## 3 Results and Discussions  
The integration of each Romanian ecosystem type assessment indicated that the coastal ecosystem is the most degraded ecosystem, with 86.55% degraded area (1362.32 km\({}^{2}\)). The grassland ecosystem's evaluation resulted in classification of 38.59% area of grassland as being degraded (12,486.37 km\({}^{2}\)), while 27.64% of river ecosystems were degraded (23,800.22 km length),  
A share of 92.92% of cave ecosystems were semi-degraded, followed by 67.67% for lakes and 52.94% for rivers. Forest ecosystems occupy the largest area of all ecosystems, and a share of 88.54% of this ecosystem was natural, non-degraded. Thus, for the identification of degraded forests, the VCF MODIS sensor was used, which allowed the mapping of forests with a consistency between 30% and 80%, which showed a consistency reduction of over 10%. According to the analysis, only 8.52% of forest ecosystems were degraded (Table 2). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline
**Ecosystem** & **Natural** & **\%** & **Semi-Degraded** & **\%** & **Degraded** & **\%** & **Total** \\ \hline Forest (km\({}^{2}\)) & 63,651.34 & 88.54 & 2115.27 & 2.94 & 6124.23 & 8.52 & 71,890.84 \\ Grassland (km\({}^{2}\)) & 7080.05 & 21.88 & 12,790.72 & 39.53 & 12,486.37 & 38.59 & 32,357.14 \\ Cave (no.) & 15 & 4.42 & 315 & 92.92 & 9 & 2.66 & 339 \\ Lake (km\({}^{2}\)) & 410.95 & 18.28 & 1521.41 & 67.67 & 315.91 & 14.05 & 2248.28 \\ River (km) & 16,320.52 & 19.41 & 44,508.82 & 52.94 & 2238.82 & 27.64 & 84,068.17 \\ Coastal (km\({}^{2}\)) & 42.5 & 2.7 & 1362.32 & 86.55 & 169.17 & 49.8 & 1574 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Summary of ecosystem assessment results. The largest area of forest ecosystems was located in the Carpathian Mountains, about 31% in the Eastern Carpathians, 16% in the Western Carpathians and 14% in the Southern Carpathians (Figure 3a). The largest degraded forest ecosystem areas were located in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, area where deforestation hotspots have been identified in several similar studies [67; 68]. The main cause is deforestation resulting in ecosystem loss and fragmentation. Approximately 1124 km\({}^{2}\) were deforested in the Eastern Carpathians, from which 790 km\({}^{2}\) were transformed into unproductive land, 652.5 km\({}^{2}\) into pastures and 177 km\({}^{2}\) into built-up areas. At the same time, significant forest areas were deforested in the Western Carpathians (approximately 320 km\({}^{2}\)) and the Southern Carpathians (256 km\({}^{2}\)). In the plateau and plain areas, the main cause of degradation was conversion to agricultural land. Figure 3: Distribution of ecosystems in Romania: (**a**) forest ecosystems; (**b**) grassland ecosystems; (**c**) cave ecosystems; (**d**) river ecosystems; (**e**) lake ecosystems; (**f**) coastal ecosystems. The grasslands cover the second largest ecosystem area within Romanian territory (Figure 3b). The largest degraded area of the grassland ecosystem was in the Transylvania Depression (approximately 2340 km\({}^{2}\)), followed by the Eastern Carpathians with approximately 2220 km\({}^{2}\) and the Sub-Carpathians with 1433 km\({}^{2}\). Similar studies on grassland degradation in the Sub-Carpathian area have drawn attention to the degradation rates of grassland in this area and the influence of this process in the manifestation of landslides [69]. These three landforms are concentrated on approximately 50% of the area of degraded grassland ecosystems in Romania. The causes are multiple, from the presence of invasive species such as shrubs to agro-pastoral activities such as excessive grazing. Most of the cave ecosystems in Romania are located in the Western Carpathians (179 caves), followed by the Southern Carpathians (101 caves) and the Eastern Carpathians (21 caves), (Figure 3c). Most of the caves (50.4%) are located in the Continental biogeographic region, 47.8% in the temperate-continental climatic and 1.8% in the cold semi-arid climate (Dobrogea Plateau).