Among the 6547 vascular plant taxa occurring in these plots, we identified 311 neophytes (4.8%, i.e. alien species introduced in Europe or its sub-regions after 1500 AD) and compared five metrics of the level of invasion in (i) EUNIS habitats, (ii) broad habitat groups and (iii) biogeographical regions of Europe. We related habitat-specific levels of invasion to elevation and climatic variables using generalized linear models. Among neophytes, phanerophytes of non-European origin prevailed. The most frequent neophytes in the plots were Prunus serotina, Robinia pseudoacacia and Quercus rubra among phanerophytes, Impatiens parviflora among therophytes, and Erigeron canadensis and Solidago gigantea among hemicryptophytes. Levels of invasion significantly differed among habitats and biogeographical regions. The most invaded habitat was Macaronesian lowland scrub, followed by riparian scrub, Rubus scrub and forest-clearing scrub of temperate Europe, and coastal dune scrub of the Atlantic region. The levels of invasion were low in the shrublands of the Arctic and Mediterranean regions and decreased with elevation within habitats. Results suggest that insularity, low elevation, frequent disturbances, and high availability or considerable fluctuation of resources promote neophyte invasions in European shrublands.

Comparative diversity of vascular plants in black alder floodplain and swamp forests of Central European biogeographical regions.

Plant species diversity of black alder-dominated forests was studied in three biogeographical regions (Alpine, Continental and Pannonian) of Central Europe. They were represented by regions of the Polish Plain (Continental), the High Western Carpathians and Matricum of the Western Carpathians (Alpine) and the Pannonian lowland (Pannonian). We analysed 35 plots per region in order to identify: i) local alpha (α) diversity defined as the counted number of plant taxa occurring in a single sampling plot, ii) amongst-site beta (β) diversity, iii) regional (γ) diversity defined as the total species richness of all sampling plots and iv) zeta diversity (ζ) as a generalisation of beta diversity. We recorded a total of 432 vascular plant taxa in all bioregions; more than 13% were alien plants. Statistically significant differences in species richness (α) of both native and alien plants were found between assemblages of the regions. The High Western Carpathians showed the highest native and the lowest alien plant species richness. Total β-diversity was high in all regions, but significantly differed amongst regions only for alien plant species. Cumulative native and alien species richness (γ) was the highest and lowest in the High Western Carpathians and Matricum of Western Carpathians, respectively. Our results identified the High Western Carpathians as a hotspot for diversity of native plants in Central European black alder-dominated forests.

Ecosystem extent accounts for Europe

This paper describes the set-up and results for ecosystem extent accounts at European level, developed in the context of the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). These accounts inform on the opening and closing ‘stocks’ of ecosystems and provide essential geo-spatial data to support the calculation of ecosystem condition and services accounts. The paper presents the first set of ecosystem extent accounts for Europe, covering the period 2000–2018. These show that ecosystems are relatively stable at the European scale, with significant increases in Urban ecosystems and some decrease in Heathland and shrub and Grassland ecosystems. The paper demonstrates the use of a flexible geo-spatial database to gain analytical insights for different ecosystem accounting areas, using European biogeographical regions and Natura 2000 areas as examples. More detailed ecosystem extent accounts (tier II and tier III) show trends inter alia for Agro-forestry, Peat Bog, Beaches, dunes and sands as well as Salt marsh ecosystems, important for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The accounting approach presented delivers a geo-spatial data foundation that can support further ecosystem analysis and accounts. This enables the targeting of ecosystem analysis on specific geographic areas and policy instruments.

Impact of crop exposure and agricultural intensification on the phenotypic variation of bees

In a context of rapid global change, understanding how environmental stressors can impact phenotypic variation, and which phenotypic traits are predominantly affected can be particularly relevant. Indeed, potential phenotypic modifications could affect the functionality of traits from taxa that are in decline but that are keystone species in many ecosystems. In this study, we assessed the impact of environmental drivers and agricultural intensification on two crucial pollinator species: the honeybee (Apis mellifera) and the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Among eight countries representing four major European biogeographical regions [i.e., Boreal (Sweden and Estonia), Atlantic (Ireland and United Kingdom), Continental (Germany and Switzerland) and Mediterranean (Spain and Italy)] and two type of crops (i.e., apple orchards and oilseed rape) we assessed how landscape structure, latitude and pesticide management could impact their wing morphology. Two sampling sessions were conducted: the first one when the hives/nests were settled on the field (T0) and a second sampling session after the potential effect of agricultural intensification (T1). Using a dataset of more than 7238 wings, we measured the wing size, shape and asymmetry. We observed that, in several countries, a shift in most of the morphological traits occurred between T0 and T1. When focusing on the drivers of phenotypic variation in T1, the levels of significance for some potential drivers were sometimes high, while most of the variation remained unexplained. The latitude and, more rarely, grassland cover were found to partly explain the wing modifications. In light of these results, we conclude that phenotypic shifts can occur in a very short period, after encountering new field conditions. Further studies should be conducted to better understand which alternative drivers could explain morphological changes in the agro-ecosystem after crop exposition, as well as the potential consequences of these changes on foraging performance or pollination efficiency.

Evaluating the biological validity of European river typology systems with least disturbed benthic macroinvertebrate communities

Humans have severely altered freshwater ecosystems globally, causing a loss of biodiversity. Regulatory frameworks, like the Water Framework Directive, have been developed to support actions that halt and reverse this loss. These frameworks use typology systems that summarize freshwater ecosystems into environmentally delineated types. Within types, ecosystems that are minimally impacted by human activities, i.e., in reference conditions, are expected to be similar concerning physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. This assumption is critical when water quality assessments rely on comparisons to type-specific reference conditions. Lyche Solheim et al. (2019) developed a pan-European river typology system, the Broad River Types, that unifies the national Water Framework Directive typology systems and is gaining traction within the research community. However, it is unknown how similar biological communities are within these individual Broad River Types. We used analysis of similarities and classification strength analysis to examine if the Broad River Types delineate distinct macroinvertebrate communities across Europe and whether they outperform two ecoregional approaches: the European Biogeographical Regions and Illies' Freshwater Ecoregions. We determined indicator and typical taxa for the types of all three typology systems and evaluated their distinctiveness. All three typology systems captured more variation in macroinvertebrate communities than random combinations of sites. The results were similar among typology systems, but the Broad River Types always performed worse than either the Biogeographic Regions or Illies' Freshwater Ecoregions. Despite reaching statistical significance, the statistics of analysis of similarity and classification strength were low in all tests indicating substantial overlap among the macroinvertebrate communities of different types. We conclude that the Broad River Types do not represent an improvement upon existing freshwater typologies when used to delineate macroinvertebrate communities and we propose future avenues for advancement: regionally constrained types, better recognition of intermittent rivers, and consideration of biotic communities.

Excess Heat Factor climatology, trends, and exposure across European Functional Urban Areas

In Europe, regional climate change prospects indicate the urgency of adapting to extreme weather events. While increasing temperature trends have already been detected, in the last decades, the adoption of a European heatwave (HW) early-warning index is not yet consensual, partially due to the significant number of alternative algorithms, in some cases adjusted to the measurement of sector-specific impacts (as per the Expert Team on Climate Risk and Sector-specific Indices (ET-SCI)). In particular, the Excess Heat Factor (EHF) has been shown to accurately predict heat-related human health outcomes, in mid-latitude climates, provided that local summer exposure to excess heat is mostly driven by extreme air temperatures, with a lower contribution from relative humidity. Here, annual summaries of EHF-based HW detection were calculated for the European region, using daily maximum and minimum temperatures from the homogenised version of the E-OBS gridded dataset. Annual HW frequencies, duration, mean magnitude, maximum amplitude, and severity were subject to climatology and trend analysis across the European biogeographical regions, considering the 1961–1990 period as the baseline reference for anomaly detection in the more recent (1991–2018) decades. As HW-dependent morbidity/mortality affects mostly the elderly, an EHF-based HW Exposure Index was also calculated, by multiplying the recent probability of severe events per the number of people aged 65, or more, in the European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). Results show that recent historical EHF-based patterns diverge across European Biogeographical regions, with a clear latitudinal gradient. Both the historical mean and recent trends point towards the greater exposure in the southern European Mediterranean region, driven by the significant increase of HW frequency, duration and maximum severity, especially in the last 3 decades; conversely, annual maximum EHF intensities (i.e., greatest deviations from the local 90th daily mean temperature) are mostly found in the northern and/or high altitude Boreal, Alpine and Continental regions, as a consequence of the latitudinal effect of local climatology on the HWM/HWA indices (this also translates into greater magnitudes of change, in this regions). Nonetheless, by simultaneously considering the probability of Severe HW occurrence in the last three decades, together with the log transformation of people aged 65 or more, results show that greater HW Exposure Indices affect FUAs across the whole Europe, irrespective of its regional climate, suggesting that more meaningful vulnerability assessments, early warning and adaptation measures should be prioritized accordingly.

The diversity of biotic interactions complements functional and phylogenetic facets of biodiversity

Taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities are important facets of biodiversity. Studying them together has improved our understanding of community dynamics, ecosystem functioning, and conservation values.1-3 In contrast to species, traits, and phylogenies, the diversity of biotic interactions has so far been largely ignored as a biodiversity facet in large-scale studies. This neglect represents a crucial shortfall because biotic interactions shape community dynamics, drive important aspects of ecosystem functioning,4-7 provide services to humans, and have intrinsic conservation value.8,9 Hence, the diversity of interactions can provide crucial and unique information with respect to other diversity facets. Here, we leveraged large datasets of trophic interactions, functional traits, phylogenies, and spatial distributions of >1,000 terrestrial vertebrate species across Europe at a 10-km resolution. We computed the diversity of interactions (interaction diversity [ID]) in addition to functional diversity (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD). After controlling for species richness, surplus and deficits of ID were neither correlated with FD nor with PD, thus representing unique and complementary information to the commonly studied facets of diversity. A three-dimensional mapping allowed for visualizing different combinations of ID-FD-PD simultaneously. Interestingly, the spatial distribution of these diversity combinations closely matched the boundaries between 10 European biogeographic regions and revealed new interaction-rich areas in the European Boreal region and interaction-poor areas in Central Europe. Our study demonstrates that the diversity of interactions adds new and ecologically relevant information to multifacetted, large-scale diversity studies with implications for understanding eco-evolutionary processes and informing conservation planning.

Probing the correlation between corrosion resistance and biofouling of thermally sprayed metallic substrata in the field

The correlation between inherent corrosion resistance and biofouling was investigated for five different metallic coatings. Steel panels thermally spray-coated with either aluminium, Monel, bronze or different aluminium alloys were tested in controlled salt mist conditions and electrochemical corrosion tests and subsequently employed at sea. The biofouling of the panels was monitored at different depths (5, 10 and 15 m) at periods ranging from 5 to 12 months. The main macrofouling organisms were quantified and analysed using permutational multivariate analysis. The results indicate a significant difference in fouling pressure between depths and the geographic sites used. No statistically significant link between high corrosion resistance and lower biofouling pressure was observed, indicating that the main marine macrofoulers settled equally well on corrosion resistant and corrosion prone metallic surfaces. This work sheds light on biofouling of thermally sprayed metallic substrata and it characterizes and compares biofouling assemblages from different biogeographical regions in Europe.

Analysis of landrace cultivation in Europe: A means to support in situ conservation of crop diversity

During the last century, the progressive substitution of landraces with modern, high yielding varieties, led to a dramatic reduction of in situ conserved crop diversity in Europe. Nowadays there is limited and scattered information on where landraces are cultivated. To fill this gap and lay the groundwork for a regional landrace in situ conservation strategy, information on more than 19,335 geo-referenced landrace cultivation sites were collated from 14 European countries. According to collected data, landraces of 141 herbaceous and 48 tree species are cultivated across Europe: Italy (107 species), Greece (93), Portugal (45) and Spain (44) hold the highest numbers. Common bean, onion, tomato, potato and apple are the species of main interest in the covered countries. As from collected data, about 19.8% of landrace cultivation sites are in protected areas of the Natura 2000 network. We also got evidence that 16.7% and 19.3% of conservation varieties of agricultural species and vegetables are currently cultivated, respectively. Results of the GIS analysis allowed the identification of 1261 cells (25 km × 25 km) including all the cultivation sites, distributed across all European biogeographical regions. Data of this study constitute the largest ever produced database of in situ-maintained landraces and the first attempt to create an inventory for the entire Europe. The availability of such resource will serve for better planning of actions and development of policies to protect landraces and foster their use.

Promiscuity in Lichens Follows Clear Rules: Partner Switching in Cladonia Is Regulated by Climatic Factors and Soil Chemistry.

Climatic factors, soil chemistry and geography are considered as major factors affecting lichen distribution and diversity. To determine how these factors limit or support the associations between the symbiotic partners, we revise the lichen symbiosis as a network of relationships here. More than one thousand thalli of terricolous Cladonia lichens were collected at sites with a wide range of soil chemical properties from seven biogeographical regions of Europe. A total of 18 OTUs of the algal genus Asterochloris and 181 OTUs of Cladonia mycobiont were identified. We displayed all realized pairwise mycobiont–photobiont relationships and performed modularity analysis. It revealed four virtually separated modules of cooperating OTUs. The modules differed in mean annual temperature, isothermality, precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil pH, nitrogen, and carbon contents. Photobiont switching was strictly limited to algae from one module, i.e., algae of similar ecological preferences, and only few mycobionts were able to cooperate with photobionts from different modules. Thus, Cladonia mycobionts generally cannot widen their ecological niches through photobiont switching. The modules also differed in the functional traits of the mycobionts, e.g., sexual reproduction rate, presence of soredia, and thallus type. These traits may represent adaptations to the environmental conditions that drive the differentiation of the modules. In conclusion, the promiscuity in Cladonia mycobionts is strictly limited by climatic factors and soil chemistry.

Distribution maps of vegetation alliances in Europe

AbstractAimThe first comprehensive checklist of European phytosociological alliances, orders and classes (EuroVegChecklist) was published by Mucina et al. (2016, Applied Vegetation Science, 19 (Suppl. 1), 3–264). However, this checklist did not contain detailed information on the distribution of individual vegetation types. Here we provide the first maps of all alliances in Europe.LocationEurope, Greenland, Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores, Cyprus and the Caucasus countries.MethodsWe collected data on the occurrence of phytosociological alliances in European countries and regions from literature and vegetation‐plot databases. We interpreted and complemented these data using the expert knowledge of an international team of vegetation scientists and matched all the previously reported alliance names and concepts with those of the EuroVegChecklist. We then mapped the occurrence of the EuroVegChecklist alliances in 82 territorial units corresponding to countries, large islands, archipelagos and peninsulas. We subdivided the mainland parts of large or biogeographically heterogeneous countries based on the European biogeographical regions. Specialized alliances of coastal habitats were mapped only for the coastal section of each territorial unit.ResultsDistribution maps were prepared for 1,105 alliances of vascular‐plant dominated vegetation reported in the EuroVegChecklist. For each territorial unit, three levels of occurrence probability were plotted on the maps: (a) verified occurrence; (b) uncertain occurrence; and (c) absence. The maps of individual alliances were complemented by summary maps of the number of alliances and the alliance–area relationship. Distribution data are also provided in a spreadsheet.ConclusionsThe new map series represents the first attempt to characterize the distribution of all vegetation types at the alliance level across Europe. There are still many knowledge gaps, partly due to a lack of data for some regions and partly due to uncertainties in the definition of some alliances. The maps presented here provide a basis for future research aimed at filling these gaps.

Landscape fragmentation of the Natura 2000 network and its surrounding areas.

Habitat loss from anthropogenic development has led to an unprecedented decline in global biodiversity. Protected areas (PAs) exist to counteract this degradation of ecosystems. In the European Union, the Natura 2000 (N2k) network is the basis for continent-wide conservation efforts. N2k is the world’s largest coordinated network of protected areas. However, threats to ecosystems do not stop at the borders of PAs. As measured by a landscape fragmentation metric, anthropogenic development can affect the interiors of PAs. To ensure the long-term viability of the N2k network of PAs, this paper attempts to quantify the degree to which N2k sites are insulated from development pressures. We use a comprehensive dataset of effective mesh density (seff) to measure aggregate fragmentation inside and within a 5 km buffer surrounding N2k sites. Our results show a strong correlation (R² = 0.78) between fragmentation (seff) within and around N2k sites. This result applies to all biogeographical regions in Europe. Only a narrow majority (58.5%) of N2k sites are less fragmented than their surroundings. Remote and mountainous regions in northern Europe, the Alps, parts of Spain, and parts of eastern Europe show the lowest levels of fragmentation. These regions tend to hold the largest N2k sites as measured by area. In contrast, central and western Europe show the highest fragmentation levels within and around N2k sites. 24.5% of all N2k sites are classified as highly to very-highly fragmented. N2k PA age since initial protection does not correlate with the difference in exterior and interior fragmentation of N2k PAs. These results indicate that PAs in Europe are not sheltered from anthropogenic pressures leading to fragmentation. Hence, we argue that there is a high potential for improving PA efficacy by taking pre-emptive action against encroaching anthropogenic fragmentation and by targeting scarce financial resources where fragmentation pressures can be mitigated through enforced construction bans inside PAs.

Mixtures of forest and agroforestry alleviate trade-offs between ecosystem services in European rural landscapes

Rural Europe encompasses a variety of landscapes with differing levels of forest, agriculture, and agroforestry that can deliver multiple ecosystem services (ES). Whilst provisioning and regulating ES associated with individual land covers are comparatively well studied, less is known about the associated cultural ES. Only seldom are provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES investigated together to evaluate how they contribute to multifunctionality. In this study we combined biophysical and sociocultural approaches to assess how different landscapes (dominated by forest, agriculture or agroforestry) and landscape characteristics (i.e. remoteness and landscape diversity) drive spatial associations of ES (i.e. synergies, trade-offs and bundles). We analysed data of: i) seven provisioning and regulating ES (spatially modelled), and; ii) six cultural ES (derived from participatory mapping data) in 12 study sites across four different biogeographical regions of Europe. Our results showed highly differentiated ES profiles for landscapes associated to a specific land cover, with agroforestry generally providing higher cultural ES than forest and agriculture. We found a positive relationship between the proportion of forest in a landscape and provisioning and regulating ES, whilst agriculture showed negative relationships. We found four distinct bundles of ES. Three of them were directly related to a dominant land cover and the fourth to a mixture of forest and agroforestry that was associated with high social value. The latter bundle was related to zones close to urban areas and roads and medium to high landscape diversity. These findings suggest that agroforestry should be prioritised over other land covers in such areas as it delivers a suite of multiple ES, provided it is close to urban areas or roads. Our results also illustrate the importance and application of including people’s perception in the assessment of ES associations and highlight the relevance of developing integrated analyses of ES to inform landscape management decisions.

Macroinvertebrate community assessment and biomonitoring of European water bodies. Is a multimarker approach necessary?

The present work, included in the European Project BIOWAT, aims to develop and validate the use of genomic tools or metabarcoding for its utilization as a routine method for river biomonitoring in different European Biogeographical regions. The project included sampling points in three biogeographic regions, Mediterranean (Spain), Continental (Germany) and Boreal (Finland). The current development of the study was designed using mock communities obtained from the three mentioned areas and different aspects were tested: DNA extraction methods, selection of informative region (16S vs COI), design and performance of primers, bioinformatic pipeline, etc…Although the use of COI has become very popular, and its barcode database is more complete, the use of mitochondrial 16S as taxonomic marker can provide similar or even better results when accompanied by a rich local barcode database Elbrecht 2016. In this presentation, the results and conclusions obtained for the biomonitoring of nine rivers (3 for each of the biogeographic regions) using 16S as DNA marker and a local barcode database are shown. The results of ecological status assignment using 16S marker were promising, showing a good correlation between morphological determinations and metabarcoding data for most of the studied rivers. However, in some cases, the metabarcoding data showed a jump in the ecological status class (to better or worst status), highlighting the existence of some problems related with primers (for some taxonomic groups) or missing taxa in the barcode database that still need to be solved prior the utilization of this method on a routine basis.Additionally, for the studied Mediterranean rivers, a complementary analysis using COI as marker was made, using the universal primers developed by Elbrecht and Leese 2017. In general, this marker showed better results in the identification for some taxa, whereas other included in the mock communities were not identified showing important problems that could be related with primers (sometimes not well covering characteristic taxa present in other biogeographic regions) or the lack of a complete COI macroinvertebrate barcode databases in the Iberian Peninsula for the case of Spain Múrria 2020.Our results show that both markers have the potential to produce a good identification of benthic macroinvertebrates, showing an acceptable correlation between morphology and metabarcoding approaches. However, none of them is able to amplify all of the present groups, so the parallel use of both markers (mitochondrial 16S and COI) in a multimarker approach could solve some of the problems, giving a more complete profile of the macroinvertebrate community. This approach has already been proposed and can lead the future of macroinvertebrate community assessment Ficetola 2020, Martins 2020.