Geo‐Hydromorphological Assessment of Europe’s Southernmost Blanket Bogs

Blanket bogs are a globally rare type of ombrotrophic peatland internationally recognised for long‐term terrestrial carbon storage, the potential to serve as carbon sinks, habitat provision and for their palaeoenvironmental archive. This habitat is protected in the European Union under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), but a number of blanket bogs located in the Cantabrian Mountains (northern Spain), representing the southernmost known edge‐of‐range for this habitat in Europe, are currently not recognised and are at increased threat of loss. Using climatic data, topography, aerial photography and peat depth surveys, this study has identified ten new areas of blanket bog located between the administrative regions of Cantabria and Castilla y León. Peat depth data and topography were used to provide a detailed geomorphological description and hydromorphological classification (mesotope units) of these currently unrecognised areas of blanket bog. Maximum peat depth measured across the ten sites ranged from 1.61 m to 3.78 m covering a total area of 18.6 ha of blanket bog (> 40 cm peat depth). The volume of peat accumulated across the sites was determined to be more than 216,000 m3 and is estimated to hold 19.89 ± 3.51kt C. Twenty‐four individual hydrological mesotope units were described indicating a diverse assemblage of blanket bogs in this region. The peatlands identified in this research extend the known limit of blanket bogs in Europe farther south than previously recorded and combined with four other unprotected blanket bogs recently identified in the Cantabrian Mountains, these peatlands represent 10.5% of blanket bog currently recognised and protected in Spain. The range of anthropogenic pressures currently acting on peatlands in the Cantabrian Mountains indicates that without protection these important landforms and carbon stored may be lost. An urgent update of European peatland inventories is thus required to preserve these valuable carbon stores and potential carbon sinks

National responsibilities for conserving habitats – a\ua0freely scalable method

Volume: 3Start Page: 21End Page: 4

Projecting trends in plant invasions in Europe under different scenarios of future land-use change: policy orientations will not reduce invasions

Aim The recent discovery of the consistent patterns in plant invasions in habitat types across different climatic regions made it possible to produce a European map of plant invasions. Parallel research led to the formulation of integrated scenarios of future socio-economic development in Europe, which were used to project land-use patterns in Europe for 2020, 2050 and 2080. Here we integrate these two research lines and produce the first spatially explicit projections of plant invasions in Europe for these three target years. Location European Union, Norway and Switzerland. Methods We used vegetation plot data from southern, central and north-western Europe to quantify mean local levels of invasion by neophytes (post-1500 alien plants) for forest, grassland, urban, arable and abandoned land. We projected these values on the scenarios of future land-use for the three target years and constructed maps of future plant invasions under three socio-economic scenarios assuming (1) deregulation, (2) continuation of current policies with standing regulations and (3) shift towards sustainable development. Results Under all scenarios an increase in the level of invasion was projected especially for north-western and northern Europe, and a decrease for some agricultural areas of eastern Europe where abandonment of agricultural land is expected. However, a net increase in the level of invasion over Europe is projected under all scenarios. Main conclusions The polarization between more and less invaded regions is likely to increase if future policies are oriented on deregulation. However, an implementation of sustainability policies would not automatically restrict the spread of alien plants. On the contrary, such policies might increase invasions by supporting agriculture and associated invasion-prone land use in less productive areas. Therefore, proactive strategies to combat invasive alien plants will be needed no matter which policies will be adopted in the future

The functional trait spectrum of European temperate grasslands

Questions What is the functional trait variation of European temperate grasslands and how does this reflect global patterns of plant form and function? Do habitat specialists show trait differentiation across habitat types? Location Europe. Methods We compiled 18 regeneration and non-regeneration traits for a continental species pool consisting of 645 species frequent in five grassland types. These grassland types are widely distributed in Europe but differentiated by altitude, soil bedrock and traditional long-term management and disturbance regimes. We evaluated the multivariate trait space of this entire species pool and compared multi-trait variation and mean trait values of habitat specialists grouped by grassland type. Results The first dimension of the trait space accounted for 23% of variation and reflected a gradient between fast-growing and slow-growing plants. Plant height and SLA contributed to both the first and second ordination axes. Regeneration traits mainly contributed to the second and following dimensions to explain 56% of variation across the first five axes. Habitat specialists showed functional differences between grassland types mainly through non-regeneration traits. Conclusions The trait spectrum of plants dominating European temperate grasslands is primarily explained by growth strategies which are analogous to the trait variation observed at the global scale, and secondly by regeneration strategies. Functional differentiation of habitat specialists across grassland types is mainly related to environmental filtering linked with altitude and disturbance. This filtering pattern is mainly observed in non-regeneration traits, while most regeneration traits demonstrate multiple strategies within the same habitat type

European map of alien plant invasions based on the quantitative assessment across habitats

Recent studies using vegetation plots have demonstrated that habitat type is a good predictor of the level of plant invasion, expressed as the proportion of alien to all species. At the scale of a few to hundreds of square meters, habitat types explain much more variation in the level of invasion than climate or alien propagule pressure. Moreover, it has been shown that patterns of habitat invasion are consistent among European regions with contrasting climates, biogeographical affinities, history and socio-economic background. These findings make a solid background for mapping the level of plant invasion, based on the projection of the habitat-specific levels of invasion onto land-cover maps. We used 52,480 vegetation plots from Catalonia (NE Spain), Czech Republic and Great Britain to quantify the levels of invasion by neophytes (alien plant species introduced after AD 1500) in 33 EUNIS habitat types. Then we estimated the proportion of each of these habitat types in CORINE land-cover classes and calculated the level of invasion for each class. The highest levels of invasion were predicted for agricultural, urban and industrial land-cover types, low levels for natural and semi-natural grasslands and most woodlands, and the lowest levels for sclerophyllous vegetation, heathlands and peatlands. We projected the levels of invasion on the European land-cover map, extrapolating Catalonian data to the Mediterranean bioregion, Czech data to the Continental bioregion, British data to the British Isles, and combined Czech-British data to the Atlantic and Boreal bioregions. The resulting map predicted high level of invasion in lowland areas of the temperate zone of western and central Europe and low level in the boreal zone and mountain regions across the continent. Low level of invasion was also predicted in the Mediterranean region except its coastline and areas with irrigated agricultural land

Influence de l'effort d'échantillonnage sur l'évaluation de la diversité des coléoptères saproxyliques. Implications pour les suivis de biodiversité dans les forêts tempérées européennes

International audience1 Saproxylic beetle diversity monitoring provides a tool for estimating the efficiency of forest conservation measures. Flight interception traps are commonly employed to monitor beetle assemblages, although little explicit knowledge of the efficiency of this trapping method is available. 2 The present study investigated how slight changes in sampling effort can influence species richness and species composition of assemblages in data sets from standard window-flight traps. 3 At both trap and plot levels, an additional year or an additional trap provided a 50% increase in the number of species detected (a 75% increase for rare species) and resulted in a different estimated composition of the assemblages. Adding 2 or 3 years of sampling gave twice as many species and resulted in assemblages that were 50% dissimilar. Increases in the detection of species and the dissimilarity of assemblages were similarly affected along a gradient of forest conditions, suggesting that changes in sampling effort were not affected by forest condition. 4 At the forest level, year or trap replication provided smaller increases in species richness (31% and 25%, respectively). Within sites, distance measures in species composition between traps did not differ significantly when based on 1 or 2 years of data. Using two traps per plot compared with one trap influenced comparisons between stand types, based on species richness, in 25% of the cases. 5 Species detection was similarly increased by either year replication or trap replication. The results of the present study highlight the significant role played by finescale patterns of habitat structure and inter-annual variation with respect to determining catch size and assemblages of saproxylic species