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There is increasing demand for reliable, high-resolution vegetation maps covering large areas. Airborne laser scanning data is available for large areas with high resolution and supports automatic processing, therefore, it is well suited for habitat mapping. Lowland hay meadows are widespread habitat types in European grasslands, and also have one of the highest species richness. The objective of this study was to test the applicability of airborne laser scanning for vegetation mapping of different grasslands, including the Natura 2000 habitat type lowland hay meadows. Full waveform leaf-on and leaf-off point clouds were collected from a Natura 2000 site in Sopron, Hungary, covering OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2014, 6 8057 several grasslands. The LIDAR data were processed to a set of rasters representing point attributes including reflectance, echo width, vegetation height, canopy openness, and surface roughness measures, and these were fused to a multi-band pseudo-image. Random forest machine learning was used for classifying this dataset. Habitat type, dominant plant species and other features of interest were noted in a set of 140 field plots. Two sets of categories were used: five classes focusing on meadow identification and the location of lowland hay meadows, and 10 classes, including eight different grassland vegetation categories. For five classes, an overall accuracy of 75% was reached, for 10 classes, this was 68%. The method delivers unprecedented fine resolution vegetation maps for management and ecological research. We conclude that high-resolution full-waveform LIDAR data can be used to detect grassland vegetation classes relevant for Natura 2000.

The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept highlights the varied contributions the environment provides to humans and there are a wide range of methods/tools available to assess ES. However, in real-world decision contexts a single tool is rarely sufficient and methods must be combined to meet practitioner needs. Here, results from the OpenNESS project are presented to illustrate the methods selected to meet the needs of 24 real-world case studies and better understand why and how methods are combined to meet practical needs. Results showed that within the cases methods were combined to: i) address a range of ES; ii) assess both supply and demand of ES; iii) assess a range of value types; iv) reach different stakeholder groups v) cover weaknesses in other methods used and vi) to meet specific decision context needs. Methods were linked in a variety of ways: i) as input-output chains of methods; ii) through learning; iii) through method development and iv) through comparison/triangulation of results. The paper synthesises these case study-based experiences to provide insight to others working in practical contexts as to where, and in what contexts, different methods can be combined and how this can add value to case study analyses.

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world, while providing numerous essential ecosystem services (ES) to humans. Despite their importance, research on freshwater ecosystem services is limited. Here, we examine how freshwater studies could help to advance ES research and vice versa. We summarize major knowledge gaps and suggest solutions focusing on science and policy in Europe. We found several features that are unique to freshwater ecosystems, but often disregarded in ES assessments. Insufficient transfer of knowledge towards stakeholders is also problematic. Knowledge transfer and implementation seems to be less effective towards South-east Europe. Focusing on the strengths of freshwater research regarding connectivity, across borders, involving multiple actors can help to improve ES research towards a more dynamic, landscape-level approach, which we believe can boost the implementation of the ES concept in freshwater policies. Bridging these gaps can contribute to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU’s Green Deal.

Redox potential is a significant factor in aquatic systems to regulate the availability of nutrients and some metals. To assess the driving variables regulating redox potential, background parameters (dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, chlorophyll-a, soluble reactive and total phosphorus content of water, coverage and height of submerged macrophytes) and redox potential profiles around the sediment-water interface (SWI) were measured in simulated shallow lake ecosystems. There were two nutrient regimes (enriched and non-enriched) and three temperature scenarios (unheated; ?3.5°C; ?5°C) installed in the experimental setups, which were constructed to study the effects of global climate change. Temperature did not have any detectable effect on redox potentials, and we presume that nutrient addition had only indirect positive effects through triggering phytoplankton dominance which causes macrophyte absence. When submerged macrophytes were present in high density (80-100% coverage), redox potentials at the SWI varied between 60-215 mV and the mean redox potential was 133 ± 34 mV (mean ± 1 SD). In contrast to this, when phytoplankton dominance was coupled to low macrophyte density (0-20% coverage), the range of redox potentials at the SWI was 160-290 mV and the mean redox potential was 218 ± 34 mV. The results revealed the primary importance of submersed macrophytes; macrophyte coverage determined alone the redox potential of the sediment-water interface by 81%. This study suggests that possible positive effects of macrophytes on redox potential can be suppressed by their negative effects in case of 80-100% coverage and total inhabitation of the water column.