Risk of extinction of plant communities: Risk and assessment categories

Izco, Jesús

doi:10.1080/11263504.2014.1000998

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…This is particularly true now, as the attention of conservationists is increasingly being focused on evaluating not only species but also communities (e.g. habitats, biotopes, ecosystems, ecological communities: see Berg et al, 2014;Gigante, Buffa, Foggi, Venanzoni, & Viciani, 2013;Izco, 2015;Keith et al, 2013Keith et al, , 2015Kontula & Raunio, 2009;Nicholson et al, 2009;Rodríguez et al, 2011Rodríguez et al, , 2012. A methodological framework for monitoring conservation interest habitats in the Natura 2000 network is under construction, at the European (Evans & Arvela, 2011;Rodwell, Janssen, Gubbay, & Schaminée, 2013) and Italian level (Angelini et al, 2016;Gigante, Attorre, et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natura 2000 protected habitats, Massaciuccoli Lake (northern Tuscany, Italy)

et al. 2017

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The Massaciuccoli Lake (northern Tuscany, Italy) Natura 2000 habitat map (1:10,000) was compiled from photo-interpretation and recent phytosociological studies, integrated by field surveys of the vegetation units. Conventional geographical information system procedures were used to select and manage spatial information. The following attributes were assigned to each map polygon: (i) vegetation type, (ii) habitat typology and (iii) percentage cover of the habitat type. Habitat types covering polygons smaller than 50 m 2 were treated as points. A total of nine Natura 2000 habitat types were identified and mapped; they cover almost 20% of the study area. The results show that of all sites on the Italian peninsula, Lake Massaciuccoli Calcareous fens with Cladium mariscus covers the largest surface area and is crucial for the national conservation of this habitat type. It is also of priority importance in Europe.ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natura 2000 protected habitats, Massaciuccoli Lake (northern Tuscany, Italy)

et al. 2017

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“…CITES, 1973;European Commission, 2011;United Nations, 1976, 1992. The most challenging aspect stems from the complexity of biodiversity, that in itself comprises both multiple levels of organisation Despite the cutting edge importance of species Red Lists, the realisation that an approach focused exclusively on the species level is unfit to conserve all components of biodiversity led the scientific community, conservation professionals and institutions to be increasingly concerned with biodiversity assessments, addressing higher levels of biological organisation (Izco, 2015;Keith, 2009;Keith et al, 2013Keith et al, , 2015Kontula & Raunio, 2009;IUCN, 2015a;Nicholson, Keith, & Wilcove, 2009;Rodríguez et al, 2011Rodríguez et al, , 2012Rodríguez et al, , 2015. Ecological communities may more efficiently represent the biological diversity as a whole, compared to the species-level approach, which often lacks direct information about fundamental abiotic components, thus missing both the targets of protecting ecological patterns and processes, and ensuring the persistence of ecosystem functions and structure (Balmford et al, 2002;Cowling et al, 2004;Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005;Noss, 1996; Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Gigante

Foggi

Venanzoni

et al. 2016

Journal for Nature Conservation

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a b s t r a c tBesides species Red Lists, recently, a variety of frameworks have been proposed for assessing higher levels of biological organisation, i.e. ecosystems, habitats, plant communities. Most of these protocols refer to 'plant species assemblages' or 'vegetation types' as proxies for ecosystems or habitats. Indeed, the habitat concept based on plant communities has acquired a central role as a key approach for biodiversity conservation above the species level. Plant communities, like every complex biological system, hold scaledependent 'emergent' properties which vary as a function of the scale of observation. With reference to red-listing, these scale-dependent properties have far-reaching consequences for both identification and classification, as well as for representation and evaluation, and become particularly challenging when dealing with criteria regarding decline in distribution or restricted distribution. The recent discussion on the red-listing protocols has evidenced several aspects that claim special efforts for a suitable use. In the present paper, starting with the analysis of some recently proposed protocols for the red-listing of habitats and ecosystems, we discuss and test some 'emergent' properties of species assemblages, providing cues for reflection. Based on a variety of theoretical models and scientific outcomes in literature from the last decades, we theorise that plant communities own some intrinsic, ecologically based and scale-dependent spatial features, which give rise to different types of pattern of spatial occupancy. We discuss a model where, in natural conditions, the possible patterns of spatial occupancy are referred to 3 basic types: areal, linear and point. This approach is here proposed as a tool to discriminate among different broad categories of plant community-based habitat types and optimise their assessment in the red-listing process. Starting from a homogeneous data set, the proposed case studies prove that the choice of the scale affects the comprehension of the habitats' occurrence, with a substantial relapse on the estimates of their distribution size. In particular, habitats with linear and point distribution, often naturally small in size and dispersed, are more susceptible to biased evaluation of their actual distribution and consequently of their threat status. The intrinsic spatial attributes of plant communities should not be neglected in a red-listing process and claim for a 'habitat-tailored' approach. The use of different gridcell sizes and thresholds for the three main patterns of spatial occupancy here proposed, might certainly avoid inaccurate statements.

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“…The preferential link of a species to a particular alliance emphasizes the connection between conservation of a habitat and conservation of a species. In this way, the inclusion of alliances in lists of conservation interest provides improved protection, not merely for the plant communities themselves but also for their species (see Izco 2015).…”

Section: Ranunculus Trichophyllus and Callitriche Obtusangula)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some pioneer studies have recently been made in central Europe (Dengler et al 2005;Benson 2008;Berg et al 2014) for terrestrial communities. Very recently, research with conservation in mind, has focused on aquatic and/or hygrophilous plant communities in the Mediterranean areas (Benavent-González et al 2014;García-Madrid et al 2014;Izco 2015). These studies provide useful information on the ecological status of an area (Ferris & Humphrey 1999) and their Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 06:54 14 June 2016 2 C. Angiolini et al priority of natural and semi-natural habitats, with a special focus on those relating to wetlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Habitat conservation prioritization: A floristic approach applied to a Mediterranean wetland network

Angiolini

Viciani

Bonari

et al. 2016

Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all As

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The importance of plant communities for conservation purposes is recognized in their inclusion in the "Habitat Directive" (92/43 EEC), that relates habitat types to plant community syntaxonomic units. However, habitat definitions in the Habitat Directive lead to several inaccuracies in local habitat characterization. Several wetland plant communities (and their corresponding habitats), rare in the Mediterranean basin, are not included in the Habitat Directive. This study proposes criteria for assessing the conservation importance of habitats. It deals with plant community types at the alliance level, as promising units for setting conservation priorities. The principle criteria considered as drivers for setting alliance conservation values are the distribution and abundance of plant species of conservation interest and their fidelity to a plant community. Multivariate methods were used, and a quantitative floristic index of alliance conservation priority was created. This procedure was applied to an important wetland in central Italy. Results emphasize: (i) high conservation values of some alliances not listed in the Habitat Directive, confirming various gaps in the current conservation law affecting Mediterranean wetlands; (ii) that habitats widely distributed in other biogeographical areas, may greatly underestimate their conservation importance in Mediterranean region; (iii) need to consider regional peculiarities when setting conservation priorities.

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Risk of extinction of plant communities: Risk and assessment categories

Cited by 9 publications

References 38 publications

Natura 2000 protected habitats, Massaciuccoli Lake (northern Tuscany, Italy)

Natura 2000 protected habitats, Massaciuccoli Lake (northern Tuscany, Italy)

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Habitat conservation prioritization: A floristic approach applied to a Mediterranean wetland network

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