# WARSAW BIODIVERSITY INDEX – TOWARDS NEW URBAN BIODIVERSITY GOVERNANCE INSTRUMENTS

Gabriela Maksymiuk · Agata Cieszewska · Renata Giedych · Magdalena Błaszczyk · Agnieszka Gawłowska · Marzena Suchocka · Magdalena Wojnowska-Heciak · Piotr Sikorski

Warsaw University of Life Sciences

Biodiversity is a crucial factor for city resilience in times of climate change. The requirements of the environmental protection policy require the intensification of city's activities and efforts put towards the protection of biodiversity. Thus ultimately, the proposed Warsaw Biodiversity Index (WBI) is designed as a tool associated with the policy document – an Environmental Protection Programme, and it aims to serve as a self-assessment tool for the city to benchmark and monitor its progress in biodiversity conservation efforts. It is also intended to improve of the environmental protection management system by increasing the role of green infrastructure in the city's policy. The presented research was performed on commission of Capital City of Warsaw in 2021.

The point of departure for the research aimed at elaboration of a new city biodiversity governance instrument was the Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity. The research included an analysis of 6 European cities (i.e. Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallin, Brussels, Lisbon and Edinburgh) in regards to application of City Biodiversity Index and stages of its implementation. The conducted review allowed for selection of good practices on how to implement individual indicators. Next, for Warsaw case study, the resources, knowledge base and potential of City Biodiversity Index implementation have been studied.

In results, based on world experience, an expert model of Warsaw Biodiveristy Index has been developed that matches the specific conditions of capital city. The framework of the index comprises two parts: a profile of the city (providing background information) and 28 indicators measuring native biodiversity, ecosystem services and governance and management of biodiversity in the city. While developing the index's assumptions, particular attention was paid to environmental and social aspects, ecosystem services, and the management and implementation of urban policy. Based on the Warsaw actual resources, we recommended 12 indicators for implementation in the first stage, starting from 2022. These are among others: Change in Number of Native Bird Species, Institutional Capacity, Cross-sectoral and Inter-agency Collaborations, and Community Science.

The application of WBI allows for: depicting the biodiversity state and changes taking place over time, showing the gaps in the current knowledge that require further research and identifying problem areas that require action. It is a tool involving different actor groups, who can become players in governing city biodiversity.
# HOW GRASSLAND FARMERS RELATE TO BIODIVERSITY: A CASE STUDY FROM THE NORTHERN ITALIAN ALPS

Alma Maria Moroder · Maria Lee Kernecker

Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research

To successfully understand and shape biodiversity conservation in Alpine grasslands, it is crucial to understand what influences farmers’ actions. In this study, we explored how farmers perceive and value biodiversity, how this is related to agricultural and land use practices, and how they view themselves affecting it. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 farmers of three municipalities in the northern Italian Alps and with 6 experts in the fields of grassland management, agriculture, and environmental conservation in 2020. The farmers’ answers were analyzed and interpreted using a mental model approach, relational thinking, and the literature on the ‘good farmer’. We found that the farmers’ different mental models of biodiversity are associated to different aspects of agricultural management practices and symbolic meaning of farmers’ roles in mountain agricultural landscapes. Instrumental values of biodiversity are negative and strongly perceived as such by farmers, while relational values associated with biodiversity are positive, but more weakly perceived. We found these differing and somewhat opposing perceptions and values to be associated with two roles that farmers have, as both producers and landscape stewards, and how they value fodder quantity and quality. Furthermore, we found that most farmers don’t include considerations related to the conservation of biodiversity in their management decisions, and mostly do not envision any changes in biodiversity or management in the future. Effective biodiversity conservation in Alpine grasslands will therefore need to tap into these dual roles and the associated instrumental and relational values of biodiversity for a meaningful dialogue on conservation.

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# MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT FOR SMALL ISLAND ECOSYSTEMS: CASE OF POLILLO ISLANDS SEASCAPE

Leajim Villanueva¹ · Ma. Victoria Espaldon² · Inocencio Buot, Jr.² · Agnes Rola² · Sheila Vergara³ · Dante Vergara²

¹University of the Philippines · ²University of the Philippines Los Baños · ³ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity

Small Islands Ecosystems (SIE) are physically secluded areas surrounded by water measuring no more than 10,000 km² and 500,000 or fewer residents (Hess, 1990). SIE's resulting limitations on space, resources, products, and services (Wong et al., 2005; Balzan et al., 2018) influence ecosystem services which are important for human well-being. SIEs are important as sites for settlements of communities and as strongholds for threatened flora and fauna. It serves as a habitat to more than 10% of the world's population or 650 million people (Petzold, Magnan, 2019) and is considered as biologically important sites.

The management of islands in an archipelagic nation such as the Philippines is a significant issue. In a country composed of 7461 islands with a land area of approximately 300,000 km² (Licuanan et al., 2018), the role of islands and islets for community habitation is evident. One of the country's small island ecosystems vulnerable to anthropogenic threats is the Polillo Islands. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of population structures and distribution on the seascape condition of Polillo Islands, describe the influences of institutional setup and political structures and dynamics on the management of the seascape of Polillo Islands; describe the change in provisioning ecosystem services from the seascape environment; and propose a management framework for island ecosystems using the case of Polillo Islands. Tools to characterize landscape and ecosystem services changes, and the influences of a changing population, institutional and political structures are utilized to contribute to the development of a management framework that would capture the management interventions addressing the unique characteristics of this ecosystem. The role of governance at different levels highlighting its influences on agenda setting and priority programs implementation was identified as one of the key influences that determine the changes to the seascape environment.

Balzan M.V. et al. (2018). *Assessing the capacity and flow of ecosystem services in multifunctional landscapes: Evidence of a rural-urban gradient in a Mediterranean small island state*. Land Use Policy, 75: 711-725.

Hess A.L. (1990). *Overview: Sustainable Development and Environmental Management of Small Islands*. In: W.B.P. D'Ayala and P. Hein (Eds.), Sustainable Development and Environmental Management of Small Islands (pp. 3-14). Paris: UNESCO.

Licuanan et al. (2018). *The Philippines*. In: Ch. Sheppard (Ed.), World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation Volume II: The Indian Ocean to the Pacific (Second Edi). United Kingdom: Academic Press.

Petzold J., Magnan A.K. (2019). *Climate change: thinking small islands beyond Small Island Developing States (SIDS)*. Climatic Change, 152: 145-165.

Wong P.P. et al. (2005). *Island systems*. In: R. Hassan et al. (Eds.), Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends: findings of the Condition and Trends Working Group, vol. 1 (pp. 663-680). Washington: Island Press.
# 'Half Europe': where and how can biodiversity conservation be achieved in the Anthropocene?

## Symposium organisers

Emilio Padoa-Schioppa (University of Milano-Bicocca), Claudia Canedoli (University of Milano-Bicocca), Ioannis Vogiatzakis (Open University of Cyprus)

## Summary

The symposium aims to start from the provocative work of E.O. Wilson, and try to analyze the state of the art of the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe. In particular, we want to understand how far we are from the targets of EU biodiversity strategy of 2030. The symposium we give priority to fragile landscapes such as small islands, mountain areas and roadless areas.

## Description

Living in a geological epoch, which is by now referred to as the Anthropocene we are witnessing the magnitude of the negative effects of human activities on both biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Recently some of the lead ecologists of our times advocated urgent measures to halt biodiversity loss, like the controversial proposal of conserving half of the Planet. Inspired by the idea that we need more spaces for biodiversity conservation to reverse the trend of increasing habitat loss, this symposium seeks for studies that examine the current situation of Europe. In particular: which are the most important areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe? At what level is our knowledge about them? Which are the methods and techniques to identify biodiversity and ES crucial area today? Having missed the 2020 deadline, can we realistically achieve the targets set by the new EU biodiversity strategy for 2030?

Besides identifying important biodiversity and ES areas, there is a need to identify conservation initiatives and practices which take into account the natural and social context, in order to identify the best ones (parks, protected landscapes, or other forms of conservation). Thus, additional topics of discussion include the following: What is the current know-how that we have implemented? Which are the different forms of biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation existing today, and what is their contribution? What can we say about the limitations or advantages of these conservation forms we have been applying?

Finally, given that Europe is characterized by high population density and a high degree of urbanization, an important aspect is reserved for the coexistence of nature conservation and humans presence and needs.

This symposium welcomes studies that bring new ideas to the assessment, monitoring and mapping of biodiversity or ES in Europe, European countries and regions. It will present case-studies of biodiversity and ES conservation in Europe, discuss advantages and limitations of different measures and techniques of biodiversity and ES conservation, explore the relationships with society in terms of supporting, impeding or being affected by nature conservation measures and initiatives. The symposium we give priority to fragile landscapes such as small islands, mountain areas and roadless areas.

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# IF OTHER ANIMALS CAN DEFINE THE COUNTRYSIDE, ARE THEY “NATURE”?

Aleksandra Ćwik-Mohanty

University of Warsaw

The paper explores the place of non-human animals in defining rurality while acknowledging the evolution of this role. AMO and Rem Koolhaas define countryside as “the 98% of the earth's surface not occupied by cities”. The perception might be criticized for not giving enough justice to the nuances of non-urban landscapes. However, it is close to accurate if the criteria for defining the landscape's character are based on the subjectivity of their non-human dwellers. The same approach blurs the line between cities and countryside; hence this paper focuses on rural areas in Poland as elements of the countryside and their evolution in embracing the presence of animals.

Suppose the role of animals in landscape formation is visualized on a tinted line. In that case, it is the most intense where human intervention is the strongest and nearly invisible where non-humans dominate. Rural areas would be in the middle, with landscapes shared between humans, pets, farm animals, and wild species. Nonetheless, which of the mentioned belong to nature? The paper analyses the position of rural animals in three aspects, from the most exploitative to the one which seemingly places animals at the center of a farm's functioning: industrial farming, traditional farming, tourist-oriented educational farms (Zagroda Edukacyjna). By linking the presence of animals in each type of landscape with other natural components and the reciprocated relationship with a human, the author will establish a typology of animals as rural landscapes defining factors and juxtapose them with other numerous methods to define rurality. The basic premise is that natural components are mutually dependent. The more human-dependent rural animals are (in the popular portrayal), the more objectified assets they become. However, the natural versus temporal asset dichotomy lacks animals' subjective rather than passive participation expressed in their capacity to define the landscape and their reciprocated role toward humans.

The study is a part of the author's doctoral research project, focusing on thematic villages and eco-museums in Poland. The study describes factors that propelled rural dwellers to engage in tourism, such as cultural heritage, peripheral location, and their relationship with the landscape. Methods that contribute to the poster include a literature review and case studies, and a national survey among owners of educational farms (officially referred to as Zagrody Edukacyjne).

The conclusion is pertinent to the panel's theme. It attempts to foresee the consequences of landscape ecology, which does not include animals as its natural (as opposed to human) component, but a proportionate piece. Results emphasize animal welfare in landscape ecology, often linked to social sciences with their human-centered approach.

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# WILDERNESS VS. CULTURALNESS: OPPOSING CONCEPTS OR COMPLEMENTARY SCHEMES?

Panayotis Dimopoulos · Ioannis P. Kokkoris

University of Patras

Areas of intact nature are in practice absent in the western part of the world, while most landscapes, especially in the Mediterranean region, are characterized by human induced land uses and cultural landscapes. By this, wilderness areas, seem to be limited or should be redefined, based on current reference environmental conditions, and identified trends. Roadless areas have already been proposed as regions of significant importance in terms of limited human access and disturbance. However, wilderness areas should include more attributes to be characterized as such. Simultaneously, wilderness and culturalness areas co-exist in spatial and management terms, in EU and national Environmental Strategies, guiding the need for an integrated approach for nature conservation and human well-being. In Europe, the Natura 2000 network is institutionalized to provide protection and support conservation priorities for species and habitats, including areas of unique natural environments, fragile ecosystems, as well as areas occupied by human activity and infrastructure. In Greece, where the landscape approach has been followed to delineate Natura 2000 boundaries, wilderness and culturalness co-exist in management and policy decisions, even if not clearly described in qualitative, quantitative, and spatial terms.

Main goals of our study are to identify (1) wilderness areas in Greece, inside and outside the Natura 2000 network, (2) wilderness hotspots and the patterns with cultural areas. Spatial data have been used for topographical characteristics, human land uses to identify and classify remote areas (remoteness), important plant species (endemics, local endemics, range-restricted, endangered) and habitat types of EU and national importance (e.g., endemic habitats such as *Abies cephalonica* forests). The already developed culturalness map of the Natura 2000 sites in Greece has been used and updated for the recently added Natura 2000 sites.

Our present analysis provides a national map of wilderness and culturalness areas, with hierarchical classification based on the characteristics of each wilderness area, and spatial correlation analysis with cultural areas. Moreover, the overlap with the Greek Natura 2000 sites identifies potential areas in need of attention for conservation outside the Natura 2000 network. Based on these results, a baseline assessment is provided to support decision making and to be considered in future development needs, biodiversity, and landscape conservation, as well as in the zonation drafting of the future, special management studies for the Natura 2000 network in Greece. Moreover, the results highlight that even human uses and pressure is more intense than ever before, there is still an opportunity to safeguard invaluable landscapes and resources that sustainably support a variety of ecosystem services and thus, human well-being.
# THE POTENTIAL OF NATURA 2000 AND AREA-BASED CONSERVATION FOR ENHANCING FUNCTIONAL FARMLAND BIODIVERSITY

Francesca Libera Falco¹ · Tamar Dayan¹ · Eran Feitelson²

¹Tel Aviv University · ²Hebrew University of Jerusalem

European farmed landscapes host a number of species intimately associated with and contributing to agricultural production through the provision of crucial ecosystem services. However, their habitat is rapidly deteriorating due to agricultural intensification and abandonment of marginal land, a tendency that the EU CAP and its set of mostly farm-based environmental measures have tackled ineffectively to date. This study focuses on farmed Natura 2000 protected sites to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of area-based conservation measures in preserving and enhancing high-quality habitat for functional farmland biodiversity (FFB).

The Natura 2000 network covers 10.6% of the total EU agricultural land. It should be noted that Natura 2000 aims to protect Europe's threatened species and ecosystems, not focussing specifically on FFB. Thus, specific EU-wide studies on its effects on the agroecosystem are lacking. On QGIS, we selected all farmed Natura 2000 sites that include the three EU CORINE land cover classes where farmed landscapes have the highest heterogeneity, presence of natural and semi-natural areas and exclude intensively managed land, using such selection as an indicator for high-quality FFB habitat. We then created our control group using buffer areas of 5 km around the selected sites and we ran a fixed-effects model to estimate how the area covered by the selected classes changed over time inside and outside the protected sites, before and after their designation.

The results – which make explicit the initial differences between protected and buffer sites – are extremely clear. They show a general negative trend over the years in control sites, both in terms of hectares and percentage of high-quality FFB habitat. In contrast, designation as a Natura 2000 site appears to halt such decline, with the strongest effects after few years from the designation. Running the same model on sites designated earlier shows an anticipated similar trend, in accordance and confirming the theoretical expectations.

Although Natura 2000 is still underperforming with regard to its targeted species and habitats, our study shows a significant positive effect on high-quality FFB habitat, in contrast with the recent evaluations of the EU CAP measures. Differently from the latter, Natura 2000 is area-based and applies consistent conservation standards at the landscape-scale on a non-voluntary basis for farmers, supported by economic compensations. The collective engagement of neighbouring farmers may also play a role in the effectiveness of the measure, as a leading force in creating environmental stewardship. In the context of the new CAP and national Strategic Plans, our study suggests to rely and invest more on the synergy with the Natura 2000 network as well as to extend as much as possible the main characteristics of the area-based approach to the new array of CAP measures.

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# VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AT THE LANDSCAPE LEVEL FOR SPATIAL PLANNING

Damian Łowicki · Małgorzata Stępniewska · Andrzej Mizgajski

Adam Mickiewicz University

The study aims to present the possibility of assessment and mapping of ecosystem services taking into account the benefits, not from individual ecosystems, but their pattern in space. This approach is based on the paradigm that the structure of the landscape determines its functions. This approach can be used not only to assess the functions of ecosystems, but also the benefits that humans derive from them, i.e. ecosystem services. The analysis of ecosystem services at the landscape level is particularly important in the assessment of regulating services, especially where the service carrier is mobile. This applies, for example, to the migration of pollutants or pollinators between different ecosystems. This approach makes it much easier to apply the results in practice, especially in spatial planning. The study shows the use of a landscape approach to assess and map several regulating ecosystem services at the local and national scale, taking into account services demand and supply and their interrelationships, potentially increasing the bundle of ecosystem services.

*The study is a part of project "Services provided by main types of ecosystems in Poland – an applied approach" received funding from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway within the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.*
# VALUING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AND BIODIVERSITY IN NATURAL PROTECTED AREAS: THE CASE STUDY OF THE GRAN PARADISO NATIONAL (ITALY)

Emilio Padoa-Schioppa¹ · Claudia Canedoli¹ · Noemi Rota¹ · Ioannis Vogiatzakis²

¹University of Milano-Bicocca · ²Open University of Cyprus

Ecosystem services have become an important tool for analysing landscapes and building cost-benefit scenarios for decision-makers. Identifying, quantifying, mapping and evaluating ecosystem services requires specific study and analysis methods, integrating the use of models and data collection in the field and new technologies (eDNA, drones, etc.).

The aim of this communication is to identify, by means of a number of case studies, what the current prospects are for estimating the ecosystem services of a given territory, and how this quantification can contribute to determining the territory's identity and prospects. A first study analyses in detail the carbon stored in a protected area (Gran Paradiso National Park). Here we can see that the study obtained through extensive field data collection allows for more precise mapping than national inventories. The use of eDNA (environmental DNA), again in the Gran Paradiso National Park, has made it possible to better describe the biodiversity and fauna of some alpine habitats, and to relate them to the characteristics of the vegetation, soil and local topography.

The results allow some important guidelines to be identified:

1. it is necessary to complete the knowledge of the European biodiversity, expanding the libraries for metabarcoding;

2. it is necessary to continue and deepen the study on the role of single taxonomic units in providing ecosystem services;

3. field analyses require a considerable effort, in terms of time and energy. They require more detail, but then allow for more precise spatial definition and can help to build more refined models.

For landscape ecology, the results obtained from this type of analysis on the one hand allow a better overall management strategy for the landscape (which patches to keep as they are, which to direct towards a different stage...); on the other hand, they propose a problem typical of our discipline, i.e. the change of scale (technically up-scaling by moving from a local dimension to a larger one).

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# SOIL BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION: EVALUATION OF THE ALPINE EDAPHIC SOIL FAUNA USING eDNA METABARCODING

Noemi Rota¹ · Claudia Canedoli¹ · Chiara Ferrè¹ · Gentile Francesco Ficetola² · Alessia Guerrieri² · Emilio Padoa-Schioppa¹

¹University of Milano-Bicocca · ²University of Milan

Despite the fundamental role in ensuring many ecosystem functions, soil biodiversity is still poorly known, due to the time-consuming methods and difficulties in the classification. This lack of knowledge is one of the threatening factors for pedofauna conservation. Thus, there is an urgent need to study and comprehend the edaphic fauna communities, both because of their intrinsic relevance and their role in the provisioning of ecosystem services. This work aims to provide a description of the alpine edaphic fauna using environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, hence identifying correlations with environmental features.

The study area is the Gran Paradiso National Park, an alpine protected area situated in Italy and the oldest National Park of the Italian territory. Alpine areas are one of the most vulnerable environments regarding the effects of climate change. A total of 122 plots was investigated with a stratified random plot sampling scheme, also we collected soil and vegetation samples, and we described the study area features. Environmental features were described as soil features (pH in water, soil organic carbon, total carbon and nitrogen, humus forms) and tree vegetation features (heigh, species, DBH, biodiversity indexes). The eDNA metabarcoding analyses detected 18 families of Arthropods, expressed as the frequency of sequences.

Generally, the most representative taxa were Isotomidae, Entomobryidae, and Hypogastruridae, whereas depending on the habitat examined differences in the community composition of arthropods were recorded. Mixed coniferous forests were mostly composed of Isotomidae, Entomobriydae, Hypogastruridae, and Onychiuridae, while Isotomidae, Cicadidae, Culicidae, and Neelidae were the most representative of mixed deciduous forests. Acidic and calcicolous forests resulted in other families, such as Scarabaeidae, Curculionidae, Brachyceridae. A Canonical Component Analysis (CCA) was carried on to detect the correlations between soil edaphic communities and environmental features. Coniferous and deciduous forests communities were correlated with site features (altitude), soil features (organic layers and organic carbon stock), and vegetation features (presence of mixed deciduous forest, tree basal area, tree biomass, Shannon index), interestingly grasslands were also correlated with soil pH and slope. This work attempted to take a first step towards the description of the complex composition of soil fauna communities. Environmental needs resulted as the driver of changes across the habitats, even though the cause-effect relationship between the correlations found still have to be studied. The comprehension of the interactions between the soil fauna and the environment will lead to the understanding of ecosystem functions and services. Eventually, once an exhaustive description of the soil biodiversity will be developed, specific and highly effective biodiversity conservation actions can be achieved.
# SODA ASH DUMPING GROUNDS: ARE THEY ATTRACTIVE HABITATS FOR BEES AND WASPS (ACULEATA)?

Lucyna Twerd

Kazimierz Wielki University

Protection of anthropogenic habitats is a major problem of nature conservation now. In spite of the more and more often reported high environmental value of some types of post-industrial wastelands, so far they have been rarely used as areas that can support biodiversity.

The study was conducted in 2007-2010 at sites located on the investigations were conducted in soda ash wastelands that were still in use and unique in Poland, owned by Soda Polska CIECH sp. z o.o., with two soda ash facilities: Soda Mąty in Inowrocław (52°45′17.03″N, 18°14′16.00″E) and Janikosoda in Janikowo in Poland. Highly saline, alkaline and moist solid waste and industrial wastewater are disposed of and hydraulically drained into sedimentation basins in areas next to the factory sites. The waste heaps are up to 16 m high. In total, the dump sites cover ca. 100 ha in Inowrocław and ca. 125 ha in Janikowo. The vegetation in Inowrocław is subject to ecological succession, whereas most of the filled waste beds in Janikowo have been subject to bioremediation.

Field research was conducted in 20 permanent plots in areas affected by sodium industry. Insects were collected in coloured pan traps in 3 types of microhabitats reflecting stages of plant succession.

The attractiveness of Solvay waste beds was assessed on the basis of contributions of selected groups of the Aculeata: Apiformes (bees), Spheciformes (sphecoid wasps), and Chrysididae (cuckoo wasps). In total, during the study period, 251 species of these groups were recorded, represented by 16,867 individuals. In respect of species richness, contributions of these groups was similar in both study areas: bees accounted for 60%, sphecoid wasps for about 20%, and cuckoo wasps for 12%. Differences concerned primarily their abundance. In the area of Soda-Mąty, percentage contributions of bees and chrysidid cleptoparasites were comparable. In contrast, in the area of Janikosoda, the contribution of bees to total abundance was the highest (about 43%). Results of this study provide valuable tips for managers of Solvay-based chemical plants. Proper use of post-industrial wastelands will allow maintenance of their biodiversity and protection of many groups of organisms, while meeting the standards of environmental protection.

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# ADEQUACY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NATURA 2000 NETWORK IN CYPRUS

Charalambos Christodoulou¹ · Geoffrey Griffiths² · Ioannis Vogiatzakis³

¹Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment · ²University of Reading · ³Open University of Cyprus

The aim of the work was to evaluate whether the Natura 2000 network (N2K) provides adequate and effective protection for the threatened plants of Cyprus. Relying on principles of systematic conservation planning (SCP) and Marxan software, priority areas for the conservation of 252 taxa were identified using two scenarios: (1) the Annex II species of the Habitats Directive (19 taxa), and, (2) all Red Data Book species (RDB). For each scenario, four variations were examined based on varying the cost of implementation (cost surface) and the boundary length of the reserve network (Boundary Length Modifier). Conservation gaps were identified mainly outside state forest land in the area under the effective control of the Cyprus Government (CYGCA). Within this area the existing N2K network fails to achieve the specified targets for the RDB species under both scenarios. The total area required to satisfy the targets ranged from 2.23 to 5.46% of the area of the island. Solutions with uniform (area) cost achieve targets for the lowest cost but have the smallest overlap with the existing N2K network (52.5-60.3%). Solutions with variable cost achieve significantly higher overlap with N2K (72.9-75.9%). Scenario variations with variable cost result in a considerably higher proportion of irreplaceable planning units (PUs), and promote clustering without using BLM. Applying BLM reduces fragmentation and increases the number of irreplaceable PUs in both scenarios. The analysis identified 60 hotspots of threatened species of which 34 are within N2K (only for CYGCA). The overlap of irreplaceable PUs with hotspots is moderate (26 out of 60) but high with the rarest species (64% of irreplaceable PUs contain 50% of the occurrences of Critically Endangered species). Results corroborate that state-owned land can provide protection to most threatened species, but there is also a need to designate reserves in privately owned areas to protect many threatened species. The identification of conservation gaps combined with the independent selection of sites through a transparent and repeatable process will assist the competent authorities to designate new sites as part of a comprehensive and resilient reserve network.
# POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CURRENT SPITSBERGEN LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT

Wiesław Ziaja · Wojciech Maciejowski

Jagiellonian University

The Arctic landscapes and seascapes develop quickly due to intensive climate warming since the end of the 20th century. There is a wide ecological literature on negative results of this process. Hardly anybody of ecologists described its positive aspects. Our aim is to show them in Spitsbergen. What are the positive environmental phenomena under the global change? Surely, an increase in biodiversity and a bigger absorption of carbon dioxide by plants in photosynthesis belong to them.

Ice ablation – and thus glaciers' recession – is the first result of the warming. Hence, extensive areas were abandoned by glaciers. Afterwards, new landscapes and seascapes developed there. On deglaciated areas above the sea level, new landforms and deposits as well as water bodies have been formed and colonized by animals, followed by plant succession and soil formation. Many ice-freed areas on the coasts were inundated by the sea and colonized by marine biota.

Our field investigations were carried out in three areas representative for different parts of the island: central Spitsbergen, its SW coast, and its SE coast.

In central Spitsbergen, the inland mountain glaciers were thinned and shortened. Some of them are just in the process of transformation from valley glaciers into cirque or slope (hanging) glaciers. Areas abandoned by them became new mountain slopes or marginal zones built mainly of moraines (frontal and lateral) and sandurs on dead ice. They undergo a further transformation, including plant succession from a rich tundra nearby. Also on the mountain slopes, the upper limit of plants has been raised.

Some areas on the unglaciated SW coast (in Sørkapp Land), devoid of plant cover due to severe climatic conditions previously, have begun to overgrow with plants since the 1980s. The upper limit of plants is slowly going up in mountains. Unfortunately, the regeneration of reindeer herd (after extermination by trappers) from ca. 0 in the 1980s to ca. 170 in 2008 led to overgrazing.

The SE coast has extensively released from glaciers since the end of the 20th century (apart from bays' heads). Afterwards, animal colonization and plant succession (from small areas fertilized by birds) have begun. E.g., on the coast's part surveyed by us (ca. 15 km long), only 14 bird species (6 of them nesting) were found in 2005 and 2 new species appeared in 2016; the number of vascular plant species increased from 15 in 2005 to 18 in 2016. Numerous new plant patches appeared after 2005. A desert, prevailing in this coast, is just at the beginning of transformation into a high Arctic tundra.

Summing up: biodiversity of the island increases quickly, wilderness is becoming less glacial and more biotic; absorption of carbon dioxide by plants is bigger but still small; and all the described transformation will led to a new landscape if the current warming continues.

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# Road ecology in times of rapid road construction:
## Recent advances and growing challenges

### Symposium organisers

Jochen Jaeger (Concordia University), Wenche Dramstad (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research)

### Summary

The current rate of construction of transport infrastructure on the planet is astonishing. Roads and railways have many negative effects on wildlife populations, e.g., road mortality, barriers to movement, reduced connectivity, loss of roadless areas, the spread of invasive species. Road mitigation measures are urgently needed.

The symposium will address questions such as:

* What is the state of the art in road mitigation measures?

* How effective are they? Are wildlife passages or wildlife fences more important?

* What study designs, are effective at evaluating mitigation measures?

### Description

Roads and railroads have become ubiquitous features in landscapes around the world. The current rate of ongoing and planned road construction is unprecedented and has been termed a 'global infrastructure tsunami'. A major example is the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) launched by China in 2013, which involves a large-scale expansion of land transportation infrastructure. The negative effects of roads on wildlife include road mortality, barriers to movement, habitat loss, subdivision of populations into smaller and less viable sub-populations, pollution (noise, light, chemicals), loss of roadless areas, the spread of invasive species, and easier access for poachers, among many others. To address this rapidly growing problem, better mitigation measures and more robust knowledge about their effectiveness is urgently needed, in particular at the population level, and for the protection of remaining roadless areas. Otherwise, the installation of mitigation measures is likely to be used as an excuse to justify road construction everywhere, including sensitive areas of high biodiversity, while in fact the effectiveness of these mitigation measures is highly questionable. Road ecology will need to better connect with connectivity conservation.

The symposium will address the following questions, among others: What are the thresholds in the effects of road density on wildlife populations? How long are response times of wildlife populations to the construction of new roads? What is the state of the art in road mitigation measures? How effective are they? Are wildlife passages or wildlife fences more important? How long should wildlife fences be? How does the fence-end effect depend on fence length? To what degree do animals use existing crossings structures under roads, and how does their use depend on human activity levels? What study designs, monitoring schemes, and measurement endpoints will be effective at evaluating road mitigation measures?

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# EFFECTS OF ROAD LIGHTING ON INSECTS: ASSESSING THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE AND VEGETATION STRUCTURE ALONG ROADS IN NORWAY

Ulrike Bayr · Nina S. Johansen

Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Light pollution has become a growing concern in many developed countries as a result of a strong urban development throughout the past century. Artificial street lighting contributes to this issue and is known to have diverse effects on habitats that are located close to roads. In this regard, nocturnal insects are particular exposed due to their strong sensitivity for light. Recent research has shown that light pollution is a major driver of declines in global insect populations. However, insects represent a large and diverse organism group which responds very differently on artificial light. Moreover, only few experiences exist about the effects of road lighting under arctic and sub-arctic conditions.

The aim of our study was to get an overview of the extent of this problem in Norway. For this purpose, we review the general effects of artificial road lighting on insects. In addition, a geospatial analysis along main roads in Norway is performed to identify the most vulnerable habitat types and which insect species are observed in those based on national register data. In this regard, a strong focus lies on understanding the role of landscape and vegetation structure along roads for the visibility of road lighting over large distances. Finally, we discuss the potential of different practical and technical solutions that may reduce the negative impacts on insects. Results from this study are intended to increase the general knowledge on the effects of artificial lighting on insects in northern latitudes. Moreover, it provides a basis for making more targeted recommendations to policymakers and authorities on which mitigation measures might have the largest potential to counteract further declines in insect populations.
CAN ACOUSTIC STIMULI BE USED TO REDUCE UNGULATE-TRAIN COLLISIONS?
RESULTS OF A BEHAVIOURAL EXPERIMENT

Manisha Bhardwaj¹ · Denice Lodnert² · Mattias Olsson³ · Aina Winsvold⁴ · Svein Morten Eilertsen⁵ · Andreas Seiler²

¹University of Freiburg · ²Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences · ³EnviroPlanning AB · ⁴University Centre Dragvoll · ⁵Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Ungulate-train collisions can cost millions of euros each year in loss of life, distress, damages, and delays. Reducing collisions risks is a high priority for many transportation agencies and railway companies, however cost-effective solutions are not yet widely available or implemented. In order to develop such tools, we build on previous research that suggests early warning of an oncoming train can induce flight in wildlife in time to reduce the risk of collisions. Early warning through acoustic stimuli, particularly stimuli associated with predation may be most effective, as a natural anti-predatory behaviour in prey species is to flee.

To test this hypothesis, we created a two-phase experiment. In the first phase, we conducted controlled behaviour experiments in which investigated the behavioural response of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and moose (Alces alces) to acoustic stimuli. In before-during-after-control-impact experiments, we compared the likelihood of roe deer and moose to flee from: (1) predatory stimuli associated with hunting, (2) non-predatory stimuli such as bird calls and novel sounds, and (3) silent controls.

We found that predatory stimuli elicited flight in roe deer and moose more often and more consistently than non-predatory stimuli or silent controls. Roe deer fled in 42% of cases when predatory stimuli were used, 23% of the cases when non-predatory stimuli were used and 23% of the cases when no stimuli were used. Moose showed similar results, and fled in 60% of cases when predatory stimuli were used, 39% of the cases when non-predatory stimuli were used, and 13% of the time when no stimuli were used. We also found a slower rate of habituation towards predatory stimuli, and a longer time to return to sites after such stimuli were displayed. These findings suggest that acoustic stimuli can be used to modify the behaviour of roe deer and moose, and motivate them to leave a site and stay away temporarily. In the next phase of the project, we test the same stimuli at railways and evaluate their effectiveness to reduce the rates of collisions.

<figure><img src="image_65.png" /></figure>
UNGULATES AND TRAINS – FACTORS INFLUENCING FLIGHT RESPONSES AND
DETECTABILITY

Manisha Bhardwaj¹ · Mattias Olsson² · Emma Håkansson² · Pär Söderström³ · Andreas Seiler⁴

¹University of Freiburg · ²EnviroPlanning AB · ³SJ AB, Rolling Stock Division · ⁴Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Collisions between wildlife and trains can result in loss of life, damages, scheduling delays and psychological distress, amounting to societal costs exceeding millions of euros annually. To manage and reduce the ecological and socio-economic impacts of wildlife-train conflicts, many transport agencies across the globe invest in strategies to prevent collisions. Strategies often include fencing; however, railway networks are rarely completely fenced due to cost and technical restrictions, and wildlife inevitably come onto the tracks. Thus, alternative methods of collision-prevention must be developed. However, the mechanisms behind collisions are currently poorly understood, and this has a limiting effect on the successful development of mitigation strategies. To address this gap in knowledge, we explored two major mechanisms of wildlife-train collisions: the response of wildlife to oncoming trains and the detection of wildlife by drivers.

In this study, we used dashboard cameras to explore the response of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and moose (Alces alces) to oncoming trains. We investigated their flight behaviour according to the use of warning signals and train speed, and explored which factors, such as lighting and physical obstructions, affect their detection by drivers. In a majority of cases, roe deer and moose fled from an oncoming train, at an average flight initiation distance (FID) of 78 m and 79 m respectively. Warning signals had controversial influences on flight behaviour. Use of warning signals induced earlier flight in roe deer, which fled on average 44 m further from the train when warned. However, this induced flight was usually in the direction of danger and towards the train. FID of moose was unaffected by the use of a warning horn. As train speed increased, moose had a lower FID, but roe deer FID did not change. Finally, detection of wildlife was predominately obstructed by the vegetation and terrain in the rail-side verge, which could increase the risk of collisions.

Our results indicate the need for early detection and warning of wildlife to reduce the risk of collisions. We propose detection systems should include thermal cameras to allow detection behind vegetation and in the dark, and warning systems should use acoustic cue to warn of an oncoming train earlier and allow wildlife to escape the railway corridor safely.

<figure><img src="image_66.png" /></figure>
# ARE OLFACTORY REPELLENTS REASONABLE ALTERNATIVES TO FENCING ALONG SECONDARY ROADS IN PREVENTION OF UNGULATE-VEHICLE COLLISIONS?

Michal Bíl

Transport Research Centre

Traffic crashes of motor vehicles with ungulates (UVC) are a safety issue in many European countries where wild ungulates (e.g., roe deer, wild boar) live in large populations. Many preventive measures, in relation to safety of drivers, have been applied along primary roads. Fences, which aim at preventing ungulates from entering a road, are among the most widely used. Their construction and maintenance are, however, costly and time consuming. Overall costs are further increased when underpasses or even overpasses are built in order to secure landscape connectivity.

Secondary roads with lower traffic volumes and speed, than those usually measured on primary roads and motorways, are also places where UVC occur. Due to their extent and rather low benefit when compared to costs of fences accompanied by underpasses or overpasses, effective and affordable measures are needed for these roads.

Olfactory repellents (OR) are widely applied in many European countries in order to prevent UVC. OR are chemical substances, usually injected into a foam and placed on sticks installed with spacing of approximately 10 m along the riskiest road sections. The problem is that these measures have only rarely been reliably tested. Its effectiveness, in terms of roadkill (as well as traffic crash) reduction, have usually not been based on sound data and robust study designs. The majority of data and results come from either OR producers or local wildlife managers who only applied before-after study designs at best.

Over the last five years, we studied OR effectiveness using two approaches: the change in the number of carcasses (Bíl et al., 2018) and changes in roe deer behaviour near roads (Bíl et al., 2020). Whereas the first study, based on the Before-After-Control-Impact approach, showed the UVC reduction between 26-43%, the second approach, where we studied roe deer behaviour, indicated no clear effect of OR.

We began this year with a large-scale three-year study on Czech roads focused on OR effectiveness. During the first year, ungulate carcasses will be monitored at 133 places along the secondary roads (at both case and control sections). OR will be applied during the next year to case profiles only. Finally, the evaluation of the OR effectiveness will be evaluated. Together with this study, ungulate behaviour will be determined for several individuals equipped with GPS collars, at profiles where OR will be alternately applied. We also plan, as part of this study, to perform a cost benefit analysis related to OR costs and expected effectiveness.

Bíl M. et al. (2018). *An Evaluation of Odor Repellent Effectiveness in Prevention of Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions*. J. Environ. Manage., 205: 209-214.

Bíl M. et al. (2020). *No clear effect of odour repellents on roe deer behaviour in the vicinity of roads*. Wildlife Biol, 20(4): 1-11.

<figure><img src="image_67.png" /></figure>
SPATIO-TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF WILDLIFE-VEHICLE COLLISIONS IN THE POLISH CARPATHIANS BETWEEN 2015 AND 2021

Wojciech Haska · Michał Jakiel

Jagiellonian University

The rapid development of linear infrastructures worldwide, resulting in an increased landscape fragmentation and habitat loss. One of the most important direct impacts on wildlife is the collision with vehicles (Forman, Alexander, 1998; Pagany, 2020). Currently wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) are of increasing concern, on public roads in Poland. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of WVCs in Poland increased by nearly 52%, compared to the record year 2019, when the number of documented collisions was 29,714, including 215 accidents in which 251 people were injured and 16 more lost their lives. WVCs have important social, economic and ecological consequences. In addition to the significant risk of loss of life, health and property of people, these events also may have a negative impact on animal populations. According to the data from the Police Headquarters, at least several thousand animals were killed in collisions every year. The problem of collisions is directly related to the negative effects of landscape fragmentation by expansion of road networks and the lack of appropriate infrastructure (Pagany, 2020). The aim of our research was to determine spatial and temporal distribution of WVCs and better understanding influencing factors of collision risks such as landscape pattern, topography, road characteristics and seasonal differences. It also allowed us to identify WVCs high risk areas and comparison with existing ecological networks.

The study was carried out within the Polish Carpathians. The Carpathians are an important biodiversity hot-spot, where many species of large mammals have existed for a long time, and that is why there is a need for better monitoring of WVCs and to implement appropriate and efficient mitigation measures. The data for the analysis were obtained from the Police Headquarters and the National Register of Road Collisions with Animals.

Forman R.T.T., Alexander L.E. (1998). *Roads and their major ecological effects*. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 29: 207-231.

Pagany R. (2020). *Wildlife-vehicle collisions – Influencing factors, data collection and research methods*. Biol. Conserv., 251: 108758.
# ADDRESSING THE FLOMS TRADE-OFF: HOW LONG DO WILDLIFE FENCES ALONG ROADS HAVE TO BE TO MITIGATE THE FENCE-END EFFECT?

Jochen Jaeger¹ · Stefano Re²

¹Concordia University · ²Polytechnic University of Turin

Wildlife fences are highly effective at reducing road mortality caused by wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) and are often used in combination with wildlife passages. Will a Few Long Or Many Short (FLOMS) fences be more successful at reducing roadkill? In theory, fencing many short road sections would require a shorter total amount of fence for the same predicted reduction in mortality than fencing a few long sections (Spanowicz et al., 2020). However, animals can move along the fence and around the fence ends and often get killed there. This 'fence-end effect' reduces the effectiveness of fencing. While more effective measures exist (e.g., placing roads in tunnels underground or raising roads on pillars), they are often unrealistic. Less expensive measures such as wildlife warning signs and reflectors have been shown to be ineffective in most cases. Mortality-reduction graphs can be employed to prioritize road sections for fencing, following an adaptive fence-implementation plan (Spanowicz et al., 2020). The 'fence-end effect' makes the use of many short fences less effective than the use of a few long fences, because animals moving along a long fence are more likely to change course before arriving at the fence end. This trade-off between the total number of fence sections and the length of the fence sections has been called the FLOMS (Few-Long-Or-Many-Short) fences trade-off (Spanowicz et al., 2020). When considering the fence-end effect, how long is long enough for a fence to be effective?

We present a novel analytical model for predicting the fence-end effect as a function of fence length (L). We compare four variations of the model with empirical data. Effective fence-length is $Leff = L - R$ in Model A, $Leff = L - 0.5 R$ in Model B, $Leff = L - 0.4521 R$ in Model C, and $Leff = L - 0.226 R$ in Model D, where R is the radius of the home range of the target species. Accordingly, the probability of fence success is $PFS = 1 - R/L$ in Model A, $PFS = 1 - 0.5 R/L$ in Model B, $PFS = 1 - 0.4521 R/L$ in Model C, and $PFS = 1 - 0.226 R/L$ in Model D. We use these models to predict the minimum length of wildlife fencing that can be expected to be effective for various species. We also present modifications to these models for fences that are poorly maintained. The models are included in the mortality-reduction graphs to predict the effectiveness of any amount of fencing at reducing wildlife mortality and to help planners design effective and efficient configurations of fencing.

Spanowicz A.G. et al. (2020). *An adaptive plan for prioritizing road sections for fencing to reduce animal mortality*. Biol. Conserv., 34(5): 1210-1220.

<figure><img src="image_68.png" /></figure>
INCORPORATING THE LANDSCAPE ECOLOGICAL RISK INDEX IN ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF ROAD NETWORKS (CASE STUDY: CHAHARMAHAL & BAKHTIARI PROVINCE, IRAN)

Shekoufeh Nematollahi¹ · Sima Fakheran¹ · Ali Jafari² · Felix Kienast³,⁴

¹Isfahan University of Technology · ²Shahrekord University · ³Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research · ⁴ETH Zürich

Roads are an integral component of landscapes and play a key role in describing the landscape pattern. On the one hand, roads deliver a wide range of social and economic benefits such as providing connectivity and enabling communities to expand into previously remote areas. On the other hand, road networks cause diverse negative effects, including habitat loss, decrease in habitat quality for wildlife population, and barrier effects, which affect ecological processes and speed up habitat destruction, eventually resulting in ecological risks. The latter refers to the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its functions despite exterior interferences caused by human activities, including land use change and road networks development.

The aim of the present study was to quantitively assess the ecological risks of road networks on natural habitats of vulnerable species with a set of spatially explicit indicators. The usefulness of our indicators was tested in a case study – the Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari Province (Ch & B) located in the central part of the Zagros Mountain Chains, Iran. The area has a rough terrain and climate varies considerably. This causes high ecosystem diversity and provides suitable habitats for a great variety of plant and animal species, including wild sheep (*Ovis orientalis*) and Persian leopard (*Panthera pardus*), classified as vulnerable and endangered species on the IUCN red list, respectively. However, due to the high density of road networks, these natural habitats are highly vulnerable, calling for ecological restoration measures at the most effective locations.

To find these locations and to assess habitat disturbance caused by road networks, we utilized the so-called Landscape Ecological Risk Index (ERI). ERI was composed of the Landscape Disturbance Index (Ei) and Frangibility Index (Fi). The Ei quantified the magnitude of outside interferences on natural habitats and was based on three sub-indices of Landscape Splitting index (Si), Landscape Fragmentation index (Ci), and Landscape Dominance index (Di). The Fi evaluated the internal ability of the landscape type to preserve its stability in reaction to outside stresses and was assigned based on the local condition and expert knowledge.

After mapping ERI, we found that the index was distributed irregularly over Ch & B. Higher ERI values were found in the central and north-eastern parts, in places dominated by dense road networks and urban settlements. Lower values of ERI were found in the eastern, southern and western parts which were dominated by mountainous areas encompassing forest and grassland and low level of urbanization. Protected areas have between 8-15% high-risk areas. Thanks to our indicators we know exact geographical locations of these critical areas and are able to suggest appropriate mitigation strategies.

<figure><img src="image_69.png" /></figure>
ORTHOPTERAN ASSEMBLAGES IN A ROADSIDE HABITAT: ADVERSE EFFECTS OF
TRAFFIC NOISE AND VEGETATION HEIGHT

Fran Rebrina¹ · Klaus Reinhold² · Nikola Tvrtković · Andreja Brigić¹

¹University of Zagreb · ²Bielefeld University

As integral elements of the 21st century landscape, major roads have a profound environmental impact, inducing changes in roadside habitats both directly through pollution and soundscape alteration, and indirectly through changes in vegetation structure and microclimate. Despite their importance in terrestrial ecosystems, ecological effects of roads on insects are still rarely considered in road-planning and management due to the scarcity of data, particularly at the assemblage level.

In a five-month study conducted along the largest Croatian motorway in 2018, we sampled orthopteran (Insecta: Orthoptera) assemblages at five distances from the road: 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 m, in eight locations within a homogeneous grassland habitat. We used two sampling methods: pitfall trapping and sweep netting. Generalized linear mixed models were constructed to test for spatial differences in assemblage metrics and to assess the relationships between orthopteran assemblages and road-influenced environmental factors: traffic noise, vegetation height and soil moisture. Variation partitioning and redundancy analysis were performed to evaluate the influence of these factors on spatial distribution of orthopteran species in the study area.

Orthopteran assemblage metrics exhibited significant spatial variation with distance from the motorway in the pitfall dataset. Decrease in abundance, species richness, diversity and conservation value within the first 10 m from the road was likely associated with negative responses of geobiont and geo-chortobiont species with low-frequency signals to traffic noise and, potentially, low soil moisture. At larger distances, however, these species may benefit from noise reduction by overlaying vegetation; traffic noise had a stronger overall impact on chortobiont species sampled by sweep-net. Nevertheless, orthopteran assemblages were primarily affected by road-induced changes in vegetation height; an increase in habitat heterogeneity compared to more distant sites may have prompted an increase in assemblage metrics at 25 m from the road. In contrast to previous findings, pitfall trapping proved to be a useful method for road impact assessment and monitoring of roadside Orthoptera.

This study shows, for the first time, that major roads affect orthopterans at the assemblage level, but different subsets of orthopteran assemblages are affected in different ways. Our findings have profound implications for roadside vegetation management strategies aiming to mitigate negative impacts of transport infrastructure, and anthropogenic change in general, on terrestrial invertebrates.

<figure><img src="image_70.png" /></figure>
# NO PLACE TO GO: WILDLIFE AND ROAD NETWORK IN AN ISLAND ENVIRONMENT

Savvas Zotos · Vassilis Litskas · Stalo Leontiou · Ioannis N. Vogiatzakis

Open University of Cyprus

Human activities on islands are inevitably conditioned by space. In Cyprus, the island landscape forms a mosaic of competing and often conflicting uses. For wildlife one of the major implications is that road development leads to habitat loss and fragmentations with direct and indirect impacts on species ecology, genetics and behaviour, affecting in turn any conservation effort.

Despite the dramatic increase of the road network over the past few decades and its current high density, roads on the island are still expanding while news plans have been drafted for developing additional highways. This comes in direct conflict with the high number and proportion of protected areas covering the island (62 Natura 2000 sites; 59 sites designated under national laws; 37.6% of land) and its high biodiversity (299 species and 47 habitats protected under EU law). Roadless areas are limited, protected habitats are highly fragmented, while no proper evaluation of direct, or indirect, impacts of the road network on wild fauna has been conducted to date. In addition, data on Wildlife Vehicle Collisions (WVC) to date remain fragmented, collected in an ad hoc manner with absence of centralized sharing and analysis. This results in underreporting of WVCs and inconsistent assessment (and planning) regarding its contribution to biodiversity loss, which in turns hinders the use of any information for decision-making.

The paper reports on the extent of the phenomenon as currently known by analysing two WVCs datasets acquired through different approaches: (1) citizen science initiative developed to monitor and report WVC on the road network, (2) current government records of WVC on highways.

The volume of available information was spatially analysed using ArcGIS and R. Statistical analysis revealed relations between WVC distribution and road characteristics while a multi-level Habitat Suitability Modelling (HSM) framework was used to identify areas showing a high probability of roadkill occurrence throughout the island (~19,500 km) based on multi-scale environmental determinants. We emphasize the urgency of acting retrospectively, for the current road network, and advice in proactive measures for new road infrastructures, to minimize fragmentation and conserve biodiversity. Using Cyprus as a case study, we elaborate methods and steps that can be followed to restore habitat connectivity in an island environment.
# Assessing and monitoring connectivity restoration and conservation at local and regional scales

## Symposium organisers

Ulrich Walz (Dresden University of Applied Sciences), Jochen Jaeger (Concordia University)

## Summary

The connectivity of natural and semi-natural landscape elements and large-scale landscape areas is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly sprawled, fragmented, and intensified landscape. Connectivity conservation and restoration will require some consistent form of assessment and monitoring to be able to evaluate the needs for action and any progress made. This symposium welcomes contributions to local and regional projects aiming at identifying and restoring connectivity approaches to monitoring, e.g., using landscape metrics, and on the integration of connectivity into planning.

## Description

In summer 2020, the IUCN published their new report providing "Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors" (https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/49061). This report emphasizes the importance of preserving, maintaining, and restoring well-functioning corridors in the habitat network for the preservation of biodiversity. Large-scale corridors at both national and regional level play a role here, as does the structural diversity of the landscape in the spaces between the corridors. In order to identify needs for action and to demonstrate progress, suitable tools are needed for monitoring and evaluation on a regular basis. Current concepts of regional planning and nature conservation stipulate that a certain proportion of connected habitats should be present in all landscapes in order to maintain their ecological functions. For this purpose, connectivity conservation will require some form of monitoring at the landscape level.

The symposium will address the following issues, among others:

* Examples of local and regional projects aiming at the identification, restoration, protection, or maintenance of habitat networks.

* Approaches to monitoring based on landscape metrics from local to regional scales.

* Comparison of different approaches to model connectivity (circuit theory, graph theory, ...) and available software and Metrics like Circutscape, Omniscape, Linkage Mapper, or indicator 2 of the City Biodiversity Index (CBI).

* Consideration of functional connectivity and structural connectivity.

* Verification of connectivity models: How appropriate is the use of roadkill data?

* Consideration of ecological connectivity in planning and in EIA: Where are performance gaps, and where is need for improvement?

<figure><img src="image_71.png" /></figure>
ASSESSING THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF VEGETATED AREAS IN MULTI-
DWELLING UNITS TO RESTORE ECOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY IN THE FRENCH
METROPOLITAN AREA OF LYON

Marc Bourgeois¹ · Thomas Boutreux¹,² · Bernard Kaufmann²

¹CNRS, UMR 5600 · ²CNRS, UMR 5023

Urbanisation leads to the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats. For the last decade, public institutions have been encouraging urban densification to prevent urban sprawl, which has resulted in a shrinking of vegetation in private plots which constitutes 75% of the total green area in the metropolitan area of Lyon (1.4 million inhab.). While individual gardens have received considerable scientific attention, vegetated areas in multi-dwelling units have remained absent from the literature. In this work, we show the importance of vegetated areas of multi-dwelling units for urban biodiversity, focusing on ecological connectivity.

For this work, we produced a high-resolution land cover map (1 m) of the metropolitan area of Lyon (534 km²) with 35 classes including five vegetation types classified by height. Using this map, we identified the potential habitats of four species profiles living in cities: mammals with shrubs as habitat (e.g. hedgehogs), mammals with large trees as habitat (e.g. squirrels), birds with small and large trees as habitat (e.g. great tits), flying insects with herbaceous vegetation as habitat (e.g. butterflies). Based on expert knowledge and bibliographic data, we identified for these four profiles: habitat patches, movement preferences (by assigning costs to each class), patch area and dispersal distance. We modelled landscape graphs (nodes as habitat patches, links as potential movements) and computed connectivity metrics using Graphab software. To assess the importance of vegetated areas in multi-dwelling units for the global connectivity of the metropolis area, we designed four scenarios with modification of their plot land cover: (1) maximum theoretical connectivity: all the surface (including buildings) is replaced by vegetation of species habitat class, (2) minimum theoretical connectivity: all the surface is replaced by the built-up class, (3) unsealing and greening: all the surface (excluding buildings) is replaced by vegetation favourable to species movement but not considered as habitat, and (4) maximum renaturization: all the surface (excluding buildings) is replaced by vegetation of species habitat class.

Global and local connectivity metrics were computed for each species and compared to the current state. The results demonstrate the importance of the vegetated areas in multi-dwelling units. By acting in a targeted way on only 4% of the metropolitan area, connectivity can be significantly improved. For some species connectivity values can double between the current state and the 'max. theoretical connectivity' and be multiplied by 1.5 for the 'max. renaturization'. The 'min. theoretical connectivity' only reduces connectivity by 5 to 10% for all species profile which suggests that vegetated areas in multi-dwelling units could currently be unattractive for biodiversity and could be largely improved both in terms of quality and quantity of habitat. These results open the discussion on urban planning to enhance urban biodiversity.

<figure><img src="image_72.png" /></figure>
# ECOSYSTEMS AS COMPLEX NETWORKS: A STUDY OF THE NETWORK TOPOLOGY OF TWO CONTRASTING ECOSYSTEMS, SUCH AS DRYLAND AND RIVER-FLOODPLAINS

Sonia Recinos Brizuela¹ · Shubham Tiwari² · Laura Turnbull-Lloyd² · Thomas Hein¹ · John Wainwright² · Andrea Funk¹

¹University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna · ²Durham University

In the last two decades, network theory has been widely used to study the connectivity of ecosystems. The main idea behind this framework is to obtain crucial information about the system by studying its underlaying network topology. However, a clear conceptualization of connectivity in some ecosystems is still needed to better understand the spatial relations and to quantify biophysical fluxes and the related adaptation paths of ecosystems.

In this work, we provide conceptualizations of structural (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) under ecological and geomorphological perspectives, as well as examples and characteristics of network-based abstractions for two contrasting ecosystems: dryland and river-floodplain. We use two case studies for dryland and riverine ecosystems to study how system characteristics and discipline perspectives influence network topology. The first study case corresponds to the grassland-shrubland transition zone in the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program, in the Chihuahuan desert of the southwestern United States. Here we focus on ecogeomorphology and land-degradation feedbacks. The SC of this system is derived from the flow routing and presence of vegetation sink, while the FC represents the hydrological and sediment fluxes (runoff and sediment transport). The second case study corresponds to a floodplain section of the Donau-Auen National Park, located along the Danube River in Austria. In this case we maintained an ecological perspective to assess the effects of river restoration measures on the overall habitat connectivity of benthic macroinvertebrates (connectivity between habitat patches via dispersal). Here the SC derives from the 'architecture' of the river-floodplain system, before and after the restoration measures were implemented. On the other hand, the FC represents the dispersal flows of benthic macroinvertebrates through the SC template. After building the SC and FC networks for both of the study cases, we calculated node-level metrics (degree centrality, node strength, betweenness centrality and PageRank centrality) and network-level metrics (link density, assortativity coefficient, and global efficiency).

In our results, the different network metrics allowed us to identify local and system-level patterns of connectivity, highlighting how different vegetation types SC and FC in dryland ecosystems, and the increase in the overall structural connectivity after the implementation of river restoration measures. The application of network theory can help us to understand the emergent properties of real-world complex ecosystems. It represents a valuable toolset to study the degradation and can also be used to assist the management and conservation of endangered ecosystems.

<figure><img src="image_73.png" /></figure>
ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF TERRESTRIAL PESTICIDE EXPOSURE ON AMPHIBIAN
POPULATION NETWORKS

Greg Churko¹ · Erich Szerencsits¹ · Benedikt Schmidt² · Annette Aldrich¹

¹Agroscope · ²University of Zürich

Seventy percent of the native amphibian species in Switzerland are considered endangered. Their population declines are attributed to many factors, including the use of plant protection products (PPPs) by the agricultural industry. While numerous studies as well as protective policies exist concerning the flow of plant protection products into the aquatic habitats of amphibians, PPP exposure in their terrestrial habitats is comparatively poorly addressed. Through reduced fitness or mortality of individuals following the dermal absorption of PPP-associated toxins, terrestrial PPP-exposure is expected to negatively affect amphibian population growth and dispersal between populations.

To identify areas where conservation measures are required, we modelled the population networks of twelve amphibian species and compared them to spatial data on agricultural activities in a nationwide analysis. We first generated habitat suitability maps for each species by evaluating the correlation between terrestrial species occurrences and various landscape attributes using multiple algorithms at multiple scales. Where available, we used local landscape genetic studies from the literature to validate and select the most appropriate distribution model for each species. We then modelled dispersal routes between all recorded breeding sites for each species with Circuitscape, using the habitat suitability maps as the basis for the resistance surfaces.

The habitat suitability and connectivity maps allow the localization and quantification of potential hotspots for PPP-exposure within the core habitat around each species' breeding sites and along the movement routes between them. By highlighting differences among species, we identify species which are particularly at risk and gain insight into the mechanisms with which PPPs in terrestrial habitats influence these networks. Together, the maps provide policy makers with a flexible tool that can identify and prioritize regions for the implementation of locally adapted management strategies.

<figure><img src="image_74.png" /></figure>
CONSERVATIVE ARBORICULTURE: PERSPECTIVES FOR ENHANCING LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY AND PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY IN URBANIZED LANDSCAPES

Davide Corengia¹ · Michele Corengia² · Elisa Cardarelli³ · Claudia Canedoli³

¹Associazione Arboricoltori · ²University of Italian Switzerland · ³University of Milano-Bicocca

Trees are fundamental elements of the landscape because they contribute to the biophysical structure and to the maintenance of landscape connectivity and functionality. In particular, old trees are central to sustaining biodiversity, because they are rich in the so-called ‘Tree related Microhabitats’ (TreMs). TreMs are distinct, well-delineated structures occurring on living or standing dead trees, that constitute particular and essential substrates or life sites for species. Despite their importance, TreMs are very scarce in cities because of management practices that deplete and simplify trees’ architecture and structure and thus threaten biodiversity. The current trend is to remove thoughtful ‘problematic’ trees (for example because they have rotting or ruptures) and replace them with young specimens, unable in the short and medium-term to replace the ecological role of the removed trees.

By linking ecological knowledge and management practices, we aim to propose a novel concept of modern arboriculture, a conservative arboriculture, which objective is to reconcile human needs related to safety with the conservation of biodiversity in urbanized landscapes. We present an examination about which are the current arboricultural criteria that determine trees’ management choices, what is the relationship between these factors and biodiversity levels, and how the current practices are affecting the provision of habitat for species and ecological connection.

Our results show that three are the main foundation criteria of modern arboriculture: safety for people and artifacts, ornamental beauty, plant health. All these factors decreased when trees reach the more mature stages, which is the phenological phase where biodiversity associated with trees starts to increase. These contrasting trends generate a conflict between human intervention and biodiversity conservation. We discuss how this conflict can be overcome by highlighting which are the paradigms and practices that need to be rethought: the difference between objective safety and perceived safety, the cultural concept of ‘beauty’ associated with trees, and management practices. We finally present examples of these practices such as maintenance of deadwood in the crown, simulation of natural breakages, or creation of TreMs.
VALIDATION OF GRAPH-BASED CONNECTIVITY MODELS USING GENETIC DATA

Alexandrine Daniel¹ · Paul Savary² · Jean-Christophe Foltête² · Aurélie Khimoun¹ · Cyril Eraud³

· Bruno Faivre¹ · Anthony Ollivier¹ · Hervé Moal⁴ · Gilles Vuidel² · Stéphane Garnier¹

¹CNRS, UMR 6282 · ²CNRS, UMR 6049 · ³French Biodiversity Agency · ⁴ARP Astrance

Modelling the functional connectivity of habitats is crucial for biodiversity conservation. By modelling potential dispersal paths among habitat patches, landscape graphs are often used to quantify landscape connectivity. While this approach seems promising, it often lacks biological validation. To ensure its ecological relevance, we assessed the ability of connectivity metrics calculated from landscape graphs to predict population genetic structure that closely reflects the dispersal of individuals, and thus functional connectivity. We modelled the habitat network of a forest bird species (Plumbeous warbler, *Setophaga plumbea*) in Guadeloupe using three graphs constructed either from expert opinion, habitat specialization indices, or a species distribution model (SDM). Genetic data (microsatellites) were also collected on 712 individuals in 27 populations. This genetic dataset was used as an empirical validation tool for the three landscape graphs, using two approaches: (1) relating the cost-distances obtained from the graphs to between-population genetic distances, (2) relating the connectivity metrics obtained from the graphs to within-population genetic diversity. The large proportion of variance in genetic distances explained by least-cost paths and the strong correlation between connectivity metrics and genetic diversity indices demonstrate the ability of landscape graphs to model the influence of landscape connectivity on dispersal. In addition, our results provide insight into the relationships between construction costs and ecological relevance of landscape graphs, as the most complex approach (SDM) is not always the most efficient.

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# SPATIO-TEMPORAL NETWORKS FOR WETLAND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Nivedita Varma Harisena · Maarten Jan van Strien · Adrienne Grêt-Regamey

ETH Zürich

Socio-ecological systems analysis for biodiversity conservation often only considers the size and quality of habitats, but ignores their spatial connections and evolution over time. This can lead to results that are not mechanistically intuitive e.g. an increase in habitat area or quality does not correlate to biodiversity increase. The confounding factors here are two-fold: first, spatial fragmentation or topological changes between habitat patches can influence occupancy of the patches and second, a time lag may exist in species response to past anthropogenic stress. In an effort to model both types of factors, the study proposes the use of spatio-temporal habitat networks. These habitat networks are identified by using least cost paths (LCP) to model the connectivity. Using different scenarios of resistance surface, the LCP for the different pairs of patches are optimised by maximising the correlation between the cost distances matrices and the species composition matrices (i.e. the more connected the more similarity in species composition).

The resistance scenarios are further augmented with historical landcover information over a time span of 150 years (1870-present) such that the legacy impacts of such past change can be included in the resistance surface for the current wetland biodiversity. This landcover information as well as the core wetland patches, are extracted from historical maps of Switzerland (i.e. the Siegfried maps and old National maps). This rich dataset further allows us to quantify unique spatio-temporal indicators such as the time-period of branching of larger wetlands patches to smaller ones that can dictate the similarity in species composition between spatially disaggregated patches (terragenetic distance). The study has been conducted for the highly fragmented wetlands of the Swiss Plateau to explain alpha and beta diversity in amphibian and dragonfly species.

The results confirm that spatio-temporal network indicators (e.g. terragenetic distance, historical landcover changes) show a significant and higher contribution to the contemporary biodiversity in wetlands species compared to models using purely contemporary spatial indicators. Along with increasing our knowledge on key spatio-temporal processes that determine biodiversity patterns, the results also show how to develop spatial planning solutions (for e.g. the planning of regional wetland infrastructure) aimed at conserving biodiversity in socio-ecological systems.
# HOW ARE LANDSCAPE FRAGMENTATION AND CONNECTIVITY RELATED? COMPARING METHODS FOR MEASURING LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY

Jochen Jaeger · Clara Freeman-Cole

Concordia University

We clarify the relationship between several concepts of landscape fragmentation and connectivity. This is necessary in order to avoid their interchangeable and confusing usage, to highlight potential misunderstanding of certain subtypes of fragmentation and connectivity, and to assess the suitability of available landscape metrics for landscape monitoring. We address three research questions: (1) What are the most relevant definitions of fragmentation and connectivity in the literature? (2) What exactly is the nature of the relationship between fragmentation and connectivity? (3) Which methods available for measuring landscape connectivity consider within-patch connectivity and which ones do not?

We compare common definitions of fragmentation and connectivity (and their subtypes) from the literature. For example, we compare the concept of habitat fragmentation per se with a more general understanding of habitat fragmentation. We then characterize the nature of the link between fragmentation and connectivity in both a conceptual and a quantitative discussion of the concepts of within-patch and between-patch connectivity. We created five sets of landscapes, or ‘tests’, to examine the behaviour of a variety of measures of connectivity. The four main features examined were within-patch connectivity, between-patch connectivity, relative patch size of component size, and barrier strength or matrix properties (resistance to movement). Definitions of fragmentation tend to refer to the breaking apart of a variety of aspects of the landscape, such as land-cover types or habitats. A key finding is that fragmentation and connectivity are not inversely related concepts. More precisely, and perhaps surprisingly for some readers, fragmentation per se is equivalent to a reduction of within-patch connectivity (with no habitat loss) and vice versa. Between-patch connectivity, on the other hand, may either increase or decrease depending on the distances between the resulting fragments. Metrics that do not include within-patch connectivity often lead to erroneous results and misleading conclusions when the total area of habitat changes or when habitat patches become fragmented.

The results highlight a crucial need to consider the balance between within-patch connectivity and between-patch connectivity when measuring and monitoring landscape connectivity. The results provide an assessment of the suitability of a variety of common metrics employed to quantify connectivity, and help identify the most appropriate measures for general use.

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THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE ECOLOGICAL NETWORK MANAGEMENT AT A LOCAL AND REGIONAL SCALE. CASE STUDIES IN WIELKOPOLSKIE PROVINCE

Marta Kubacka

Adam Mickiewicz University

Latest evaluation of European Environment Agency (EEA, 2020) shows Europe's nature in serious, continuing decline. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 remarked that "in order to have a truly coherent and resilient Trans-European Nature Network, it will be important to set up ecological framework to prevent genetic isolation, allow for species migration, and maintain and enhance healthy ecosystems" (EC, 2020). On the other hand the lack of comprehensive and consistent data on this aspect has made the management effectiveness element surprisingly hard to assess (Kubacka, 2019; Kubacka, Smaga, 2019; Kubacka et al., 2022).

The main goal of this study involves the accomplishment of the following partial objectives: (1) determination of land use/land cover (LULC) changes within the ecological network in terms of time and space, (2) determination of the integrity of the spatial stature of the ecological network, as well as the degree of fragmentation and isolation of components, and (3) characteristics of planning and strategic studies in terms of spatial development of ecological network areas.

Preliminary results of the research clearly show a linear trend for changes in the structure of land cover and land use within the areas included in the ecological network in Wielkopolska. The increase in artificial areas and the decrease in agricultural areas are particularly noticeable. These are not big values, but they have to be looked at from the point of view of the structure of the ecological network, in which nodal areas (85.65%), which include mainly legally protected areas (i.e. landscape park, Natura 2000 areas, forest areas) constitute the biggest share. The remaining part (14.35%) are areas of ecological corridors, which due to their functions and spatial nature (often narrow lanes) are subject to strong human pressure. The low percentage share of the Wielkopolska region coverage by local plans (21.1% in 2019; for Poland 31.2%) not only lengthens the administrative route of the investment process, but, most frequently, leads to numerous conflicts between the public and local government, and in consequence to a disruption of spatial order. This prevents the rational management of natural resources and has a negative impact on the ability to protect biodiversity.

This project is funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (NCN) under Grant 2020/39/D/HS4/00460.

EC (2020). *EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Bringing nature back into our lives*. Brussels: EU.

EEA (2020). *Technical report No 10/2020. State of nature in the EU. Results from reporting under the nature directives 2013-2018*. Luxembourg: EEA.

Kubacka M. et al. (2022). *How do the surrounding areas of national parks work in the context of landscape fragmentation? A case study of 159 protected areas selected in 11 EU countries*. Land Use Policy, 113: 105910.

Kubacka M. (2019). *Evaluation of the ecological efficiency of landscape protection in areas of different protection status. A case study from Poland*. Landsc. Res., 44(5): 628-641.

Kubacka M., Smaga Ł. (2019). *Effectiveness of Natura 2000 areas for environmental protection in 21 European countries*. Reg. Environ. Change, 19(7): 2079-2088.
FUNCTIONAL AND TAXONOMIC STRUCTURE OF CARABID BEETLE ASSEMBLAGES IN FOREST FRAGMENTS AND HEDGES IN HETEROGENEOUS AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Ronan Marrec · Soline Chaudet · Adèle Le Naviel · Vincent Le Roux

CNRS, UMR EDYSAN

The spatiotemporal connectivity of forest patches and hedgerows in lowland agricultural landscapes and their total amount matter to explain current biodiversity patterns across local to regional extents. However, whether such networks and habitats allow maintaining a high taxonomic and functional diversity of taxa remains largely unclear. In particular, can both forest specialists and open-habitat species benefit from the same landscapes, or do they require contrasted landscape structures? A better understanding of their relative responses can have important consequences for ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services. Focusing on carabid beetle assemblages, we assessed the relative importance of local-to-landscape attributes in driving local α-diversity and species dissimilarity between patches (β-diversity), considering both taxonomic and functional facets of community diversity.

We sampled 32 deciduous forest patches and 67 hedges in two 5 × 5 km landscape contexts with contrasting management intensities in northeastern France. Functional diversity of carabid beetles was characterized based on morphological measurements and preferences in habitat requirements. We quantified the multi-level environmental influence using mixed-effects models and variation partitioning analysis. We found that α-diversity was primarily determined by habitat-patch characteristics, acting as a local-scale ecological filter on carabid assemblages. However, both α- and β-diversity were significantly influenced by the landscape context and the level of connectivity in the agricultural mosaic. Nevertheless, responses of carabid assemblages varied depending on species' preferences in habitat requirements (i.e., habitat openness and humidity). Consequences on biodiversity protection and ecosystem services maintenance is discussed.

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# A GREEN-BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE TO IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY IN BIZKAIA

Lorena Peña · Ibone Ametzaga-Arregi · Beatriz Fernández de Manuel · Unai Ortega

University of the Basque Country

In the last century, changes in the landscape have been drastic, with an increase in artifice and in landscape fragmentation, and a decrease in the surface of natural areas. In the case of Bizkaia (Basque Country), these changes have been evident throughout the territory, where fast-growing forest plantations are the predominant vegetation, while the Atlantic mixed forest (potential vegetation) has been relegated to a few small patches. To reverse this situation, a new land management model has emerged, the green-blue infrastructure (GBI), which encompasses, in addition to landscape connectivity, its multifunctionality, that is, the ability to provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), with the aim of conserving biodiversity and facing future challenges, such as climate change.

The objective of this study is to propose a GBI for Bizkaia taking into account both the multifunctional areas that provide multiple ES and their connection. The multifunctional areas are identified by mapping seven regulatory services and their overlap. Subsequently, core areas were identified, which were connected by a network of ecological corridors for three key faunal species and an extensive corridor network in the multiple ES provision assessment. The connectivity analysis was carried out using the Linkagge mapper program, with which the least cost routes and bottlenecks were identified, that is, those areas where the connection is poorer. In addition, priority areas were identified to establish future improvement actions.

The results indicated that, in the case of core areas based on the movement of key species, 33 patches of natural forest greater than or equal to 100 ha were identified, occupying an area of 7314 ha (3% of Bizkaia). In the case of core areas based on ES provision, 59 patches were identified, occupying an area of 18,830 ha (9% of Bizkaia). A total of 157 ecological corridors and 116 corridors based on ES provision were acquired. In total, the GBI for Bizkaia occupies an area of 77,034 ha.

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# THE CONSEQUENCES OF ASH DIEBACK ON FUNCTIONAL AND GENETIC CONNECTIVITY

Fiona Plenderleith¹,² · Stephen Palmer² · Justin Travis² · Lesley Lancaster² · Jenni Stockan¹ · Ruth Mitchell¹

¹James Hutton Institute · ²University of Aberdeen

Trees outside woodlands facilitate dispersal between woodlands and may buffer against impacts of fragmentation. *Fraxinus excelsior* (ash) is common outside of woodlands and along roadsides but is currently threatened by the fungal disease ash dieback (*Hymenoscyphus fraxineus*). Loss of ash trees to disease or pre-emptive felling could represent a substantial loss in connectivity (Henry et al., 2017). Previous research has considered the direct impacts of ash dieback for the 241 species of invertebrates that rely on ash in the UK but the indirect impacts due to this apparent loss in connectivity are largely unexplored (Mitchell et al., 2014). We aim to assess the impact of tree disease and the pre-emptive felling of non-woodland ash trees on dispersal and gene flow of forest invertebrates.

We use a stochastic individual-based modelling platform, RangeShifter, to explore impacts of tree loss on the spatial dynamics of ‘virtual’ ash-reliant insects with varying dispersal abilities and population densities (Henry et al., 2017). We simulate the loss of individual trees in and out of woodlands in 24 real landscapes and estimate functional and genetic connectivity in relation to the species dispersal ability and habitat-dependent movement costs.

Removal of 10% of ash trees resulted in a reduction in successful dispersers of up to 14.6%, and an increase in isolated woodlands of up to 2.9%. In some landscapes this resulted in increased isolation by distance (IBD – correlation between genetic and geographic distance). Carrying capacity impacted the proportion of isolated patches and IBD. Species experiencing low dispersal cost were more successful at dispersing under high tree loss, and this increased IBD. The consequences of tree loss for woodland connectivity are influenced by the species dispersal traits, but the consequences for gene flow may depend on the arrangement of trees within the landscape.

This study highlights the potential for spatially realistic, process-based models to be used to assess the impact of tree diseases on landscape connectivity for species that depend on those tree species. Ultimately, this modelling can be extended to inform management options for improving connectivity following tree-diseases, including the repopulation of resistant individuals of tree species.

Henry R.C. et al. (2017). *Tree loss impacts on ecological connectivity: Developing models for assessment*. Ecol. Inform., 42: 90-99.

Mitchell R. J. et al. (2014). *Ash dieback in the UK: A review of the ecological and conservation implications and potential management options*. Biol. Conserv., 175: 95-109.

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HOW TO APPROACH THE HABITAT CONNECTIVITY – COMPARISON OF FOUR METHODS

Marcela Prokopová¹ · Vilém Pechanec² · Renata Včeláková¹ · Lenka Štěrbová¹ · Ondřej Cudlín¹ · Jan Purkyt¹ · Jiří Jakubínský¹ · Pavel Cudlín¹

¹Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences · ²Palacký University Olomouc

Extinction of natural habitats, their fragmentation and isolation emphasizes the need to support species migration and dispersion, making habitat connectivity increasingly important. There are several methods that have been proposed to assess landscape connectivity, but their results may vary and their use may be limited at certain scales.

Our objective was to compare four different approaches to assess the connectivity of natural
habitats in the landscape:

1. Structural connectivity based on landscape metrics derived from the size, shape, composition, and configuration of habitat patches in the landscape.

2. 'Distance to Nature', which is calculated in a raster map for each pixel of an area of interest and is based on its average distance to the nearest natural or semi-natural habitat, taking into account the resistance of the surrounding matrix (Rüdisser et al., 2012).

3. Our approach, called Broad-scale Functional Connectivity, which considers habitat- or species-specific aspects (i.e. distance limits and matrix resistance values) because it divides natural and semi-natural habitats into habitat groups with similar habitat types. The connectivity value is derived from the distance to the nearest habitat that belongs to the same habitat group. The distance is calculated as the least-cost path and the matrix resistance values are defined separately for each habitat group. Another included parameter is the size of the natural habitat area, which is related to the minimum habitat area required for the long-term existence of this habitat.

4. Functional connectivity based on graph theory and calculated by software Conefor (Saura, Pascual-Hortal, 2007). This method is very complex and is based on distances for each pair of habitat patches. It also uses the least-cost path to define the distance and calculates different indices, of which the probability of connectivity is the most recommended.

These approaches differ in complexity, input data and information, and processing time. We applied all four methods to the cadastral area of the medium-sized city of Liberec, which is located in the north of the Czech Republic near the Jizera Mountains Protected Landscape Area. The results of the four methods, parameterized on a common scale, are presented and compared using overlapping spatial operations to define the overlap of each connectivity category. The percentage of connected area resulting from the different methods is also compared. The use of these different methods attempting to capture the complicated problem of habitat connectivity in the landscape is discussed with suggestions for the optimal choice of methods at different scales. These results may be useful for landscape planning, urban green infrastructure proposals, and landscape analysis.

Rüdisser J. et al. (2012). *Distance to nature – a new biodiversity relevant environmental indicator set at the landscape level*. Ecol. Indic., 15(1): 208-216.

Saura S., Pascual-Hortal L. (2007). *Conefor Sensinode 2.2 User's Manual: Software for quantifying the importance of habitat patches for maintaining landscape connectivity through graphs and habitat availability indices*. Spain: University of Lleida.
ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF THE AMOUNT OF REACHABLE HABITAT ON GENETIC STRUCTURE USING GRAPHS

Paul Savary<sup>1,2</sup> · Jean-Christophe Foltête<sup>1</sup> · Maarten J. van Strien<sup>3</sup> · Hervé Moal<sup>2</sup> · Gilles Vuidel<sup>1</sup>
· Stéphane Garnier<sup>1</sup>

<sup>1</sup>University of Burgundy – Franche-Comté · <sup>2</sup>ARP Astrance · <sup>3</sup>ETH Zürich

The genetic structure of populations is made of two components: the genetic diversity of every population (intra-population) and the genetic differentiation between every pair of populations (inter-population). These two components are influenced by genetic drift and gene flow, which are driven by the joint influence of the amount of habitat and of its spatial configuration in the landscape. Habitat amount and configuration are highly interdependent and together determine habitat connectivity, i.e. the amount of reachable habitat (ARH) at several scales. Adopting such a conception of habitat connectivity makes it possible to describe habitat patterns by considering simultaneously intra-patch and inter-patch connectivity, dispersal capacities and matrix resistance. Using an empirical genetic dataset concerning 34 large marsh grasshopper (Stethophyma grossum) populations from a Swiss agricultural landscape, we tested whether three ARH metrics computed from patch-based graphs (patch capacity, flux and betweenness centrality metrics) are good predictors of genetic structure indices computed from population-based graphs (total and private allelic richness, population-level genetic differentiation indices). The relationships between connectivity metrics and genetic indices were studied through correlation and PLS regression analyses. ARH metrics were relevant predictors of both genetic diversity and differentiation, providing an advantage over commonly used habitat metrics, such as the amount of habitat in a circular buffer around populations or the distance to the nearest habitat patch. Although in the best model allelic richness was significantly explained by three ARH metrics assessing habitat connectivity either in the focal patch or between this patch and others, genetic differentiation indices were essentially related with between-patch connectivity. Considering several matrix resistance scenarios was also key for explaining the different genetic responses. We call for a wider use of the ARH concept in future research.

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CONCEPT FOR MEASURING CONNECTIVITY FOR SPATIAL REFERENCE UNITS TAKING
BARRIERS INTO ACCOUNT

Martin Schorcht¹ · Ulrich Walz² · Jochen Jaeger³

¹Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development · ²Dresden University of Applied Sciences ·

³Concordia University

The objective of this presentation is to develop metrics to measure the connectivity of habitats and small landscape elements for various reference units such as administrative boundaries (municipalities, counties) and natural spatial units or a regular grid (INSPIRE Grid). For the habitat types 'wet habitats', 'wood-dominated areas or forests' and 'dry habitats', we examined connectivity with the inclusion of small-scale landscape elements. Thereby, we measure on different administrative levels, whereby habitats lying on borders are considered as a whole. Furthermore, the focus is on the implementation of barriers that are impossible or difficult for animals to cross, such as roads, rivers, or train tracks.

Two measurement concepts used in the City Biodiversity Index (Chan et al., 2021, p. 15) and the Proximity Index (Gustafson, Parker, 1992) are compared and expanded accordingly. The City Biodiversity Index (CBI) is a set of 28 indicators, including the two indicators 'Proportion of Natural Areas' and 'Connectivity Measures for Ecological Networks', the latter measuring the connectivity of ecological networks in cities. The Proximity Index is a measure of the proximity and size of neighboring elements and is described by four variants (PX92, PXpt, PXfg and PX94). With the Proximity Index, it is possible to integrate movement barriers into the evaluation algorithm, so that the interruptions of the habitat networks by roads etc. were taken into account, as is already the case with 'Connectivity Measures for Ecological Networks'. The transferability to the spatial reference units can be achieved by means of spatial aggregation, so that larger habitats that extend across regional boundaries were also adequately taken into account. In the results for the CBI, it was found that the two indicators examined should always be viewed in conjunction. It has been shown that paying attention to barriers significantly influences the results. Overall, the values aggregated into levels (grid or administrative units) lead to results that are comprehensible and clearly presentable as maps and statistical measures. In summary, we are convinced that the selected indicators, taking barriers into account, can be used for regular monitoring of the environmental status of the landscape even in larger areas and can thus be an important basis for spatial planning and success evaluation.

Chan L. et al. (2021). *Handbook on the Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity (also known as the City Biodiversity Index)*. Montreal, Singapore: CBD Technical Series, 98.

Gustafson E.J., Parker G.R. (1992). *Relationships between landcover proportion and indices of landscape spatial pattern*. Landscape Ecol., 7: 101-110.

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FOCAL PATCHES ISOLATION AND THE ROLE OF TRANSIT PATCHES IN STUDIES ON
LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY

Jerzy Solon · Wojciech Pomianowski

Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences

The concept of connectivity has given rise to many different approaches, theoretical and practical, including the development of modeling connections between specific structures in the landscape. Searching for the least cost path or defining the cost surface is now possible thanks to the availability of a large number of different tools. Less emphasis in research is placed on assessing the degree of isolation of individual patches or areas.

In our approach, based on analysis of landscape mosaic expressed in vector form, connectivity is
determined through the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) between patches of interest. With newly
developed GraphScape software it is possible to define several metrics, based solely on landscapes
composition and configuration (structural metrics) and covering two groups: Transit Density Statistics
and Steps Statistics. Transit Density (TD) is defined as a count of MST paths crossing a patch.
Unweighted Step Number describes the number of patch boundaries that must be crossed along the
path between focal points. The Weighted Step Statistic, on the other hand, determines the relative
ecological cost of traveling the most favorable route, taking into account Patch Class Resistance,
Patch Individual Resistance and Transfer Resistance.

These characteristics can also be used to determine the degree of isolation of individual patches. Preliminary studies on models relating to land cover differentiation (expressed in terms of ecosystem types) for the selected fragment of northeastern Poland, using measures calculated in GraphScape and more traditional metrics characterizing isolation (e.g. proximity index, nearest neighbor distance) or the role of intermediate patches in connectivity (e.g. centrality measures) indicate the presence of several relationships of a more general nature: (a) the number of patches and the mean distance between patches are strongly correlated with each other, but are much less (or not at all) correlated with measures of ecological isolation, (b) measures of patch isolation determined by the minimum number of passes and the sum of pass path resistances are correlated with each other but do not substitute for each other, (c) measures of ecological isolation are particularly important at small physical distances between patches whereas for large distances a sufficiently good measure of the degree of isolation is the distance to the nearest neighbor, and (d) individual ecosystem types differ markedly in their degree of ecological isolation, even if they have a similar number of patches and similar mean smallest distances between patches.

The measures used create a complementary set that allows not only scientific assessment of the
degree of isolation, but also planning of protective measures and assessment of the consequences of
land cover changes.

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CONNECTIVITY ESTIMATION METHODS: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH FOR
CONSERVATION PLANNING

Marie Soret¹ · Sylvain Moulherat¹ · Sandra Luque² · Maxime Lenormand²

¹TerrOïko, OikoLab · ²INRAE, UMR TETIS

Ecological connectivity is a virtual property representing the capacity of spatial interactions between species and landscapes. It cannot be directly measured and assessed, but can only be estimated through proxies that inform on the intensity and sustainability of species interactions within the landscape mosaic. Landscape connectivity results from the combination of complex ecological processes including stochastic and dynamic variables which can make it difficult to evaluate. The scientific community designed numerous frameworks and tools to answer the many challenges underlying connectivity. Typical study's framework usually starts off with data sampling on both the structural composition of the landscape and species needs and behaviors within it. Data acquisition focuses particularly on resource requirements and mobility abilities. These data are incorporated into models reflecting the ecological processes at stake.

The model outcome depends on the reliability of both input data and hypothesis of modeling. Hypothesis of modeling represents a set of rules and assumptions admitted to depicted the ecological reality of the system. These assumptions influence connectivity analysis outcomes. We propose to compare their impact on connectivity analysis for critical modeling hypotheses commonly used in connectivity software. We focus on three aspects of connectivity analysis : firstly, the location and qualification of resource patches; secondly the location and qualification of interaction between pairs of patches across the landscape matrix; and thirdly the sensibility of connectivity metrics derived from graph theory. For the first part we compared patch outcome from two identification methods: typological definition and species distribution models. For the second part we compared 4 different methods of patch's pairwise interaction and spatialisation: (1) direct euclidean path in a homogeneous matrix, (2) least cost path in a resistance map, (3)circuit theory, and (4) stochastic movement simulator. All methods were implemented on a study site in France for three local species with different habitat preferences and mobility abilities. Finally we combined the results from the two first parts to build a graph representing the ecological network. The different combinaisons led to 8 different graphs that we compared regarding global networks metrics. We aim to discuss here the critical differences between approaches and the logical ecological interpretation of connectivity to target conservation solutions for territorial planning.

<figure><img src="image_83.png" /></figure>
CONNECTIVITY OF PROTECTED AREAS IN COLOMBIA: IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF POTENTIAL LINKAGES

Sara Pineda Zapata¹ · Sergio González Ávila²

¹IALE-Colombia · ²Technical University of Madrid

In Colombia there are around 19 million hectares of protected areas (PAs), resulting from an effort to conserve the high biodiversity areas of the country. Although the National System of Protected Areas keeps growing, there is a lack of knowledge about the corridors and areas that could sustain connectivity between current or planned PAs.

In this study we aimed to assess the connectivity between current PAs in Colombia, identifying potential linkages and prioritizing them according to their contribution to total habitat availability in two scenarios: conservation and restoration.

We followed the combination of methods previously applied in a similar work in Spain (De la Fuente et al., 2018), which also allowed us to test this workflow in a different environment and compare the insights provided in both study areas. As a result, we integrated graph-based analyses, least-cost path modelling and the Probability of Connectivity metric, considering two ecoprofiles based on mammal species and their preferred habitat type.

Our work produced a comprehensive connectivity analysis at the national scale. As such, the identification of priority connectors and their characterization could be of importance for managers and planners, both from regional and national administrations, allowing them to incorporate specific spatial data on ecological connectivity to land use planning and forests and biodiversity conservation.

De la Fuente B. et al. (2018). *Natura 2000 sites, public forests and riparian corridors: The connectivity backbone of forest green infrastructure*. Land Use Policy, 75: 429-441.

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# Forest expansion, landscape dynamics and ecosystem services in Europe

## Symposium organisers

João Carlos Azevedo (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança), Pinar Pamukcu-Albers (University of Bonn), Dolors Armenteras (National University of Colombia)

## Summary

This seminar will address forest expansion and its impacts on landscape pattern, functioning and the wellbeing of society at several scales. The seminar will provide a science-based background to debate: (1) the role of forests in the process of increasing socioecological and climate resilience in Europe, (2) the processes of transformation in forest cover in Europe and their relations to landscape sustainability and resilience, and (3) the participation of forest and landscape scientists and practitioners in forest landscape change and their contribution to improving ecosystem services.

## Description

Forests in Europe expanded very rapidly from early 20th century to the present day. Europe is currently the region in the world where forest cover is the largest, both assessed as area and in percentage of the land. In addition, the prospects for further expansion are high according to international and national forest, environmental and development policies (e.g., EU Forest Strategy; European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement) as well as ongoing socioeconomic processes that result in increasing land available to natural reforestation or planting.

The expansion of forests in Europe has direct impacts on landscape pattern, affecting also plant and animal species' habitat availability and configuration. Also a series of ecological processes are affected, such as hydrological processes, carbon dynamics or fire disturbances, processes with an impact on society through their effects on the supply of a large array of ecosystem services.

In this seminar, we propose to address forest expansion from the point of view of the changes it has caused and will cause on landscape pattern, on ecological systems functioning and on wellbeing of society at several scales. We invite participation both from within the forest landscape ecology community and other communities with an interest in forests and landscape ecology.

Our overall aim with this seminar is to provide a science-based background for debating the role of forest systems in the process of increasing socioecological and climate resilience in Europe and in individual countries. We will focus on the processes of transformation in forest cover in Europe and how this relates to overall landscape sustainability and resilience in the subcontinent and at local scales. Finally, we will emphasize the participation of forest and landscape scientists and practitioners in the processes related to forest landscape change and how to avoid undesirable impacts and improve the benefits to the society.

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REVIEW OF LANDSCAPE INDICES TO ACCESS CONDITION AND FUNCTIONING OF DISTURBED FOREST LANDSCAPES – THE EXAMPLE OF TUCHOLA FOREST, NORTHERN POLAND

Sanjana Dutt · Mieczysław Kunz

Nicolaus Copernicus University

Understanding the intricacies of landscape-level interactions across scales becomes increasingly important as governments move toward more environmentally sustainable paradigms. Since it is acknowledged that the spatial arrangement of elements in a land-cover mosaic controls the biological processes that work within it, management strategies frequently strive to modify the structure of a landscape to achieve specific management goals.

This work uses GIS and remote sensing analyses data from two time periods, before (2016) and after disturbance (2018), over approximately 12,500 ha in Brusy Commune, Northern Poland, with the goal of obtaining a better understanding of the landscape metrics that are most suitable to study forest disturbance by a natural disaster. The hurricane that occurred on 11-12th August 2017 had gusts up to 150 km/h and destroyed about 80,000 ha of forests in central and western Poland. In the Brusy Commune, apart from forest areas, 1040 residential buildings, 1050 farm buildings, as well as 120 km of roads and 7 km of bicycle paths were destroyed. Municipal property losses were estimated at 18.6 million PLN, while private property losses were about 12.5 million PLN.

A number of review papers focusing on integrating landscape measures to ecological processes published within the last four decades were reviewed in order to create the groundwork for developing relationships connected to essential ecological processes. Furthermore, scientific literature searches were conducted using the terms 'landscape ecology', 'forest landscape', 'spatial metrics or spatial indices' and 'hurricanes'. Spatial landscape measurements were identified using the same corpus of literature, including indices found in the software program FRAGSTATS, which is a widely used application for computing landscape metrics and mapping corresponding patterns. Twelve broad landscape measures were characterized as a first-order analysis using FRAGSTATS standard designations (e.g., area/density/edge, shape, connectedness, diversity, etc.).

The landscape metrics analyses revealed crucial indicators about the nature of landscape changes, as well as important insights about the underlying ecological processes that shape them. This research is a critical first step in understanding which landscape metrics are the most suitable to study forest landscapes that are affected by windstorms. More importantly, it lays the groundwork for future studies that will link these findings to long-term ecological modeling.

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# FOREST HABITAT AVAILABILITY IN SPAIN: RECENT CHANGES AND RETROSPECTIVE RESILIENCE ASSESSMENT

Sergio González-Ávila · César López-Leiva · Juan Manuel Duch · Ramón Elena-Rosselló

Technical University of Madrid

Landscape changes and forests dynamics are a major concern for biodiversity conservation and forest management. Forests provide different ecosystem services, being habitat provision for species a key service that should be considered in planning. In this regard, habitat connectivity promotion is gaining momentum. In Spain, this has been recently acknowledged by adopting the new national strategy on green infrastructure (GI), connectivity and restoration by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, responsible for biodiversity conservation. In this context, better knowledge on forests habitat temporal trends and its patterns gains relevance. Moreover, being the barrier effect exerted by linear infrastructures a major threat to habitat connectivity, it is crucial to assess the resilience of landscapes to the disturbance they produce.

We aimed at characterizing trends in changes in forest area in the entirety of Spain, for the 1956-2018 period. Additionally, our objective was to evaluate the retrospective resilience of forest habitat to new linear infrastructures development. For that purpose, we used the Equivalent Connected Area (ECA) index, which measures forest habitat availability at the landscape scale (thus, taking into account connectivity). We calculated ECA using data derived from the Spanish Landscape Monitoring System (www.sispares.com). This dataset consists of 206 square samples of 4 x 4 km, covering the whole diversity of environmental templates in Spain. Five surveys have been carried out (1956, 1984, 1998, 2008 and 2018), producing landscape models for each sample and date. These models allowed us to track changes in forest area as well as in forest habitat availability for small sized terrestrial animals. Then, we simulated the appearance of a new linear infrastructure in each sample and date and recalculated the ECA index. In this way, we simulated this disturbance in the landscape and were able to assess how much this affected habitat availability. Moreover, by considering the temporal dimension we could also assess hypothetical trends and degree of recovery from the simulated disturbance on real landscapes. Finally, we analyzed geographical patterns of ECA values and changes, comparing both real and simulated scenarios, and some variables that could be driving differences in these patterns (i.e. abundance of forest, climate type, lithological type, date and mean resistance value for movement of animals).

Our results indicate that the degree of abundance is determinant of the resilience forest habitat, being landscapes with values around 65-75% those in which the effects could be more intense.

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# COPING WITH FIRE IN A MEDITERRANEAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE: A MULTIOBJECTIVE PLAN UNDER UNCERTAIN FUTURE GLOBAL CHANGE

Miguel Cánibe Iglesias¹,² · João C. Campos³ · Cláudia Carvalho-Santos⁴ · Virgilio Hermoso⁵ · Adrián Regos² · Ângelo Sil¹,³ · João C. Azevedo¹

¹Polytechnic Institute of Bragança · ²University of Santiago de Compostela · ³University of Porto · ⁴Minho University · ⁵University of Seville

Co-management is vital to ensure the persistence of biodiversity and the supply of ecosystem services (ES). However, effective co-management needs to address potential trade-offs between conflicting objectives. The UNESCO zoning scheme is a good tool for this purpose since it integrates multiple management zones that avoid trade-offs between management objectives. Moreover, in Mediterranean ecosystems, management also needs to account for drivers like wildfires and traditional land cover and uses that have historically shaped landscapes and the biodiversity they hold.

Here, we present a case study in the Meseta Ibérica Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, a Mediterranean landscape located in the north-western Iberian Peninsula between Portugal and Spain, affected by wildfires and land use/cover change, including the expansion of forest cover. We aim (1) to identify optimal management zone allocation for biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ES under future climate and landscape management scenarios while accounting for fire hazard, and (2) to analyse the role of the current protected area network established within the reserve in species conservation and ES supply in the future.

We used Marxan with Zones to prioritise the spatial allocation of management zones under alternative climate and landscape management scenarios. The zones considered were Core zone (dedicated to conservation), Buffer zone (conservation and Core zone buffer) and Transition zone (sustainable management). Scenarios differed in the distribution of species, ES, and fire intensity and were obtained via adapted modelling exercises calibrated under recent conditions to represent the following trends: (1) Afforestation, defined by forest expansion, (2) BAU, defined by current trends of rewilding and land abandonment, (3) FarmReturn, defined by sustainable agriculture expansion, and (4) Firesmart, defined by agriculture and agroforestry expansion promoting fire resilient-landscapes.

Our results showed that despite levels of ES varied under different scenarios, we were able to allocate management zones that help to maintain currently observed levels under all future landscape management scenarios. Biodiversity showed a high degree of temporal turnover, with some species projected to disappear from the study area or have a steep decline in their distribution which made meeting their targets within the reserve impossible. When comparing to the established zonation, our results suggest that a redesigning of the zoning is needed in the area, especially to extend the Core zone. This should also be considered for the design of protected areas in the future.

Based on our results, we recommend that future planning and management in the reserve should:
(1) expand conservation areas to ensure that biodiversity and ES are well represented in the future, and (2) implement practices aiming to develop a fire resilient landscape and promote traditional agriculture and agroforestry.

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# WHY UNDERSTANDING STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES AND EMOTIONS IS IMPORTANT IN UPLAND WOODLAND CREATION: A CASE STUDY FROM CUMBRIA, UK

Sara Vangerscov Iversen

Aarhus University

Upland regions in the United Kingdom (UK) are increasingly under consideration as potential areas for the creation of woodlands. This is driven by a combination of factors, including the aims of UK forestry and environmental policy to increase woodland cover, meeting international greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, agro-environment schemes in national and international policy, and an increasing public awareness of the ecosystem service benefits landscapes can deliver for society. Creating new woodlands in upland areas is challenging, partly due to concerns of the potential impacts from a change in land use and due to stakeholder perspectives. In the UK, the upland landscape is in multiple ownership and currently managed by multiple land managers and stakeholders with contrasting aims and objectives. This research adds a much-needed qualitative element to the overall understanding of this complex topic, by carrying out a Q-methodology investigation of stakeholder perspectives of upland woodland creation. Three characteristic groups of stakeholders are identified as: (1) ‘Not enough is done to protect the environment’, (2) ‘Changing the landscape is changing us’, and (3) ‘Let’s not let our emotions get in the – seeing the bigger picture’. The clear potential for antagonism, and even conflict, in ideologies and approaches between these groups highlights the importance of engaging with stakeholders and employing approaches rooted in mutual understanding, participation and collaboration. Stakeholder perspectives are a powerful influence on if, and how, woodlands are created and maintained, thus understanding emotions and attitudes is a vitally important part of the challenge of creating new woodlands in the uplands of Cumbria.

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# EXTENT AND SPECIES COMPOSITION OF FORESTS DEVELOPED AFTER 1940S-HUMAN DISPLACEMENT IN THE NE CARPATHIANS

Zofia Jabs-Sobocińska¹ · Andrzej Affek² · Jan Matuszkiewicz¹

¹University of Warsaw · ²Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences

Due to the displacements of Ukrainian-speaking population in the 1940s, Polish Carpathians were affected by widespread agricultural land abandonment which resulted in forest expansion. Therefore, the region is covered now with large areas of 60-70 years old recent forests, but in close distance to well-preserved ancient beech forests protected by East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve. Because of the anticipated further forest cover increase in Europe, investigating forests that developed recently and are mature enough to compare their understory species composition with ancient forests is crucial for the research on regeneration and biodiversity of both existing and future secondary forests.

Our goal was first to map post-displacement forests in the NE Carpathians, and then to compare their species composition with local ancient forests. To map post-displacement forests in the study area we used archival remote sensing data: German Flown Aerial Photography from 1944, Corona satellite images from 1969 and Sentinel-2 satellite images from 2020. Then, we randomly selected 294 forest plots, 194 in recent and 100 in ancient forests. On each plot we took a phytosociological relevé, a hemispherical photograph, and collected a soil sample (C, N and S content). Based on the analysis of relevés, we indicated understory species that occur significantly more often either in recent or in ancient forest. Then, we parametrised multiple regression models to find the most important plant traits and environmental variables that explain the differences in species frequency between recent and ancient forests.

We found that there are 87,500 ha of ancient forests and 53,800 ha of 60-70 years old recent forests in the Polish NE Carpathians. The results of field investigation revealed 15 ancient forest species (out of 215 understory species) and 9 species with significantly higher cover and frequency in recent forests. We compared these species with the species that are on the lists of ancient-forest species compiled for Poland and Europe and found significant discrepancies. First, only 15 species revealed to be indicative of ancient forests in our research area, second, because three species from those lists (Brachypodium sylvaticum, Impatiens noli-tangere and Circaea lutetiana) occurred significantly more often in the Carpathian recent forests. Our conclusion is therefore that the existing broader-scale lists are of limited use when it comes to the identification of ancient forests in the NE Carpathians. We also demonstrated that the specific traits (life form, leaf persistence and dispersal mode) of ancient-forest species explain better the differences in species composition between ancient and recent forests than environmental variables.

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APPLICATION OF SIG (TROPHIC SOIL INDEX) IN ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF POST-
ARABLE SOILS AFFORESTED WITH SILVER BIRCH

Bogusława Kruczkowska¹ · Jerzy Jonczak¹ · Aleksandra Chojnacka¹ · Urszula Jankiewicz¹ · Marek Kondras¹ · Lidia Oktaba¹ · Jarosław Oktaba¹ · Izabella Olejniczak² · Edyta Pawłowicz¹ · Sandra Słowińska³ · Edyta Regulska³

¹Warsaw University of Life Sciences · ²Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University · ³Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences

A quantitative index of essential soil properties created by Brożek et al. (2008), the Trophic Soil Index (SIG), is calculated based on fundamental soil chemical and physical properties, such as content of the Ø < 0.02 mm fraction, sum of exchangeable alkaline cations, hydrolytic acidity, total nitrogen and organic carbon contents, soil bulk density and genetic horizons thickness. Diagnosing trophic variants of soil subtypes by means of indexes as SIG may lead to the simplification of soil division into groups with similar properties, regardless of the soil type or subtype. This study attempts to determine the potential of forest soils to provide selected ecosystem services using SIG.

Research was conducted on post-arable areas afforested with silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) located in central Poland. Stands of different ages and soil types (Brunic Arenosols – BA and Cambisols – C) were selected for the study. For comparison, the research was also carried out on agricultural soils located in the direct vicinity of examined forests. Such variables as: particle-size distribution, content of basic cations, hydrolytic acidity, total contents of organic carbon and nitrogen, bulk density were identified in collected soil samples.

The application of SIG showed variation in the quality of the same soil types, depending on the stand age and specificity of land use, reflected in the form of trophism, and thus diversity in their potential to provide ecosystem services. The studied soils represented all trophic types, from dystrophic to eutrophic. In five out of ten compared pairs of profiles or, as in the case of the BA-40 site – five profiles, an increase of trophism was observed in soils with a similar typology in favor of agricultural soils due to fertilization.

Particular components of the SIG are adequate indicators for assessing the potential of soils to provide ecosystem services. Their impact on soil functioning and effect on individual elements of the natural environment is of such importance that they are also considered when constructing other existing soil quality indicators. Soil quality, as expressed by organic carbon content, among others, is expected to be relatively high in soils covered by older stands. Application of the SIG showed that in the case of Brunic Arenosols there is high dynamics of their trophism, whereas the above-mentioned relationship does not occur. Cambisols demonstrate a much higher stabilization of trophic conditions, regardless of the stand age. The obtained results indicate greater stability of the potential to provide ecosystem services (mainly in the Regulation and Maintenance section according to CICES V5.1) of Cambisols in comparison to Brunic Arenosols. The SIG index can be employed in identifying similarities and differences in the potential of typologically identical soils to provide selected ecosystem services.

This study was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (Project No.2018/31/B/NZ9/01994).

Brożek S. et al. (2008). Liczbowy indeks troficznych odmian podtypów gleb bielicowych i rdzawych. Roczniki Gleboznawcze, 60(1): 7-17.
# FOREST LANDSCAPE CHANGES AFTER DEEP LAND USE AND HUMAN POPULATION CHANGES: A CASE STUDY IN LA RIOJA REGION (SPAIN)

César López-Leiva · Sergio González-Ávila · David Ballesteros-Gutiérrez · Álvaro Benito-González · Eduardo Fernández-Fuertes · Elena Hidalgo-Gómez · Fernando Bezares-Sanfelip

Technical University of Madrid

La Rioja region (Spain) is a representative territory of the central northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, covering about 5045 km². It comprises two defined sectors: the Ebro Valley and the mountainous area in the Southern side. Land uses changed abruptly over the last 70 years. In the mountains, the previous pastures, created by means of forest cutting, clearing and burning, were shaped from medieval times until the mid-20th century. Once the outstanding transhumance activities collapsed due to the decrease of human population, pastures and marginal agricultural terraced lands evolved into a mosaic of emerging forests and scrublands. The abandonment was driven by emigration and the subsequent urban sprawl, mostly located in the Ebro Valley, which is mainly devoted to agriculture. This dynamic framework led to passive ecological restoration, providing new ecosystem services such as the increase of bionomic quality, habitat connectivity, carbon capture, biodiversity, water regulation and erosion control, albeit other negative effects may arise (i.e., wildfire risks derived from the increase of biomass).

Through different studies, we aimed at producing quantitative data related to landscape transformation in Cameros (855,59 km²), the central mountainous Riojan core, within the period 1956-2017 by means of a thorough classification of land use types based on structural traits of plant communities. At a more detailed scale, we analysed the rise in cover density in 17 open forests ('dehesas') scattered in the area as municipal common lands. These 'dehesas' were reserved for low intensity management, a cultural practice currently abandoned. We uncovered the spatial pattern of trees within each 'dehesa', the substitution of dominant canopy and the magnitude of change for the same period. In the Eastern Cameros the change processes showed a slower temporal pattern, in our view due to a highly Mediterranean climate, but in the Western, a wetter area, a more rapid encroachment occurred. The recent urban-based ecotourism may enhance the re-evaluation of ecological and cultural signs in the landscape whilst a proper understanding of forest management and historical evolution – inseparable from human action – should be conveyed.

In addition, we also analysed landscape changes from 1956 to 2017 in some pilot municipalities. We mapped polygons (vegetation tesserae), linear elements (hedgerows) and points (isolated trees). Opposite-sign effects took place in these agricultural areas of the Valley. Until the 1970s, natural vegetation enclaves still remained prior to the intensification of agriculture (predominant since the Roman rule). In the last five decades, a large number of isolated natural Quercus patches and several scrubs disappeared as a consequence of land consolidation and infrastructure construction. Through these complementary analyses in the area we characterised both expansion and reduction of forests following deep socioeconomic changes.

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TOWARDS A NON-MONETARY VALUATION OF FOREST ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AT
THE LOCAL SCALE: A CASE STUDY IN SOUTHERN GERMANY

Markus Meyer¹ · Christoph Schulz²

¹Anhalt University of Applied Sciences · ²Bavarian Forest Agency

The ecosystem services concept challenges established management and planning tools. To test the potential added value in forest management and planning, we applied the ecosystem services concept at a local level addressing the spatial and organizational forest management entity. We assessed the current state of biodiversity and 15 ecosystem services (ES) for an urban and a rural forest area, owned and managed by the municipality of Augsburg, Germany. We mapped provisioning areas and quantified flows of ecosystem services. We approached ecosystem services' benefits and values by means of stakeholder valuation and by four additional conceptualizations: range of benefiting areas, number of beneficiaries, categories of well-being and designated protected areas.

Both, the urban and the rural forest area provide on average seven ES, ranging between three and 13 ES. Patterns of overlapping ES provisioning areas led to more than 200 different combinations of ES (ES bundles). Provision and protection of water and recreation were the most valuable ES in the urban forest, while timber production dominated in the rural forest.

While ES provisioning areas and ES flows serve to locate and quantify ES, our valuation approach helps to rank ES within ES bundles. In dependence on priority areas, ES bundles with the same ES combination than have locally different rankings and help to make local management decisions.

However, collection of local ES data was complex and laborious and still revealed considerable differences in accuracy with available modeling tools developed for regional-scale ES assessments. Thus, improved local ES data from models and realistic approximations are necessary to incorporate the ES concept in local forest management and planning.

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ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF FIRE SEVERITY AND MULCH STRIPS IN MITIGATING SOIL EROSION AND CARBON LOSSES AFTER THE SIERRA BERMEJA MEGAFIRE (2021)

Sergio Prats¹ · Sandra Nicolas² · Sara De Paula² · Sergio Prats-Fons³ · Carlos Prats-Alegre³ · Francisco Senra⁴ · Javier Madrigal²

¹University of Evora · ²National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology - Center for International Forestry Research · ³Grupo Mandrágora · ⁴AMAYA. Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua de Andalucía

Wildfires strongly enhance the hydrologic and erosion responses of burned forest, with important implications on carbon dynamics. Wildfires impact on society through their effects on the supply of a large array of soil ecosystem services, i.e., water provision, erosion prevention, carbon storage or climate regulation. This study aims to assess the implications on soil erosion and carbon losses of the Sierra Bermeja megafire, which burned 10,000 ha in southern Iberian Peninsula in September 2021, on steep, peridotite-derived pine forest soils. Specifically, we assessed: (1) the effect of fire severity on soil erosion at point-hillslope (1-40 m²) scales, (2) the capacity of mulch strips to reduce soil erosion, and (3) the implications of fire severity and mulch strips on soil carbon balance for the first 4 post-fire months.

To this end, in the framework of the INTERREG CILIFO project (0753-CILIFO-5-E), 9 study sites were instrumented: 3 unburned, 3 low-severity and 3 high-severity burned sites. Automatic rainfall gauges, small (1 m²) and hillslope (40 m²) soil erosion plots and litter traps were installed in these sites. Additionally, on the high severity sites 3 hillslope plots were treated with a minimum mulch strip on the lower 3 m of the 4 × 10 m hillslope plots (pine-slash applied at 3 Mg ha⁻¹ over the entire plot). Soil, litter and sediment samples are being processed for evaluating C, N and P contents.

Preliminary results show that rainfall amount was low (301 mm) but intense (maximum rainfall intensity in 30 minutes of 53 mm h⁻¹). Soil erosion of the topsoil layer, the richest in soil carbon, was very high for the high severity sites, totalizing 11 and 10 Mg ha⁻¹, respectively for the small and hillslope plots. Soil erosion was substantially lower for the low severity sites, with 0.1 and 2.3 Mg ha⁻¹, respectively for the small and big plots, and it was below 0.07 Mg ha⁻¹ for all the unburned plots. Litter amount, mostly composed of needles falling from the dead trees, was only 0.3 Mg ha⁻¹ on the high severity sites, while it was 3.9 Mg ha⁻¹ on the low severity and 0.8 Mg ha⁻¹ on the unburned sites. These results showed that the high amount of litter on the low severity protected the soils from erosion of the rainfall drops. Additionally, the effect of the mulch strip reduced the amount of soil erosion in 80%, as compared to the untreated high-severity erosion plots. We conclude that sites attaining a ground cover after the wildfire – such as the low severity sites – are protected against soil erosion and therefore, not target for intervention. Additionally, the application of a minimum mulch strip, using local pine wood, can effectively reduce soil erosion. These findings will guide future interventions in order to minimize soil erosion and increase carbon storage in burned areas. Future research will focus on the calculation of soil C, N, P balances and the implications of strip mulching on the ecosystem services after megafires.

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THE EFFECTS OF PLANTING BIRCH FORESTS ON EARTHWORM COMMUNITY IN
POST-ARABLE SOILS

Edyta Regulska¹ · Andrzej Affek¹ · Marek Kondras² · Sandra Słowińska¹ · Jerzy Jonczak² ·
Bogusława Kruczkowska² · Lidia Oktaba² · Edyta Pawłowicz² · Izabella Olejniczak³ · Urszula
Jankiewicz² · Jarosław Oktaba² · Aleksandra Chojnacka²

¹Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences · ²Warsaw University of Life Sciences · ³Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University

Silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) is one of the most widespread birch species in the Europe, which results from its ability to perform well on a great diversity of soils. It commonly occurs in the naturally regenerating and planted forests, usually as a forecrop at post-arable sites. In recent decades, afforestation with birch instead of other species has become more popular. One of the reasons is that it is recognized as a pioneer species improving forest resilience and biodiversity (Dubois et al., 2020). However, there are many knowledge gaps regarding the impact of birch trees on soil biota, including on the earthworms (Jonczak et al., 2020), which are important ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services, e.g., decomposition, nutrient cycling and climate regulation (Blouin et al., 2013).

Our aim was therefore to determine the effects of planting birch forest on earthworm community in post-arable soils. We formulated the following research question: Is there a difference, and if so, how do the communities of earthworms differ in arable soil and in soil of post-agricultural birch forest? Ten birch stands aged 15-80, located in central Poland, were selected as the study area. Different age groups were studied because with increase in birch age, the chemistry of the soils also changes with input of litter quality. Five stands were located on Brunic Arenosols (light-textured, nutrient-poor soils), and the other five – on Cambisols (medium-textured, nutrients-rich soils). In each stand and in the neighbouring arable land earthworms were sampled. Three 0.25 × 0.25 × 0.30-m soil blocks were handsorted in spring and late summer/early autumn 2020 and 2021 (in total twelve samples were taken per site). Individuals were counted, weighed and divided into three ecological groups (epigeic, endogeic and anecic species).

Our results showed that much higher biomass and density of earthworms was in Cambisols than in Brunic Arenosols, both in birch forests and in arable land. Furthermore, there were a greater abundance of earthworms in birch stands than in the neighbouring fields in both Cambisols (expect intermediate age birch stands) and Brunic Arenosols (expect the youngest birch stands).

*This study was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (Project No. 2018/31/B/NZ9/01994).*

Blouin M. et al. (2013). *A review of earthworm impact on soil function and ecosystem services*. Eur. J. Soil Sci., 64(2): 161-182.

Dubois H. et al. (2020). *Potential of Birch (Betula pendula Roth and B. pubescens Ehrh.) for Forestry and Forest-Based Industry Sector within the Changing Climatic and Socio-Economic Context of Western Europe*. Forests, 11: 336.

Jonczak J. et al. (2020). *The influence of birch trees (Betula spp.) on soil environment – A review*. For. Ecol. Manag., 477: 118486.

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COMPARING THE EFFECT OF FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ON FIRE
REGULATION CAPACITY IN A MEDITERRANEAN MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE
UNDERGOING FARMLAND ABANDONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Ângelo Sil¹,²,³ · João C. Azevedo³ · Paulo M. Fernandes² · Adrián Regos¹,⁴ · João Campos¹ · João A. Santos² · Teresa Freitas² · João P. Honrado¹

¹University of Porto · ²University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro · ³Polytechnic Institute of Bragança · ⁴Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia

Fire is a fundamental Earth process that influences most terrestrial ecosystems. In turn, global change drivers (e.g., land use/cover change, climate change) may alter characteristics of fires and affect fire regimes in the future. In recent past decades, many mountainous regions of the Mediterranean Basin experienced significant landscape changes caused by farmland abandonment that fostered the encroachment of semi-natural vegetation on former cropland and the expansion of natural or planted forests. Consequently, such changes may have increased fuel hazard in the landscape which, together with future climate aggravation, can lead to the occurrence of fire events that exceed the landscape capacity to regulate them posing challenges to the future management of these regions. In this context, modelling and simulation approaches are useful to test alternative landscape management strategies under climate change scenarios and predict their effect on future fire regimes and ecosystem functions and services (e.g., fire regulation).

In this study, we applied the LANDIS-II forest landscape model to a fire-prone mountainous
landscape of the Mediterranean Basin undergoing farmland abandonment. We simulated landscape
and fire dynamics (2020-2050) to explore the effect of different fire management strategies (e.g.,
business-as-usual, forest-oriented and silvopasture-oriented management) on the landscape capacity
to regulate fire (FRC) under two climate change scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5). Then, we analysed the
simulated fire regime attributes and landscape dynamics and compared them to historical (1989-
2019) observed data for the area and among each combination of fire management and climate
scenarios in the future.

Overall, our results suggest that FRC tend to decrease in the future, particularly under the RCP 8.5 climate scenario. However, the magnitude of the effect varies depending on the fire management strategy implemented. Based on the results of this study, we discuss the implications of alternative management strategies for the supply of fire-related ecosystem services (e.g., fire protection) in mountainous fire-prone landscapes of the Mediterranean region in the context of global changes.

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CONTEMPORARY LOCAL SCALE TRANSFORMATION ON POST-AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN CENTRAL POLAND

Agnieszka Sosnowska · Andrzej Harasimiuk

University of Warsaw

Over the past thirty years in Poland there was a significant forest expansion in post-agricultural landscapes. It was a consequence of socio-economic changes, e.g., outflow to cities, transformation in agriculture, small farms merging, and excluding fields from agricultural use. The main reason for the latter was a decline in profitability of soil cultivation of the least fertile soils or those transformed by erosion. Fields' abandonment has led to important landscape transformation. Those changes proceeded quickly, so it makes them a valuable basis for macroscopic observations. They are mainly expressed in changes of plant cover as well as in functioning, seen in the cycle of elements (their bioconcentration in soils and plants).

The main research issue was to define the ways of functioning in the post-agricultural lands and to compare it with those of arable and forest lands. The research was focused on soils and vegetation and their mutual relations, as other natural components, such as climate, geological substratum, and water conditions, are relatively constant. The research was carried out in Central Poland (Middle Mazovian Lowland) where the features of the natural environment (low trophic substrate), together with a socio-economic transformation influenced an increase in fallow lands. It was observed that a termination of cultivating led to huge changes in land cover. In result of secondary succession were observed a development of plant communities consisting mainly of pioneer and invasive species characterized by high expansion and dynamics of colonization (e.g., silver birch *Betula pendula* Roth., Aspen poplar *Populus tremula* L., Scot's pine *Pinus silvestris* L., goldenrod *Solidago* L. or wood small-reed *Calamagrostis epigejos* L.). Sites of different density and age of vegetation, as well as species composition (different stages of secondary succession) were chosen for detailed research, with plant and soil material collected from them. The plant material included whole plants (goldenrod, wood small-reed), and individual organs (leaves, bark, wood, branches) of birch, poplar and Pedunculate oak *Quercus robur* L., which enters in the later succession stages as an admixture. In the case of poplar and oak, several-year-old individuals were taken together with the monolith of the surrounding soil to the depth of the root zone. Macro- and microelements were determined in the collected samples. On this basis were determined: a relationship between content and concentration of elements in individual plant organs, and an impact of plant supply on changes in the chemical properties of soils. Those changes contributed to a formation of a new spatial and functional landscape structure in the post-agriculture lands.

The final stage of the research was an attempt to create functional models based on variability of chemical characteristics and the mass balance of nutrients under various types of use (agricultural, post-agricultural and forest).

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REGENERATION PROCESSES OF FOREST STANDS OF THE TUCHOLA FOREST (RYTEL FOREST DISTRICT, POLAND) AFTER HURRICANE WINDS IN 2017 – PRELIMINARY RESEARCH RESULTS

Barbara Waldon-Rudzionek · Renata Hoffmann · Anna Frymark-Szymkowiak · Mikołaj Matela

Kazimierz Wielki University

Climate change is increasingly causing extreme weather phenomena. During the night of August 11-12 in 2017, hurricane winds blowing at a speed of over 150 km/h damaged around 80,000 ha of forests in Poland. As a result of the “hurricane of the century”, the forests of the Rytel Forest District in Tuchola Forest, suffered the greatest losses, where 64% of the stands were destroyed.

In 2019, in cooperation with the State Forests, Rytel Forest District, long-term research was initiated to observe the rate and directions of regeneration processes in forest fragments designated for natural regeneration (reference areas, without interference) and stimulated in various ways by foresters – by planting in Szymański's areas and in rows, after previously removing the wood and mulching the remaining biomass. Undamaged control areas were delimitated in the closest possible vicinity of each of the regeneration areas. The observations were carried out within alder forest, mixed marsh forest, fresh forests, mixed fresh forests and fresh coniferous forest. Phytosociological relevés were performed in each are by using the Braun-Blanquet method and in fresh coniferous forests, an analysis of respiratory activity of soil microorganisms was additionally made.

The destroyed fragment of the alder forest, differed from the control plot by a greater proportion of *Ribes nigrum* and *Rubus idaeus* in the subgrowth and *Urtica dioica* in the undergrowth.

The mixed swamp forest with damaged tree tops was characterized by an abundant undergrowth of *Populus tremula* and a significant share of helophytes in the undergrowth.

In the case of fresh forests, the damaged areas differed from the control ones by the strong development of brambles, mainly *Rubus idaeus*, greater coverage of *Deschampsia caespitosa*, and generally a greater number of species. Seedlings of *Betula pendula*, *Fagus sylvatica*, as well as synanthropic plants such as *Conyza canadensis* and typical for open places: *Hieracium pilosella*, *Hypericum perforatum* appeared.

The damaged areas of fresh mixed forests were characterized by the abundant undergrowth of *Populus tremula*, *Acer platanoides*, *Quercus robur*, *Sambucus nigra* and *S. racemosa*. In the undergrowth, however, nitrophilous species (*Chaerophyllum temulum*, *Chelidonium majus*, *Geranium robertianum*), as well as hygrophilous (*Phragmites communis*, *Solanum dulcamara*) and meadow (*Deschampsia caespitosa*, *Poa pratensis*) species appeared. One of the areas was distinguished by a large share of *Quercus rubra* seedlings and a significant coverage of *Deschampsia flexuosa*.

In fresh forest, despite the destruction of the stand, the undergrowth was still dominated by *Deschampsia flexuosa*, and the moss layer was well developed. The destruction of trees also resulted in a significant reduction in the activity of soil microorganisms, regardless of the method of regeneration of the site.

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# 3. Learning from data

## Big data science in social-ecological systems towards
sustainable landscape management

### Symposium organisers

Martin Schultze (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Evelyn Asante-Yeboah (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Praveen Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Christine Fürst (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

### Summary

Forecasting sustainable landscape management under future scenarios of climate change aspects, land-use changes and different socio-economic drivers demand integration of new knowledge sources across scientific disciplines. The symposium will bring together scientists, practitioners and students discussing big data approaches, monitoring methods as well as novel modelling concepts relevant to questions such as (1) How does big data facilitate a better understanding of human-nature interactions? and (2) What frameworks and strategies do ensure a successful implementation to achieve sustainable landscape management practices?

### Description

Earth's ecosystems toward sustainable management practices are often severely impacted by complex social, economic and environmental interactions. Human behaviour that threatens land sustainability is closely connected to multiple spatio-temporal scale processes such as climate change, agricultural (mis-) management or soil depletion. A key challenge to unveil such social-ecological system dynamics requests for novel approaches to reconsider nature provisions to human well-being. The growing awareness of traditional research about land use changes or ecosystem resilience to disturbances can deliver essential information strengthening future nature's health. Thus, converting the retrospective into forward-looking tools allows to set up sustainable environmental baseline targets to action best land practices. This is often referred to as big data science touching increasingly real-world complexity, including different streams of knowledge. Possibilities occurring from big data are considered pivotal to gain an understanding that can inform stakeholders, practitioners or even decision-makers. The proliferation of social media, earth observing systems and ecological monitoring networks have generated large pools of data sources. These technologies provide the capacity to create, aggregate and cross-reference big data to design alternative land management strategies. Such advances promote significant analytical importance addressing social-ecological system properties along identifying landscape boundaries, essential drivers or ecosystem functions. Complementing the creation of big data in ecosystem management will need the incorporation of simulation systems. Arising innovative modelling techniques from multiple disciplines fosters both (1) a culture of sharing datasets and (2) supporting an integrated coupling of socio-economic and environmental systems from local to global scales. Recent developments in data-driven approaches such as machine learning allow to process big data, whereas cloud computing sustains a flexible supply of on-demand services. This relation between big data and modern technologies ensures a robust concept according to complex social-ecological questions such as how human interventions impact the stability of environmental processes and biodiversity.
Hence, the symposium aims at bringing together complementary perspectives in simulating social-ecological systems toward future landscape management. Session talks should focus on the following themes:

* Advancement in using multiple data sources such as social media, sensor information as well as networks for modelling social-ecological systems.

* Novel technical solutions to handle big data (e.g. artificial intelligence, open system initiatives), data-sharing practices and cloud computing.

* Supporting decision-makers in designing sustainable land management strategies by involving modern simulation systems.

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AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE CHANGE IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF LAND IN AREAS
OF GAIN AND DISPLACEMENT

Felicia Akinyemi¹,² · Chinwe Ifejika Speranza¹

¹University of Bern · ²University of Neuchâtel

Despite the loss of agricultural lands as well as abandonment in certain world regions, agricultural land area is increasing globally. This increasing trend stems mainly from increased demand for agricultural products (that is, food and non-food) and changing preferences in people's diet. As agriculture is a major factor driving global environmental degradation, practicing agriculture sustainably with minimal negative environmental impacts is a challenge, especially in biodiverse, tropical regions.

A comprehensive assessment of change in agricultural landscapes and the associated land quality was conducted between 2000 and 2018. Land quality was established based on the change in Net Primary Productivity (NPP), Soil Organic Carbon content (SOC), percent change in crop yield and Crop Suitability Index for five crops of global importance (maize, rice, soybean, wheat, and alfalfa). NPP connotes the land's biological productive capacity (e.g., for providing food, fiber); SOC is a proxy for soil health and fertility; crop yield and land suitability for cultivation are productivity metrics. We identify influencing factors and model the quality of land associated with agricultural land gains and losses.

We examine the case of the continent Africa, considering its cropland expansion frontiers of global note. Agricultural land expansion in Africa is occurring in the context of heightened population pressure, increasing distal demands for land-based products and foreign and domestic land acquisitions. Here, the knowledge about major agricultural land use transitions and their impacts on the quality of land is still very limited. With pressure mounting to halt biodiversity loss and stem land degradation in agricultural areas, promoting sustainable agriculture requires not only an understanding of agricultural land-use change but also the impacts on land quality.

Distance to settlement and major roads was important in explaining agricultural land dynamics. Most cropland gain areas were associated with large distances away from major roads, suggesting remoteness of gained croplands. Land quality was better in gained croplands than in those lost, whereas gained grasslands were of lesser quality compared to areas of grassland loss. Five typologies of countries were developed based on net yield and amount of land cultivated per crop in cropland change areas. Type 1 typifies net yield increase and cultivated land decrease, while type 2 is characterized by yield increase consequent upon cropland expansion. Net yield and land remain unchanged in type 3, while in type 4 cultivated land increased but yield decreased as in 40% of African countries for maize, and in type 5, both yield and land area decreased. This study thus provides evidence about the quality of land in gained and lost agricultural areas and generalizable insights on their dynamics.

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THE IMPACT OF LAND-USE/LAND-COVER CHANGES DRIVEN BY SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS ON THE PROVISION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN SOUTH-WESTERN GHANA USING A STAKEHOLDER-BASED MODELLING APPROACH

Evelyn Asante-Yeboah · HongMi Koo · Christine Furst

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Understanding the linkage between land use and land management decisions and the status of ecosystem services (ES) is important to identify how land-use/land-cover modifications can affect the supply of human benefits. However, the involvement of the people who are the direct users of land and beneficiaries of ES has not been well reflected in the ES evaluation especially in the context of West Africa. This study used a stakeholder-based modeling approach to assess the current and potential impacts of land-use/land-cover changes driven by socio-economic factors in the southwestern part of Ghana. The approach involved the selection process of legitimate stakeholders using the influence-interest matrix, site-specific selection of ES and indicators based on literature review and stakeholder surveys, and spatially explicit simulation of current land use patterns and future land use patterns influenced by land-use/land-cover change. The simulated current and future land-use patterns were integrated with potential ES values for analyzing the relationship between land-use/land-cover patterns and the provision of ES at the local level.

The result showed how land-use/land-cover changes driven by socio-economic activities can lead to a change in the capacity of the landscape to provide ES, which is visualized as trade-offs and synergies. In addition, how local perceptions can influence the landscape capacity of ES provision was identified through a stakeholder-based modeling result. The stakeholder-based modeling approach offered a context-specific evaluation of ES and its integration into site-specific ES evaluations is recommended.

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# USING SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW DATA TO ASSESS CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN METROPOLITAN AREAS OF GERMANY AND CHINA

Christin Busch¹ · Matthias Falke² · Katrin Bernard¹

¹Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development · ²Ruhr University Bochum

As a carrier of multiple ecosystem services (ES), green infrastructure (GI) can significantly foster the resilience of an urban area. Facing challenges such as climate change and rapid urbanization, ensuring the well-being of urban residents through protection and expansion of GI thus plays a key role in sustainable landscape management and urban planning. In contrast to regulating and provisioning ES, cultural ecosystems services (CES) compromise the non-material benefits people obtain from urban ecosystems. The intangibility and subjectivity commonly associated with CES, however, impedes mapping and assessment of CES.

Recently, the systematic analysis of social media (SM) data emerged as a promising approach for CES assessment. A large part of these studies focuses on the assessment of geotagged photos from platforms such as Instagram, Flickr or Panoramio. However, image analysis is subject to strong subjective decisions, especially when neglecting the textual comments beneath the image, that can falsify the results.

Against this background, our study explores the possibilities for assessing CES through a structured analysis of text-based comments on SM platforms. For the period of 2017-2021, we extracted more than 18,000 comments for over 15 GI types (e.g. parks, forests, community gardens, etc.) in three urban areas in the Ruhr area, Germany, and Shanghai, China. Based on all CES classes listed in the CICES 5.1 classification framework the comments were then systematically coded using qualitative data analysis software.

The results provide a sophisticated and distinct pattern of local CES demand & supply for all three cities. Overall, aesthetic experiences (CICES 3.1.2.4) accounted for the majority of the mentions in all cities, followed by passive or observing interactions (CICES 3.1.1.2) as well as active or immersive interactions (CICES 3.1.1.1). Regarding individual CES classes, there were differences both between the individual GI types and between the three cities. Moreover, we also identified information on how material and non-material GI-assets facilitate or impede the flow of CES. Such relational information on GI-assets and the flow of CES could provide relevant insights for a people-oriented landscape and GI management.

The applied method represents a grounded, cost-effective and time saving approach for a preliminary CES-assessment of GI. Due to the widespread use of SM and availability of data, the approach offers broad potential for transferability. Still, limitations arise from the socio-structural representativeness and comparability of SM data across cities. Thus, complementary desk-research and/or additional empirical survey remain a prerequisite to verify preliminary results.

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ASSESSING THE POTENTIAL OF MACHINE LEARNING FOR DEVELOPING LANDSCAPE TYPOLOGIES

Adrienne Grêt-Regamey · Maarten Van Strien

ETH Zürich

Land system and landscape science both seek to understand land cover and land use change resulting from the actions of humans and their interactions with natural factors. While several authors have tried to identify land use change based on remotely sensed data, most current landscape typologies fail to consider complex landscape patterns and social-ecological interactions. Machine learning technologies have been promoted as opening the path to new classification approaches, but the question remains if they will better allow delineating complex landscape patterns emphasizing socio-ecological interactions.

In this contribution, we present several experiments with the creation of landscape typologies with machine learning and how they were incorporated in an iterative, participatory process. We compared the landscape typologies with available typologies and discussed them with experts. We performed our analyses based on a set of available spatial data including elevation, land use and land cover, population density, historic traffic routes and specific historical landscape elements, as well as ecosystem services. We compared indicator-based GIS fuzzy logic approach with several supervised (K-Means clustering, convolutional neural networks and self-organizing maps) and unsupervised (random forest and support vector machine) approaches. The results of several of these techniques were used in a participatory process in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, characterized by a high landscape heterogeneity.

Interestingly was the fact, that the machine learning algorithms identified some new typologies, which had not been identified by the experts, which led to interesting discussions about the existence of newly emerged landscape typologies. These new typologies were used as inputs for adapting the expert landscape typology. At a Switzerland-wide scale, we also investigated the use of Deep Convolutional Embedded Clustering (DCEC), which is a novel technique that has specifically been designed for the automated clustering of images. We show that DCEC successfully learned features and provided well-distinguishable clusters of images. But again, the majority of classes showed little spatial similarity with existing typologies, indicating that DCEC could only be used to inform experts about distinguishing landscape features and patterns, but not to develop comprehensive landscape typologies.

While the computer generated landscape typologies could thus not be used as a final product, the maps were highly useful as an intermediate input to support the expert-based landscape classification. Furthermore, the DCEC methodology allowed the identification of recurrent landscape patterns. In summary, the combination of qualitative and quantitative, expert-based and computer-aided methods has proved a successful approach to making landscape diversity tangible and developing its cultural-historical and identity-forming values.

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# ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY OF MAPPED SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN THE CENTRAL HIMALAYA

Praveen Kumar¹ · Christine Fürst² · PK Joshi¹

¹Jawaharlal Nehru University · ²Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

The research attempts to understand and relate the two pertinent aspects in the Himalayas, environment, and society. This research helped in understanding the complex relationship between social and ecological systems. It aimed to comprehend the vulnerability of coupled socio-ecological systems (SESs) to climate change in mountains. The work focussed on identifying and understanding SESs, and later, assessing the vulnerability of SESs to climate change in the Himalayas.

The SESs were mapped and identified through hierarchical clustering of socio-economic and ecological variables and were used as templates for the assessment. The assessment was done using the boundaries of SESs instead of administrative boundaries as the SES approach offers insights into the socio-economic and ecological determinants that contribute to high climate change vulnerability. Primary data was collected through the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method at household levels from 14 villages in 3 different SESs. An indicator-based approach was used to assess the components of the vulnerability index for the SES. Exposure, Sensitivity and Adaptive capacity indicators were determined to calculate the socio-ecological vulnerability index (SVI).

The results showed varying patterns of vulnerability across the SESs. The outcomes helped in recognizing the vulnerable SESs to support local needs and identify gaps in existing policies and institutional arrangements for sustainable development of the Himalayas. The SES based vulnerability assessment provides a robust methodology that could be adopted in the entire Indian Himalayan region and other mountain ecosystems.

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PROBLEMS WITH SPATIAL BIG DATA PROCESSING ON THE EXAMPLE OF PHYSICO-
GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONALISATION OF THE WIELKOPOLSKIE VOIVODESHIP

Witold Piniarski

Adam Mickiewicz University

Earlier studies that concern a division of the Wielkopolskie voivodeship into physico-geographical units in rank of a microregion has shown wide range of problems connected with accessible datasets (Macias et al., 2020; Piniarski, 2020). First, it was necessary to collect spatial data layers that corresponds to many and various characteristics of the environment of the study area. Secondly, all the datasets required initial preparation and unification to make it usable in desired GIS processing, to conduct multi-criteria physico-geographical regionalisation. However, it is rather noticeable that the problem with over time-consuming big data processing in GIS lies not only in the complexity of the data itself but also in specific deficiencies in performance of the software solutions. It is still quite common for GIS software to offer weak hardware support in terms of using the potential of accessible computation unit and most of all lack of support of modern hardware acceleration technologies.

The study presents encountered problems with processing large and complex geographic datasets that can be considered as Spatial Big Data. Initial research included analysis of the following environment characteristics of the study area: geological structure, landform genesis and its morphometric characteristics, as well as waters, soils and vegetation. Selected characteristics stand for criteria of the physico-geographical division. A regular net of squares with sides in size of 50 meters was written into the whole study area. This fact determines a precision of all further analyses. Ultimately, close to 12 million of 2500 m² test fields were designated within the area of the Wielkopolskie voivodeship. Furthermore, considering all 6 criteria means processing of spatial data for nearly 72 million test fields with 288 million of vertexes. In general, complicated geometries of the data with rather complex attribute tables results in lots of computation issues that could be potentially fixed with usage of more effective software and algorithms that supports hardware acceleration.

Despite the encountered limitations, researchers managed to obtain landscape contrast map for the study area. The map was a baseline for micro-regionalisation. In the Wielkopolskie voivodeship, 228 microregions have been designated, for which detailed natural characteristics have been determined and their dominant features indicated. They were the basis for the designation of 48 physico-geographical mesoregions.

Macias A. et al. (2020). *Physical and Geographical Regionalization and Environmental Management: A Case Study in Poland*. Pol. J. Environ. Stud., 29(4): 2753-2762.

Piniarski W. (2020). *Delimitation of physico-geographical micoregions of the Greater Poland Voivodeship using multi-criteria environment analysis*. Poznań: Adam Mickiewicz University. (PhD thesis)

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A GIS-BASED PROCEDURE FOR PHYSICO-GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONALISATION WITH USAGE OF SPATIAL BIG DATA IN MULTI-CRITERIA ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

Witold Piniarski

Adam Mickiewicz University

The interest in physico-geographical regionalisation has significantly increased in recent years due to the implementation of the European Landscape Convention. One of the most important studies connected with this issue was the concept of verification and adjustment of the boundaries of physico-geographical mesoregions of Poland based on contemporary spatial data and modern GIS tools (Solon et al., 2018). The programme of identification, cataloguing and evaluation of landscapes for each voivodeship in Poland brought the necessity of correction of the commonly accepted regionalisation of Poland developed by J. Kondracki and A. Richling in 1994. The accuracy of existing physico-geographical units was insufficient for the purpose of landscape cataloguing. GIS software alongside with modern computing technologies has revolutionised the set of tools available for nowadays geographers. It not only helped with increasing details of existing regionalisation but also make it possible to introduce even more accurate units in rank of microregions for large parts of the country. One of the examples is the micro-regionalisation of the Wielkopolskie voivodeship that have been used in the work related to the landscape audit (Piniarski, 2020; Macias, Bródka eds., 2021).

The objective of the work is to present the procedure that led to the division of the area of the Wielkopolskie voivodeship into physico-geographical microregions. The concept scheme of the delimitation procedure consists of 6 essential parts that include various geometrical operations and spatial data analysis proceed with certain GIS tools. The methodological solutions adopted in the work are in accordance with the major guidelines proposed in the mid-1970s by J. Kondracki. The study tested the possibility of using statistical methods and GIS for the purposes of regionalisation. During the research, technical difficulties related to the limited performance of available computational solutions were encountered, especially in case of processing large spatial datasets (Spatial Big Data). Therefore, much effort was devoted to methodological problems and technological challenges related to the conduction of detailed divisions for vast areas. Determining the boundaries of physico-geographical units based on available source materials has proved to be an extremely complex process but thanks to GIS processing tools and developed scheme can be prepared and shown in just a few single steps.

Bródka S., Macias A. (Eds.) (2021). *Physico-geographical regions of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship*. Poznań: Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Piniarski W. (2020). *Delimitation of physico-geographical micoregions of the Greater Poland Voivodeship using multi-criteria environment analysis*. Poznań: AMU. (PhD thesis)

Solon J., Borzyszkowski J. (Eds.) (2018). *Physico-geographical mesoregions of Poland – modified version of J. Kondracki's regionalisation*. Geogr. Pol., 91(2): 143-170.

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# Towards a dynamic assessment of habitats conservation status: from in situ data to Copernicus services

## Symposium organisers

Jose Manuel Álvarez-Martínez (University of Cantabria), Borja Jiménez Alfaro (University of Oviedo)

## Summary

A current challenge of biodiversity and conservation relies on mapping habitat types at the landscape scale. In the absence of fine-resolution maps, predictive modelling provides a useful tool still uncommon in planning and management. The objective of this symposium will be collecting works designed for monitoring ecosystems with suitable estimates of their distribution and conservation status at different scales. Approaches will combine ground data and limiting factors, remote sensing (Copernicus) and modelling, allowing harmonizing habitat maps across space and time under Global Change scenarios.

## Description

There is an increasing interest in mapping the distribution and ecological status of ecosystems as an effective tool for conservation planning and management. Monitoring and reporting this conservation status requires knowledge about the distributional patterns of vegetation types to estimate regional extents, rarity and potential distribution, among other factors. However, there is a lack of long-term regional initiatives designed from the landscape to biogeographical levels. High spatial resolution maps have been mainly developed by using field surveys and visual interpretation of aerial imagery. However, these traditional surveys are resource consuming and can only be applied to small areas; therefore, vegetation maps are often not available or outdated to entire regions. Given limited resource availability and the need for continuous data allowing biodiversity estimations in a changing world, a current challenge is the complementary development of readily available maps across geographical ranges and through time. In this regard, predictive mapping based on remote sensing may provide an important opportunity for conservation, planning and management at the mesoscale.

Remote sensing techniques (i.e. Copernicus) offer a direct source of continuous data from airborne or satellite sensors, which allows the identification of the current distribution of ecosystems in the landscape. Although these methods do not replace field observations and need to be always coupled with them, they provide additional insights to traditional mapping, such as: (1) objective and continuous data, (2) faster map production, (3) insight into inaccessible terrain, (4) consistent land cover and vegetation maps at geographical scales, and (5) improved repeatability of the mapping process. Certainly, the combination of in-situ ecological information remote sensing (including satellite and UAV information, LiDAR and RADAR) has been applied to characterize specific vegetation types at a medium to local scale. Nevertheless, in spite of the long tradition of predictive mapping with remote sensing, no many studies have integrated these techniques into a generalized framework to estimate the distribution and conservation status following standardized and affordable approaches. This is especially relevant in heterogeneous and changing landscapes given the ongoing debate of defining boundaries or ecotones when modelling vegetation cover.

Following these guidelines, the objective of this symposium will be addressing two main questions: (1) Can predictive modelling be based on environmental predictors and remote sensing generate suitable estimates (indicators) of the distribution and conservation status of a variety of habitat types at a regional scale? (2) Can we create unique vegetation maps by merging individual predictions for each habitat type that represents a reliable pattern of the landscape continuum that result useful for landscape planning and management?

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MODELING POTENTIAL NATURAL VEGETATION. BRINGING TO LIGHT AN OLD CONCEPT
TO GUIDE NATURE CONSERVATION IN FRAGMENTED AND DEGRADED LANDSCAPES

Axel Bourdouxhe¹ · Lionel Wibail² · Hugues Claessens¹ · Marc Dufrêne¹

¹University of Liège · ²Public Service of Wallonia

The biotope mapping is an important tool to assess and monitor the conservation status of biotopes and species associated with them. However, effective biotope surveys require significant financial and human resources and need to be repeated on a regular basis to keep it up to date. Therefore, detailed biotopes mapping is, for many countries, currently only available in some biodiversity hotspots. To overcome these limitations, the development of vegetation communities or biotope distribution models is a stimulating option. Nevertheless, modelling biotope distributions in modified landscapes such as those of Western Europe raise questions. Many biotopes identified as of Community Interest by the European Habitats Directive share similar abiotic conditions as early-stage biotopes naturally appear after a perturbation to evolve toward a climatic stage. Modelling them separately requires therefore a lot of caution.

We therefore propose in the present study an approach to model a large variety of biotopes, using the old concept of Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV). Our approach attempts to model vegetation successional stages of the same PNV together to improve modelling accuracy of scarce biotopes. Furthermore, it is interesting to identify the potential evolution of natural environments to limit human intervention for the restoration of biotopes by making better use of natural disturbances. This may help to maintain at a low cost a certain heterogeneity of the landscape that favours biodiversity and limits the fragmentation of habitats. We tested this approach in Southern Belgium. A first aggregation of biotopes into PNV was based on the long history of field expertise available in Belgium. Then Random Forest algorithm was used to predict the potential distribution of each group of biotopes using accurate environmental datasets composed of topographic, soil attributes related and climatic variables. Natura 2000 biotopes survey maps were used to calibrate the model. Resulting individual maps have a very good predictive power with a mean Producer Accuracy of 0.79 and a mean User Accuracy of 0.81. The final step was to build a unique PNV map using a Random Forest classifier combining the different predicted PNV maps. The overall accuracy of this map was calculated with a kappa value of 0.92.

The most important limitations of this study result from the quality of the input data, due in part to a
potential operator effect and the way this complex dataset has been integrated in models. However,
obtained maps are of great interest in identifying priority areas for restoration in the most degraded
environments. They can allow saving time during field surveys in order to target areas with higher
potential biological stakes. They can also be used in ecological network strategies to identify how biotopes
can potentially structure the landscape and improve connectivity with a dynamic management.

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# HABITAT CLASSIFICATION AND CONNECTIVITY-FUNCTIONALITY ANALYSIS ALONG THE EUROPEAN GREEN BELT USING HIGH-RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGERY

Stefan Fuchs · Florian Danzinger · Thomas Wrbka

University of Vienna

The European Green Belt (EGB) stretches along the former Iron Curtain from the north of Norway to the shores of the Black Sea, forming an ecological backbone across Europe that is essential for biodiversity as well as for the human well-being by providing numerous ecosystem services (ESs) and a significant contribution to the EU green infrastructure as a whole. But the EGB still suffers from a certain degree of not sufficiently connected habitats and valuable landscapes. In the course of the Interreg DTP project "DaRe to Connect" the aim to implement an EU Danube Strategy to (re)connect and strengthen the network of Natura 2000 sites and other protected areas (PA) along the EGB was pursued.

In order to find suitable habitats for networking, high-resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery was used to categorize the land cover classes in the project regions as Broader Habitat Types (BHT). Therefore, a machine learning approach was chosen, where the Sentinel-2 data, both spectral bands and products from it, was analyzed by an algorithm using time series of 2017 & 2018 and training data gathered by ground truthing within the pilot regions (PR). Subsequently, each pixel of the PR was classified as the BHT based on the spectral signature, resulting in detailed raster images with a resolution of 10 m.

Based on these results, two analyses could then be carried out:

* On the one hand, regarding the connectivity, where BHTs of interest (natural habitats in general, but also e.g. especially forests or grassland) were categorized using the Morphological Spatial Patter Analysis (MSPA), whereby the geometry, connectivity and spatial distribution of habitats could be represented by 7-MSPA classes (such as cores or bridges).

* On the other hand, we wanted to visualize the various ESs that are provided along the EGB. To achieve this, we combined the developed ESs capacity matrix, which consists of 5 main services comprised of 30 individual ESs that were combined as the Total Function Value (TFV; the weighted sum of all ESs as an indicator of multifunctionality), with the BHTs. In this way, their capacity to provide the respective ESs could be shown.

Finally, these analysis results were combined to the Connectivity-Functionality-Index (CFI), so potential corridors between and within the PA could be identified. Those areas have both a high functional value as well as an important role as a connecting landscape element.

These maps now serve as a tool for policy recommendations and prioritization of where to take action. Three fields of action can be differentiated: those within PA, which usually have a well-established network of ecologically valuable habitats and must, of course, be preserved and strengthened. Such areas, which are located outside PA and include corresponding corridors, which should be secured. And those where such potential connections are more or less lacking and have to be restored.

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FROM MAP TO MANAGEMENT: AN INTEGRATED MODELLING FRAMEWORK TO
ASSESS THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF HABITAT TYPES AT A LARGE SCALE

Jose Manuel Álvarez Martínez¹ · Borja Jimenez Alfaro² · David López Trullen³ · Fernando
Rodriguez Montoya¹ · Gonzalo Hernandez Romero¹ · Santiago García⁴ · Ignacio Pérez Silos¹ ·
Ana Silió Calzada¹ · María Recio¹ · Jose Barquin¹ · José Juanes de la Peña¹

¹University of Cantabria · ²University of Oviedo · ³ITD Medioambiente · ⁴BIMASDE SL

A current challenge of biodiversity and conservation relies on the estimation of the spatial extent and conservation status of habitat types across broad territories and through time (Jiménez-Alfaro et al., 2018). In the absence of fine resolution maps, predictive modelling based on remote sensing (RS) helps in assessing the spatial distribution of vegetation cover through key indicators of community structure, function, dynamics and vulnerability. However, such approaches are still uncommon in regional planning and management.

In this work, we present a number of case studies ranging from regional (Cantabria, north of Spain) to biogeographical (Central Anatolia, Turkey) and nationwide extents (Spain) on which we map and assess the conservation status of habitat types following the framework of Article 17 of the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna). Data range from readily available Copernicus Land Monitoring Service products to indicators derived from different RS platforms such as Landsat 5 and 8 and Sentinel 2, LiDAR derived products and field spectroradiometry libraries. Environmental variables are also relevant for specific habitats subject to abiotic constraints. The method applies a hierarchical modelling approach that combines in-situ, expert-based data and spatial predictors allowing getting suitable estimates of forests to shrubs, pastures and wetlands at different scales and with different purposes (Álvarez-Martínez et al., 2018).

This combination of ecological modelling with remote sensing offers multiple advantages over traditional field surveys and image interpretation alone, allowing the harmonization of detailed vegetation maps across large regions and through time (Franklin, 2013). This is particularly useful for implementing conservation actions under Natura 2000 principles, assessing IUCN criteria for ecosystems and designing intelligent landscape management practices related to the development of blue and green infrastructure schemes for enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services under the effects of Global Change.

Álvarez-Martínez J.M. et al. (2018). *Modelling the area of occupancy of habitat types with remote sensing*. Methods Ecol. Evol., 9(3): 580-593.

Franklin J. (2013). *Mapping vegetation from landscape to regional scales*. In: E. van der Maarel and J. Franklin (Eds.), Vegetation Ecology (pp. 486-508). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Jiménez-Alfaro B. et al. (2018). *Modelling the distribution and compositional variation of plant communities at the continental scale*. Divers. Distrib., 24(7): 978-990.

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INCORPORATING REMOTELY SENSED ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING INTO SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELS: LIMITATIONS, ADVANTAGES AND FUTURE AVENUES

Adrián Regos¹ · João Gonçalves² · Salvador Arenas-Castro³ · Domingo Alcaraz-Segura⁴ · Antoine Guisan⁵ · João P. Honrado²

¹Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia · ²University of Porto · ³University of Córdoba · ⁴University of Granada · ⁵University of Lausanne

Species distribution models are one of the most widely used tools to appraise global change impacts on biodiversity. However, the lack of descriptors of ecosystem functioning involving key processes affecting habitat dynamics (such as primary productivity or evapotranspiration) can reduce model performance, limiting their real-world applicability for conservation and environmental management decision-making. Despite the outstanding development of remote sensing products related to ecosystem functioning, their incorporation into species distribution models remains anecdotal —neglecting a core dimension of the ecological niche of species (Regos et al., 2022).

Here we outline a variety of advantages of incorporating remotely sensed ecosystem functioning into species distribution models. Besides their global coverage and high spatiotemporal resolution, remotely sensed ecosystem functioning attributes represent additional ecological drivers of species distributions that can be efficiently assessed in time and space. We provide examples and outline future avenues for mainstreaming ecosystem functioning in cross-scale, standardized, repeatable and cost-effective global biodiversity modelling and monitoring. We will show different case studies applied a wide range of biodiversity groups, from endangered birds (Regos et al., 2019; Moreira et al., 2022) and plants (Ponce-Fontenla et al., 2021) to top predators (Regos et al., 2021), across different scales and remote sensing products (Regos et al., 2020).

Regos A. et al. (2022). *Mainstreaming remotely sensed ecosystem functioning in ecological niche models*. Remote Sens. Ecol. Conserv. (in press).

Regos A. et al. (2019). *Integrating intraseasonal grassland dynamics in cross-scale distribution modeling to support waterbird recovery plans*. Conserv. Biol., 34(2): 1-11.

Moreira F.S. et al. (2022). *Combining Citizen Science Data and Satellite Descriptors of Ecosystem Functioning to Monitor the Abundance of a Migratory Bird during the Non-Breeding Season*. Remote Sens., 14(3): 463.

Ponce-Fontenla S. et al. (2021). *Sentinel 2 images enable reliable prediction of fine-scale habitat dynamics of narrow endemic plant species in serpentine soils*. Appl. Veg. Sci., 24(4): 1-15.

Regos A. et al. (2021). *Ecosystem Functioning Influences Species Fitness at Upper Trophic Levels*. Ecosystems.

Regos A. et al. (2020). *Model-Assisted Bird Monitoring Based on Remotely Sensed Ecosystem Functioning and Atlas Data*. Remote Sens., 12(16): 2549.

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# CHALLENGES OF USING THE LANDIS-II MODEL FOR BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION IN FOREST AREAS

Andris Ziemelis · Gatis Patmalnieks · Oļģerts Nikodemus

University of Latvia

Forests are the predominant terrestrial ecosystem on Earth and are crucial in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. By using the LANDIS-II model, we conclude that biodiversity in forests is affected by actions under forest management regimes (Ziemelis, 2020). Policy and legislation are important tools to take these actions. Also, we conclude that the black stork protection policy in Latvia by using a microreserves strategy is not enough for sustainable species protection (Patmalnieks, Ziemelis, 2020).

By using the LANDIS-II model, it is possible to answer every question about forest landscape changes in the future, because the LANDIS-II model (Scheller et al., 2007) is a flexible and reliable tool to simulate forest succession and disturbances using a set of predefined parameters and several specialized extensions. We tried to validate LANDIS-II simulation results (Patmalnieks, Ziemelis, 2021) and we have had a few problems.

We will present the main challenges from studies which we made earlier, including model validation. The main dataset used for our studies was the State Forest Register (SFR). SFR is a digital geospatial database that contains compartment level information on forestry related characteristics such as dominant species. Also, we used Sentinel-2 images and machine learning algorithms for mapping forest stand species in large areas. For generating future scenarios, we used forest management policy and legislation, few geospatial layers as protected areas and their management regimes, different ownership types, borders of forest stand.

First of all, from our studies we can predict how the forest landscape will change, but can't predict where exactly will be a change, because legislation and policy are too general. Secondly, we had a problem with LANDIS-II results as an indicator for biodiversity hotspots. And thirdly, a simulation starting point doesn't represent well the situation in nature, and we can't calibrate it. We are open to discuss challenges for using LANDIS-II model for biodiversity protection.

Patmalnieks G., Ziemelis A. (2020). *Forest management impact on black stork (Ciconia nigra L.) habitat landscape changes in the future scenario*. Proceedings of the 62nd International Scientific Conference of Daugavpils University. Part A "Natural Sciences" (pp. 169-178). Daugavpils: University of Latvia.

Patmalnieks G., Ziemelis A. (2021). *Meža sukcesijas modela LANDIS II simulācijas rezultātu validācija laika posmā no 1961-2020*. gadam PSRS Limbažu mežniecības teritorijā. Latvijas Universitātes 79. Starptautiskā Zsinātniskā Konference. Ģeogrāfija. Ģeoloģija. Vides Zinātne (in press).

Scheller R.M. (2007). *Design, development, and application of LANDIS-II, a spatial landscape simulation model with flexible temporal and spatial resolution*. Ecol. Modell., 201(3-4): 409-419.

Ziemelis A. (2020). *Impact of forest management regimes on the development of forest successions in the territory of Gauja national park in the period from 2020 to 2520*. University of Latvia: Latvia. (Master's Thesis)