The Conservation Status of Grassland Habitats Belonging to Protected Areas from Oltenia ‘Natura 2000’ Site, Romania

The present paper aims to evaluate if the Natura 2000 sites in Romania are placed over dynamic areas from a land cover changes perspective, or if they are placed in areas with low human interest and what the impact of these changes are. The effectiveness of conservation measures was addressed by analyzing the number of land cover changes and their areas in Natura 2000 sites, before and after declaring them as protected areas. Corine Land Cover (CLC) data were used as a tool to identify threats and pressures from each Natura 2000 site, and also assess whether land cover changes are more frequent in sites with a high biodiversity index, compared to those with low diversity, in order to estimate the conservation status. Changes in the land cover during 1990–2018 are characterized by three types of events, from 1990 to 2000 with most changes recorded, followed by a relative period of stability from 2000 to 2012; the most dynamic period is from 2012 to 2018. The main changes are due to deforestation. Only 29.7% ROSCI (Romanian Sites of Community Importance) and 36.5% ROSPA (Romanian Special Protected Areas) sites are characterized by a good degree of conservation without or with low modifications regarding the land cover. The most frequent threats and pressures that were found through CLC changes in the ROSCIs in Romania are related to forestry, grazing, the extent of the urbanized environment and those related to agriculture. The correspondence between Corine Land Cover and Natura 2000 specific threats and pressures emphasizes new guidelines for the Corine Land Cover program; therefore, this correspondence can be a potential tool to get more information for Natura 2000 sites.

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Occurrence of the Green Shield-Moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. in the Bieszczady Mountains of Poland

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12030374 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 374

Author(s):

Piotr Brewczyński ◽

Kamil Grałek ◽

Piotr Bilański

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Large Scale ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Field Work ◽

Managed Forests ◽

Moss Species ◽

Microhabitat Preferences ◽

Natura 2000 Site ◽

Forest District

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.

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Natura 2000 sites and fisheries in German offshore waters

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsn193 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

pp. 155-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Søren Anker Pedersen ◽

Heino Fock ◽

Jochen Krause ◽

Christian Pusch ◽

Anne L. Sell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Marine Mammals ◽

Fishery Management ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Management Measures ◽

Favourable Conservation Status ◽

Management Plans ◽

Natura 2000 Site ◽

Environmentally Sound ◽

Fishing Impacts

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.

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The Comparative Analysis of Pressures and Threats to The Natura 2000 Sites for Wild Birds Protection - Case Studies in Wetlands in Romania and Bulgaria

Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research ◽

10.2478/trser-2013-0015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 183-192

Author(s):

Doina Cioacă

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Habitats Directive ◽

Infrastructure Development ◽

The European Union ◽

Natural Protected Areas ◽

Birds Directive ◽

Green Corridor ◽

Natura 2000 Site

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.

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Review of habitat distribution, conservation status and human impact: the case of one Natura 2000 site in the Eastern Carpathians (Romania)

Contribuţii Botanice ◽

10.24193/contrib.bot.52.7 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 105-118

Author(s):

Tudor-Mihai Ursu ◽

◽

Sorina Fărcaş ◽

Gheorghe Coldea ◽

Ilie-Adrian Stoica ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Impact ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Habitat Distribution ◽

Eastern Carpathians ◽

Natura 2000 Site

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Landscape Changes in Protected Areas in Poland

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su14020753 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 753

Author(s):

Anna Zbierska

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Coniferous Forest ◽

Ecological Integrity ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Nature Protection ◽

Natura 2000 Network ◽

Buffer Zones ◽

Legal Forms

Land-Use Cover Changes (LUCCs) are one of the main problems for the preservation of landscapes and natural biodiversity. Protected Areas (PAs) do not escape this threat. Poland is among the European leaders in terms of the variety of landscapes and the share of an area designated as a protected area. However, as many as 78% of the habitats have poor or bad conservation status based on EEA reports. This article analyzes the LUCCs between 2000 and 2018 in various types of the Polish legal forms of nature protection areas and the European Natura 2000 network within the country. The research material was: the data of Corine Land Cover (CLC), the Central Register of Nature Protection Forms, and high-resolution layers, such as HRL and orthophotos. The results were compiled according to the CLC class and forms of protection. The matrix of transformations showed that the most frequently transformed CLC class was 312 (coniferous forest). It was transformed into class 324 (transitional woodland shrubs). The changes in PAs were usually smaller than in the surrounding buffer zones, which may indicate their effectiveness. The exception was the areas of the European Natura 2000 network. The scale of land-cover flows (LCFs) changed within particular forms of protected areas, though afforestation and deforestation predominating in all area types. National reserves and parks were the most stable in terms of land cover structures. However, human settlements increased around the protected areas, potentially increasing threats to their ecological integrity.

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Particularities of the Aquatic Vegetation from “Iron Gates” Natura 2000 Site (Banat, Romania)

Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research ◽

10.1515/trser-2015-0035 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 87-114

Author(s):

Irina Goia ◽

Adrian Oprea

Keyword(s):

Plant Communities ◽

Protected Area ◽

Aquatic Vegetation ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Main Tool ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Danube River ◽

Social Strategies ◽

The Danube River ◽

Natura 2000 Site

Abstract The paper presents the results of investigations on the aquatic vegetation, along the Romanian bank of the Danube River, in the area of Porţile de Fier (“Iron Gates”; Mehedinţi and Caraş-Severin counties), a Natura 2000 site. Twenty-three plant communities were identified from Lemnetea minoris and Potametea pectinati classes. The survey led to the identification of some newly described phytocoenotaxons in this protected area. All the plant communities in this paper are documented by phytosociologic tables, being accompanied by coenotaxonomic, phytogeographical, ecological and social strategies analysis, in order to assess their conservation status, as the main tool for management decisions.

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Quality of non-expert citizen science data collected for habitat type conservation status assessment in Natura 2000 protected areas

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-017-09316-9 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

A. S. Kallimanis ◽

M. Panitsa ◽

P. Dimopoulos

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Science Data ◽

Status Assessment

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Suport System for the Management of the Sabanejewia aurata (De Filippi, 1863) Populations of the ROSCI0227 – Sighișoara-Târnava Mare

Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research ◽

10.1515/trser-2015-0078 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 35-44

Author(s):

Doru Bănăduc ◽

Ioana-Cristina Cismaș ◽

Dan Miricescu ◽

Angela Curtean-Bănăduc

Keyword(s):

Computer Model ◽

Fish Species ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Computer Models ◽

Research Area ◽

Management Model ◽

Management Measures ◽

Natura 2000 Site

Abstract ADONIS:CE was used to design a computer model for the management of Sabanejewia aurata (De Filippi, 1863) populations in the Natura 2000 site of Sighişoara-Târnava Mare (ROSCI0227). The recommended management model is based on the environmental needs of the species, inventoried according to the local habitats, as well as the indicators of conservation status and relevant management measures, and takes into account human pressures and threats identified in the research area. Such computer models were established for all protected fish species found at the site ROSCI0227.

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Contribution of free satellite time-series images to mapping plant communities in the Mediterranean Natura 2000 site: the example of Biguglia Pond in Corse (France)

Mediterranean Botany ◽

10.5209/mbot.66535 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 181-191

Author(s):

Sébastien Rapinel ◽

Clémence Rozo ◽

Pauline Delbosc ◽

Frédéric Bioret ◽

Jan-Bernard Bouzillé ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Natural Habitats ◽

Biogeographical Region ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Natura 2000 Site ◽

Time Series Images ◽

Sentinel 2

Mapping plant communities, which is essential to assess the conservation status of natural habitats, is currently based mainly on time-consuming field surveys without the use of satellite data. However, free image time-series with high spatial and temporal resolution have been available since 2015. This study assessed the contribution of Sentinel-2 time-series images to mapping the spatial distribution of 18 plant communities within a Natura 2000 site (1978 ha) located on the Mediterranean biogeographical region (Corsica, France). The method was based on random forest modeling of six Sentinel-2 images acquired from 26 February to 24 October 2017, which were calibrated and validated using a field vegetation map. The results showed that the 18 plant communities were modeled correctly, with 72% overall accuracy. The uncertainty map associated with the model indicated areas that required additional field observations.

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