An expert system for the conservation of Atlantic estuarine wet meadows: application to a Natura 2000 site in France

Author(s):  
Mathieu Le Dez ◽  
Pauline Delbosc ◽  
Jan-Bernard Bouzillé ◽  
Marc Robin
Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 374
Author(s):  
Piotr Brewczyński ◽  
Kamil Grałek ◽  
Piotr Bilański

The small-sized gametophytes and sporophytes of the green shield-moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. make it difficult to study. However, in Europe, there has been increasing interest in this species in the past few years, mostly as a result of the implementation of the Natura 2000 network. In Poland, B. viridis has only been reported in isolated studies that have been limited in terms of area and the number of participating workers. One of the Polish regions where B. viridis was recently recorded is the Bieszczady Mountains, but there have been no large-scale surveys of that region to date. The objective of the current work was to describe the B. viridis population in the Bieszczady Mountains in terms of its spatial distribution and abundance, investigate its selected microhabitat preferences, and evaluate the conservation status of this moss species within the Natura 2000 site Bieszczady PLC180001. The studied region encompassed 93,490.44 ha, including 69,056.23 ha of managed forests and 24,434.21 ha of forests belonging to the Bieszczady National Park. A preliminary survey was conducted in the Cisna Forest District (forest area of 19,555.82 ha) on 15–17 November 2017, while the main survey was performed in selected forest subcompartments of four forest districts—Baligród, Komańcza, Lutowiska, and Stuposiany—as well as the Bieszczady National Park from 5 to 16 November 2018. The field work consisted of searching for B. viridis sporophytes and setae and recording selected population and locality characteristics. The study led to the discovery of 353 new B. viridis localities in 202 study areas, with 9197 diploid individuals (sporophytes or setae only) growing in 545 microhabitats. The number of B. viridis localities discovered in the Bieszczady Mountains during 17 days of survey in 2017 and 2018 was two times higher than the combined number of localities previously found in Poland over more than 150 years (159 localities). Additionally, the number of sporophytes and setae identified was two times greater than their overall number in previous records. In addition, this study provides information about selected microhabitat preferences and the conservation status of this moss in the Bieszczady Natura 2000 site.


2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Anker Pedersen ◽  
Heino Fock ◽  
Jochen Krause ◽  
Christian Pusch ◽  
Anne L. Sell ◽  
...  

Abstract Pedersen, S. A., Fock, H., Krause, J., Pusch, C., Sell, A. L., Böttcher, U., Rogers, S. I., Sköld, M., Skov, H., Podolska, M., Piet, G. J., and Rice, J. C. 2009. Natura 2000 sites and fisheries in German offshore waters.–ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 155–169. The principal objective of sites selected as part of Natura 2000 is to achieve or maintain a favourable conservation status of habitats and species named in the EU Birds and Habitats directives. In the German exclusive economic zone, the habitat types protected by this legislation are sandbanks and reefs; protected species include marine mammals, seabirds, and specific migratory fish species. The ICES project Environmentally Sound Fishery Management in Protected Areas (EMPAS) aims to answer two questions: (i) To what extent do specific fishing activities significantly threaten attainment of the conservation objectives of the Natura 2000 sites? (ii) What management measures would reduce these conflicts and how effective would they be at helping to ensure the favourable condition of these sites? Assessments of fishing impacts on Natura 2000 sites require basic data on the conservation status of individual habitats and species, as well as data for fine-scale distributions of ongoing fishing activities. This paper describes and discusses the process used by the EMPAS project in developing fishery-management plans for each Natura 2000 site in German offshore waters.


2016 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 27-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Dupont ◽  
Françoise Gourmelon ◽  
Mathias Rouan ◽  
Isabelle Le Viol ◽  
Christian Kerbiriou

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Bukaciński ◽  
Monika Bukacińska ◽  
Arkadiusz Buczyński

The inventory of birds was conducted in the years 2005-2010 on the Vistula River section between Dęblin (388 km of the river) and Podwierzbie (435 km of the river). The study area includes a southern section of the European Ecological Natura 2000 Site in Poland PLB140004 „Middle Vistula River Valley” (IBA, PL083). In most areas the Vistula flows here within unregulated or relatively little modified riverbed, having features of natural, lowland, braided river. Sandy islands and braid bars within the main channel, steep banks, and old riparian afforestation create the unique breeding habitats of the Vistula River Valley. Especially the river channel habitats provide suitable breeding sites for many rare bird species, constituting some of them the key-breeding sites. There are, however, fragments of several kilometers, where people transformed the Vistula River in a more visible way (Table 1). These are, among others: an urban section within Dęblin boundaries (km 388-393 of the river), a fragment adjacent to Kozienice Power Plant (km 421-426), and the area, where since 2007 gravel for the industry has been mining from the river bottom (km 426-431). The aim of this inventory was the comparison of richness and abundance of breeding bird species associated directly with the river channel on fragments mentioned above. It will allow us to estimate soberly how very the intensity of human utilization of the river affects the distribution of avifauna of the Vistula, determining the richness and abundance of valuable and/or endangered species breeding in a given area.


Author(s):  
Agustín GARCÍA URETA ◽  
Iñigo LAZCANO BROTÓNS

LABURPENA: Iruzkinak 2011ko otsailaren 18ko epaiarekin zerikusia du. Honetan Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoko Justizia Auzitegi Nagusiak, bere egunean euskal Administrazioak Ordunten eraiki beharreko parke eolikoari buruz egindako ingurumenaren gaineko eraginaren aurkako aitorpena Zuzenbidearekin bat ez zetorrela ondorioztatu zuen. Erabilitako arrazoien artean, Auzitegiaren ustetan, Eusko Jaurlaritzak ez zituen Natura 2000 sareko gune batean egin beharreko proiektuak planteatutako eragin kritikoak modu egokian arrazoitu. RESUMEN: El comentario tiene que ver con una sentencia de 18 de febrero de 2011, en la que el Tribunal Superior de Justicia del País Vasco (TSJ) llegó a la conclusión de que la declaración de impacto ambiental (DIA) desfavorable, que dictó en su día la Administración autonómica en relación con la construcción de un parque eólico en Ordunte, no era conforme a Derecho. Entre otras razones, el Tribunal indicó que el Gobierno Vasco no había motivado de manera suficiente los impactos críticos que, en su opinión, planteaba el proyecto en una zona de la red Natura 2000. ABSTRACT: The comment concerns a judgment of the High Court of the Basque Country of 18 February 2001 that held that the unfavorable environmental declaration issued by the Basque Government regarding a wind farm was not consistent with applicable laws. The Court held, inter alia, that the Government had not provided sufficient reasons to sustain the assumption that the project embraced critical environmental impacts on a Natura 2000 site.


2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-192
Author(s):  
Doina Cioacă

ABSTRACT The Natura 2000 concept and wetlands protection are relatively new for Romania and Bulgaria, because they are former communist countries and, after the 1990s, had too little value placed on nature conservation in favour of infrastructure development and agriculture. The development of the European ecological network Natura 2000 on these territories has come as an obligation for accession of these countries to The European Union on 01.01.2007. During the period 2006-2009 I made an analysis for the management of protected areas along the Danube Green Corridor, between Romania and Bulgaria, especially for wetlands, similar to the results of the WWF Germany project “Lower Danube - Green Corridor (LDGC): Freshwater protected area management and freshwater restoration in Bulgaria, Romania and trans-boundary conservation along the Lower Danube”. To have a complete view of the situation of the protected areas management between Romania and Bulgaria, along the Lower Danube Green Corridor, and the perspectives for the next years, I carried out some evaluation for more than 20 Natura 2000 sites, which are alike in many ways, such as: the object of protection (Sites of Community Importance, SCI, under the Habitats Directive; Special Protection Areas for birds, SPAs, under the Birds Directive; natural protected areas of national importance for these two countries, or other natural and semi natural areas with the potential to be protected), human activities, pressures and threats, and other aspects. Later, I used these results to make a comparative analysis of the Cernica area (Ilfov County, Romania), to add another argument to include it in the Natura 2000 Network from Romania, as ROSPA0122 Cernica Lake and Forest. This analysis showed that Cernica faces approximately the same pressures and threats as other protected areas and has almost the same efficiency in management planning as the highest assessed Natura 2000 SPAs, respectively Iezer-Călăraşi in Romania and Srebarna of Bulgaria, which is an argument to establish this area as a Natura 2000 site.


Author(s):  
Ioannis Giovos ◽  
Konstantinos Ganias ◽  
Georgios Skoufas

The present work aimed to investigate possible spatial and seasonal patterns in the distribution of two sympatric serranids, the painted comber, Serranus scriba and the comber, Serranus cabrilla. The research took place at a NATURA 2000 site located at Sithonia peninsula, N. Greece. Underwater visual census was used for data collection; specifically, individuals from each species were recorded along four isobathic transects of 200 m2 each, placed every 5 m and ranging from 5 to 20 m depth. A total of 27 samplings were conducted between September 2010 and August 2011. The results clearly demonstrated complementary bathymetric distributions for S. scriba and S. cabrilla, the former mostly occurring until 10 m depth, and the latter in deeper layers. This pattern was maintained during the whole season. In addition the two species exhibited differences in their preferred substrate type and their pattern of association to the sea bottom. Our results were viewed under the light of resource portioning between the two sympatric species.


Acrocephalus ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (162-163) ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
Primož Kmecl ◽  
Tomaž Jančar ◽  
Tomaž Mihelič

Abstract In the 11 years between 1999 and 2010, certain groups of birds inhabiting Kozjansko Regional Park underwent a moderate or large decline. Composite indices for indicator species of different habitat types showed an increase of generalist species (composite index 108.3), a moderate decline of forest species (composite index 76.6) and species of extensively managed orchards (composite index 76.4), and a large decline of farmland (composite index 62.8) and grassland species (composite index 8.7). Our study was based on a census using line transects with an inner and outer belt. Randomly distributed line transects with a total length of 60.8 km were surveyed using the same method both in 1999 and 2010. The decline of farmland species mirrors the population trend of this group at the national level. The study area is protected by multiple nature conservation mechanisms. It is protected as a regional park and partly as a Natura 2000 site. These mechanisms, however, do not seem to be functioning here. We believe the large decline of grassland species is a consequence of agricultural policy, which favours a decrease of extensively managed grasslands.


Author(s):  
DARJA RIBARIC ◽  
JACK CLARKSON

Several studies indicate that unregulated nautical tourism can have negative implications on cetacean behaviour. In recent years, dolphin watching activities (DWA) have increased off the West coast of Istria, Croatia, a region in which the NATURA 2000 site: ‘Akvatorij zapadne Istre’ has been proposed to be designated for bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus M.). For data collected between 2016 and 2019, we compared dolphin group behaviours from this region during impact (presence of nautical tourism boats (NTBs)) and control (absence of NTBs) scenarios, as well as providing descriptive analysis on the displacement of individuals in the presence of NTBs. Throughout the study years, 48.5 % of NTBs were observed within 15m of the dolphin focal groups and 97 % were observed within 50 m distance. The greatest rates of displacement in dolphin focal groups occurred when NTB numbers were greatest per individual dolphin. Markov chain analysis were used to quantify the short-term effects of NTB presence on dolphin behaviour. In the presence of NTBs, dolphins were more likely to spend time milling and less time foraging. Cumulative behavioural budgets, derived by accounting for the time bottlenose dolphins spent in the presence or absence of NTBs, indicated that vessel exposure levels of 14 % and 25 % were enough to statistically affect milling and foraging behaviours respectively. To lessen the lack of sustainable DWA, the implementation of relevant guidelines, e.g. Global Best Practice Guidance for Responsible Whale and Dolphin Watching (50 m no approach and 300 m caution zone) is therefore crucial to mitigate any long-term consequences the actions of NTBs may have on this key species. To date, 162 bottlenose dolphins have been photo-identified off West coast of Istria and cumulative interference to this population could affect direct ecosystem functioning.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document