European Nature Information System Habitat Research Articles

Habitat Diversity, Environmental Conditions, and Distribution of Endangered Fungus Sarcosoma globosum (Ascomycota) in Lithuania.

Sarcosoma globosum (Pezizales, Ascomycota) is a rare and endangered fungus, and it is believed to be extinct in most central European countries. Known records of S. globosum in Lithuania reveal that it is situated on the south-western edge of a shrinking geographical distribution range in Europe. An assessment of the species' current habitat conditions and threats could enhance and provide new knowledge and guidelines to facilitate the efficient conservation of this threatened fungus and its habitats. The main aim of this study was to analyse the habitats and environmental conditions of S. globosum in Lithuania. We examined the diversity of habitats, various soil and tree stand characteristics, forest management activities, and natural disturbances in all 28 known fungus localities. S. globosum habitats in Lithuania are restricted to coniferous forests with the presence of Picea abies; the species was observed in boreo-nemoral bilberry western spruce taiga (the European Nature Information System habitat type T3F14), continental tall-herb western spruce taiga (T3F44), and native fir, spruce, larch, and cedar plantations (T3N1). An analysis of forest stand age structures in Lithuanian S. globosum localities revealed a rather large proportion of young Norway spruce stands of cultural origin (25.6% of study plots were assigned to age classes from 21 to 50 years); nevertheless, the majority of fungus growth sites were situated in older forests. Various natural and anthropogenic disturbances that threaten S. globosum habitats were assessed.

Improving benthic biodiversity assessments in turbid aquatic environments

Abstract Biodiversity in turbid aquatic environments is commonly assessed using extractive sampling methods that damage the seabed. Underwater cameras equipped with clear liquid optical chambers (CLOCs) for the assessment of seabed habitats and species are a non‐extractive alternative and have been applied in turbid environments globally. A CLOC is a body of clear liquid positioned in front of a camera to reduce the scattering of light that would otherwise occur when passing through the turbid water it displaces. Here, we test and quantify the effectiveness of a CLOC for marine benthic biodiversity assessments over gradients of increasing turbidity. The addition of a CLOC to a conventional benthic camera system significantly enhanced the quality of information gathered. Images acquired using the CLOC system consistently recorded statistically higher values of image quality (49% increase, based on the clarity of the image), seabed visible within the drop‐down frame (34% increase), and European Nature Information System habitat level identification (49% increase). Furthermore, it was found that the ‘annotation success’ of taxa (classification of a specimen to family level or higher) was found to increase between individual experts in the presence of a CLOC. A reduced sampling effort was also identified when using a CLOC. Taxonomic richness increased by 27% when comparing the same number of image stills collected with and without the CLOC. By reducing the limitations of underwater visibility previously attributed to underwater cameras, this concept extends the potential for use of non‐destructive survey techniques and allows for future users to collect robust information of an area, making better informed management decisions.

Факторный анализ классификации городских местообитаний на примере Сердловского округа города Иркутска

The habitats typification was made using the European Habitat Classification System EUNIS (European Nature Information System) for the Sverdlovsk District of the city of Irkutsk. The object of study is divided into 676 plots with QGIS software. Geobotanical descriptions were carried out for some of them. Six parameters were determined which influence to the configuration and the functioning of habitats: 1) the presence of urban greening (the ratio of the area with vegetation cover to the total area of the plot); 2) paving (the ratio of the area of artificial surfaces to the total area of the plot); 3) soil outcrops (the ratio of the area of barrens to the total area of the plot); 4) the presence of surface water (the ratio of the area of water bodies to the total area of the plot); 5) location heights and 6) slope steepness obtained for each section according to SRTM data. Analysis of the data by the principal component method showed that the greatest influence on the determination of the EUNIS habitat type of the first hierarchical level is exerted by the parameters of greenery, paving (the first main component) and slope (the second component). Evaluation of the results of classification by the method of the discriminant analysis showed that it is 51.5% attributable to these variables, and the rest is described by other factors.

Patterns in megabenthic assemblages on a seamount summit (Ormonde Peak, Gorringe Bank, Northeast Atlantic)

AbstractGettysburg and Ormonde are two shallow peaks located on the Gorringe seamount about 200 and 240 km WSW off Cape St. Vincent (Portugal, NE Atlantic), within the Portuguese Economic Exclusive Zone. Despite the ecological importance of the biological assemblages on these peaks and the need to preserve seamounts as valuable habitats, no management plans have been yet implemented at this site, which only recently has been included in the list of Sites of Community Importance of Portugal. Video imagery collected using a ROV during the 2011 Oceana campaigns was used here to analyse qualitative and quantitative patterns of benthic assemblage composition at the summit of the seamount (between 30 and 230 m depth). The results suggest that Ormonde is a biologically important area made up of vulnerable marine ecosystem elements that change significantly with depth. These include: kelp beds, in the euphotic zone; encrusting coralline algal communities and solitary colonies or mixed associations of suspension‐feeders (scleractinians, gorgonians, antipatharians, encrusting demosponges and ascidians), at the lower limit of the euphotic zone; mixed coral gardens and erect sponges, in the disphotic zone; and dense sponge aggregations, on the upper slope. These results were further used to propose amendments to the European Nature Information System habitat classification as a tool to work towards resolving the seamounts management issue. The results also provide information on taxa and habitats with high ecological value and classified as threatened or vulnerable, which is essential for the implementation of the cornerstones of Europe's biodiversity conservation policy, namely the OSPAR Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.

An evaluation of supervised and unsupervised classification techniques for marine benthic habitat mapping using multibeam echosounder data

Abstract Marine habitat mapping provides information on seabed substrata and faunal community structure to users including research scientists, conservation organizations, and policy makers. Full-coverage acoustic data are frequently used for habitat mapping in combination with video ground-truth data in either a supervised or unsupervised classification. In this investigation, video ground-truth data with a camera footprint of 1 m2 were classified to level 4 of the European Nature Information System habitat classification scheme. Acoustic data with a horizontal resolution of 1 m2 were collected over an area of 130 km2 using a multibeam echosounder, and processed to provide bathymetry and backscatter data. Bathymetric derivatives including eastness, northness, slope, topographic roughness index, vector rugosity measure, and two measures of curvature were created. A feature selection process based on Kruskal–Wallis and post hoc pairwise testing was used to select environmental variables able to discriminate ground-truth classes. Subsequently, three datasets were formed: backscatter alone (BS), backscatter combined with bathymetry and derivatives (BSDER), and bathymetry and derivatives alone (DER). Two classifications were performed on each of the datasets to produce habitat maps: maximum likelihood supervised classification (MLC) and ISO Cluster unsupervised classification. Accuracy of the supervised habitat maps was assessed using total agreement, quantity disagreement, and allocation disagreement. Agreement in the unsupervised maps was assessed using the Cramer's V coefficient. Choice of input data produced large differences in the accuracy of the supervised maps, but did not have the same effect on the unsupervised maps. Accuracies were 46, 56, and 49% when calculated using the sample and 52, 65, and 51% when using an unbiased estimate of the population for the BS, BSDER, and DER maps, respectively. Cramer's V was 0.371, 0.417, and 0.366 for the BS, BSDER, and DER maps, respectively.

Ecological monitoring of wetlands in semi-arid region of Konya closed Basin, Turkey

Wetland ecosystems are of global significance having productive, regulatory and informative function. These wetlands are crucial for the long-term protection of water sources, as well as the survival of its unique biodiversity. Most of the wetlands of Turkey are now facing serious threat from the anthropogenic sources and now near to the verge of extinction. This study has been carried out to monitor vegetation dynamics and ecological status of wetlands of Koyna basin at spatial and temporal scale. This study has involved MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images of the year 2000, 2004 and 2008 on daily basis with spatial resolution of 1 km. The MODIS 16 days composite NDVI time series products of 250-m spatial resolution from year 2000 to 2008 has been utilized to monitor the ecological status of the wetlands. The European Nature Information System habitat classification map, meteorological data (precipitation, temperature) coupled with field data has been utilized to validate NDVI values of nine habitats in the wetlands. The time series analyses of NDVI data values have been correlated with the groundwater level depth from 1996 to 2004. The overall analysis has shown a declining trend of NDVI over the year 2000 to 2008, indicated a degraded wetland condition in span of 9 years.

Regional assessment of plant invasions across different habitat types

AbstractQuestions: 1. Which habitats have the highest degree of invasion? 2. Do native species‐rich communities have also a high degree of invasion? 3. Do the patterns of association between native and alien species richness vary between habitats.Location: Catalonia region (NE Spain).Methods: We conducted a large regional analysis of 15655 phytosociological relevés to detect differences in the degree of invasion between European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitats representative of temperate and Mediterranean European areas.Results: Alien species were present in less than 17 % of the relevés and represented less than 2% of the total number of species per habitat. The EUNIS habitats with the highest alien species richness were arable land and gardens followed by anthropogenic forb‐rich habitats, riverine and lakeshore scrubs, southern riparian galleries and thickets and trampled areas. In contrast, the following habitats had never any alien species: surface running waters, raised and blanket bogs, valley mires, poor fens and transition mires, base‐rich fens, alpine and sub‐alpine grasslands, sub‐alpine moist or wet tall‐herb and fern habitats, alpine and sub‐alpine scrub habitats and spiny Mediterranean heaths. There was a unimodal relationship between the mean native and mean alien species richness per EUNIS habitat with a high number of aliens in habitats with intermediate number of native species and a low number of aliens at both extremes of the native species gradient. Within EUNIS habitats, the relationship was positive, negative or non‐significant depending on the habitat type without any clear pattern related to the number of native species. Alien species richness was not related to plot size, neither between habitats nor within habitats.Conclusions: The analysis emphasised that the habitats with a higher degree of invasion were the most disturbed ones and that in general habitats rich in native species did not harbour less invaders than habitats poor in native species.

Regional assessment of plant invasions across different habitat types

Questions: 1. Which habitats have the highest degree of invasion? 2. Do native species-rich communities have also a high degree of invasion? 3. Do the patterns of association between native and alien species richness vary between habitats. Location: Catalonia region (NE Spain). Methods: We conducted a large regional analysis of 15 655 phytosociological releves to detect differences in the degree of invasion between European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitats representative of temperate and Mediterranean European areas. Results: Alien species were present in less than 17 % of the releves and represented less than 2% of the total number of species per habitat. The EUNIS habitats with the highest alien species richness were arable land and gardens followed by anthropogenic forb-rich habitats, riverine and lakeshore scrubs, southern riparian galleries and thickets and trampled areas. In contrast, the following habitats had never any alien species: surface running waters, raised and blanket bogs, valley mires, poor fens and transition mires, base-rich fens, alpine and sub-alpine grasslands, sub-alpine moist or wet tall-herb and fern habitats, alpine and sub-alpine scrub habitats and spiny Mediterranean heaths. There was a unimodal relationship between the mean native and mean alien species richness per EUNIS habitat with a high number of aliens in habitats with intermediate number of native species and a low number of aliens at both extremes of the native species gradient. Within EUNIS habitats, the relationship was positive, negative or non-significant depending on the habitat type without any clear pattern related to the number of native species. Alien species richness was not related to plot size, neither between habitats nor within habitats. Conclusions: The analysis emphasised that the habitats with a higher degree of invasion were the most disturbed ones and that in general habitats rich in native species did not harbour less invaders than habitats poor in native species.