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.

Análisis multitaxonómico de la efectividad de Natura 2000 en las regiones biogeográficas de Europa Resumen La red de áreas protegidas (AP) de Natura 2000 (N2K) es una herramienta importante para reducir la pérdida de biodiversidad en Europa. A pesar de que cubre el 18% del área terrestre de la UE, todavía es incierta la efectividad que tiene para conservar la biodiversidad en los taxones y las regiones biogeográficas. Sin embargo, es complicado analizar esta efectividad porque requiere considerar la ubicación no azarosa de las AP y la posibilidad de muchos factores confusos. Usamos el pareamiento por puntaje de propensión y consideramos los efectos confusos de las regiones biogeográficas, lo accidentado del terreno y la cobertura del suelo para analizar la efectividad de las AP de N2K en la distribución de 1,769 especies (mamíferos, aves, anfibios, reptiles, artrópodos, peces, moluscos y plantas vasculares y no vasculares) con prioridad de conservación en las Directivas de Aves y Hábitats de la UE. Comparamos la diversidad alfa, beta y gamma entre las selecciones pareadas de las áreas protegidas y no protegidas en las regiones biogeográficas de la UE con los modelos generalizados lineales, mixtos y pruebas no paramétricas de las muestras pareadas, respectivamente, para cada grupo taxonómico y para el conjunto completo de especies. Las áreas protegidas en N2K tuvieron una mayoría significativa de especies prioritarias en comparación con el suelo no protegido, pero esta diferencia no fue coherente entre los taxones y las regiones biogeográficas. La diversidad alfa total y la diversidad alfa de anfibios, artrópodos, aves, mamíferos y plantas vasculares fue significativamente mayor dentro de las AP que fuera de ellas, excepto en la región biogeográfica boreal. La diversidad beta fue significativamente más alta dentro de las AP de N2K que fuera de ellas. De forma similar, la diversidad gamma tuvo los valores más altos dentro de las AP, salvo algunas excepciones en las regiones boreal y atlántica. Por lo tanto, la expansión planeada de la red N2K, como dicta la Estrategia de la UE sobre Biodiversidad para 2030, debería enfocarse en las áreas del sur de la región boreal, donde es alta la diversidad de especies de anfibios, artrópodos, aves, mamíferos y plantas vasculares y cuyas especies están poco representadas dentro de N2K.

Assessing future shifts in habitat suitability and connectivity to old-growth forests to support the conservation of the endangered giant noctule.

Background: Suitable climate and availability of habitats for roosting, foraging, and dispersing are critical for the long-term persistence of bat species. The giant noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus) represents one of the lesser-known European bats, especially regarding the environmental factors which shape its distribution. Methodology: We integrated climate-based ecological niche models with information about topography and rivers' network to model weighted suitability for N. lasiopterus in the western Palearctic. The weighted suitability map was then used to estimate connectivity among the distinct occurrence localities of N. lasiopterus, as well as from these latter towards European old-growth forests, under current conditions and different combinations of future timeframes (2030, 2050, 2070) and shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs 3.70 and 5.85). Results: Current weighted suitability is highest in Andalusia, northern Iberia, southwestern France, peninsular Italy, coastal Balkans and Anatolia, with dispersed suitable patches elsewhere. A north-eastward shift of weighted suitability emerges in the considered future scenarios, especially under SSP 5.85. The major current ecological corridors for N. lasiopterus are predicted within a 'belt' connecting northern Spain and southwestern France, as well as in the Italian Alps. However, following changes in weighted suitability, connectivity would increase in central-eastern Europe in the future. The bioclimatic niche of the western N. lasiopterus populations does not overlap with those of the central and eastern ones, and it only overlaps with climatic conditions characterizing old-growth forests in western Europe. Conclusions: The outcomes of our analyses would help in designing specific conservation measures for the distinct groups of giant noctule populations, favoring the possibility of range expansion and movement towards forested habitats.

Contrasting multitaxon responses to climate change in Mediterranean mountains.

We explored the influence of climatic factors on diversity patterns of multiple taxa (lichens, bryophytes, and vascular plants) along a steep elevational gradient to predict communities' dynamics under future climate change scenarios in Mediterranean regions. We analysed (1) species richness patterns in terms of heat-adapted, intermediate, and cold-adapted species; (2) pairwise beta-diversity patterns, also accounting for its two different components, species replacement and richness difference; (3) the influence of climatic variables on species functional traits. Species richness is influenced by different factors between three taxonomic groups, while beta diversity differs mainly between plants and cryptogams. Functional traits are influenced by different factors in each taxonomic group. On the basis of our observations, poikilohydric cryptogams could be more impacted by climate change than vascular plants. However, contrasting species-climate and traits-climate relationships were also found between lichens and bryophytes suggesting that each group may be sensitive to different components of climate change. Our study supports the usefulness of a multi-taxon approach coupled with a species traits analysis to better unravel the response of terrestrial communities to climate change. This would be especially relevant for lichens and bryophytes, whose response to climate change is still poorly explored.

Diversity of European habitat types is correlated with geography more than climate and human pressure.

Habitat richness, that is, the diversity of ecosystem types, is a complex, spatially explicit aspect of biodiversity, which is affected by bioclimatic, geographic, and anthropogenic variables. The distribution of habitat types is a key component for understanding broad-scale biodiversity and for developing conservation strategies. We used data on the distribution of European Union (EU) habitats to answer the following questions: (i) how do bioclimatic, geographic, and anthropogenic variables affect habitat richness? (ii) Which of those factors is the most important? (iii) How do interactions among these variables influence habitat richness and which combinations produce the strongest interactions? The distribution maps of 222 terrestrial habitat types as defined by the Natura 2000 network were used to calculate habitat richness for the 10 km × 10 km EU grid map. We then investigated how environmental variables affect habitat richness, using generalized linear models, generalized additive models, and boosted regression trees. The main factors associated with habitat richness were geographic variables, with negative relationships observed for both latitude and longitude, and a positive relationship for terrain ruggedness. Bioclimatic variables played a secondary role, with habitat richness increasing slightly with annual mean temperature and overall annual precipitation. We also found an interaction between anthropogenic variables, with the combination of increased landscape fragmentation and increased population density strongly decreasing habitat richness. This is the first attempt to disentangle spatial patterns of habitat richness at the continental scale, as a key tool for protecting biodiversity. The number of European habitats is related to geography more than climate and human pressure, reflecting a major component of biogeographical patterns similar to the drivers observed at the species level. The interaction between anthropogenic variables highlights the need for coordinated, continental-scale management plans for biodiversity conservation.

A grid-based map for the Biogeographical Regions of Europe.

BACKGROUND: Biogeographical units are widely adopted in ecological research and nature conservation management, even though biogeographical regionalisation is still under scientific debate. The European Environment Agency provided an official map of the European Biogeographical Regions (EBRs), which contains the official boundaries used in the Habitats and Birds Directives. However, these boundaries bisect cells in the official EU 10 km × 10 km grid used for many purposes, including reporting species and habitat data, meaning that 6881 cells overlap two or more regions. Therefore, superimposing the EBRs vector map over the grid creates ambiguities in associating some cells with European Biogeographical Regions. NEW INFORMATION: To provide an operational tool to unambiguously define the boundaries of the eleven European Biogeographical Regions, we provide a specifically developed raster map of Grid-Based European Biogeographical Regions (GB-EBRs). In this new map, the borders of the EBRs are reshaped to coherently match the standard European 10 km × 10 km grid imposed for reporting tasks by Article 17 of the Habitats Directive and used for many other datasets. We assign each cell to the EBR with the largest area within the cell.

Use of microarthropods to evaluate the impact of fire on soil biological quality.

Edaphic (i.e. soil dwelling) microarthropods play crucial roles in soil ecosystem services. Fire is a widespread form of disturbance with severe effects on soil invertebrates. Research on the effects of fire on soil arthropods, however, has been mostly focused on surface-active species. Information on the effects of fire on strictly edaphic invertebrates is limited. Thanks to their variable degree of specialization to the edaphic life, soil microarthropods can be used to evaluate soil quality and how it is affected by disturbance. We used an index of soil biological quality based on microarthropods (QBS-ar) to assess the effects of wildfire in three habitats (a natural beechwood, a grassland and a conifer reforestation) in a burnt upland plain in Central Italy, one year after the fire event. Fire affected significantly soil biology quality. In all habitats, burnt soils had a biological quality about 1.4 lower than the respective unburnt soils. Sampling period did not affect QBS-ar values. QBS-ar values varied among habitat types, being highest in the beechwood, lowest in the pinewood, and intermediate in the grassland. These findings indicate that the QBS-ar approach can be profitably used to evaluate the impact of fire on soil biology quality and stress the poor performance of planted conifers in terms of soil quality.