Browsing by Subject "Natura 2000"

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    Are the endemic water beetles of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands effectively protected?
    (Elsevier, 2008-05-27) Sánchez Fernández, David; Bilton, David T.; Abellán, Pedro; Ribera, Ignacio; Velasco, Josefa; Milán, Andrés; Ecología e Hidrología
    One of the most serious environmental problems is the current acceleration in the rate of species extinction associated with human activities, which is occurring particularly rapidly in freshwaters. Here we examine whether endemic water beetles are effectively protected by existing conservation measures in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, a region of high diversity and intense human pressure. We used an exhaustive database for aquatic beetles in the region to address such issues. Firstly, we identify the most threatened endemic taxa using a categorization system to rank species according to their conservation priority or vulnerability. Of the 120 endemic species of water beetles used in the analysis, only two (Ochthebius ferroi and Ochthebius javieri) were identified as being extremely vulnerable, 71 were highly vulnerable and 46 moderately vulnerable, with only a single species identified as having low vulnerability status. Since no Iberian species of aquatic Coleoptera has legal protection, the only conservation measure available for these species is the extent to which they occur in protected areas. Here we identify distributional hotspots for threatened endemic species, and evaluate the extent to which these are already included in the Natura 2000 network in Spain and Portugal. Despite a high degree of concordance between hotspots and Natura 2000 sites, the distribution of four species falls completely outside the network. The analysis also reveals that Natura 2000 fails to protect saline water bodies, despite their high conservation interest and narrow global distribution. The picture revealed here with water beetles is likely to be similar for others groups of freshwater macroinvertebrates, since Coleoptera are known to be good surrogates of aquatic biodiversity in the region. Finally, the degree of protection provided via Natura 2000, and the utility of red lists are discussed.
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    Do protected areas represent species’ optimal climatic conditions? A test using Iberian water beetles
    (Wiley, 2013) Sánchez Fernández, David; Abellán, Pedro; Picazo, Félix; Millán, Andrés; Ribera, Ignacio; Lobo, Jorge M.; Ecología e Hidrología
    Aim To assess the effectiveness of protected area networks in representing the climatic niche of Iberian water beetle species.Location Iberian Peninsula. Methods We used distribution data from 133 endemic water beetle species in the Iberian Peninsula. Climatic potential distributions were estimated by applying a multidimensional-envelope procedure based on climatic data (both current and future) and observed occurrences. Mahalanobis distances were calculated to obtain continuous climatic suitability values within the climatic potential distribution. Two protected area networks were assessed: National Parks (NPs) and Natura 2000 (N2000). The average climatic suitability value for the cells overlapping with protected areas was calculated and compared with the average value of 10,000 random samples from the same number of cells within their entire potential distribution, which allowed to identify species whose climatic niches were optimally or marginally represented. Results Fifty-seven and 104 of the 107 considered taxa were represented with at least one occurrence in NPs and N2000, respectively, and the climatic potential distributions of 93 and all 107 taxa overlapped with NPs and N2000. While the climatic niches of 48 and 38 taxa were marginally represented in NPs and N2000, the climatic niches of only 11 and 29 were optimally represented by these two protected area networks. When predicted future climatic conditions were considered, both the climatic suitability values and the number of species whose potential distribution was represented by protected areas decreased. Main conclusions Although the representation of endemic Iberian taxa could be considered adequate, these results show that for most of them the protected networks tend to include areas with climatic conditions close to the species tolerance limit, and the expected climate change only worsened this scenario. Thus, current protected areas cannot be considered to guarantee the long-term survival of the species considered in this study.
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    Effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network in protecting Iberian endemic fauna
    (Wiley, 2017) Rosso, A.; Aragón, Pedro; Acevedo, F.; Doadrio, I.; García Barros, E.; Lobo, Jorge M.; Munguira, M.L.; Monserrat, V.J.; Palomo, J.; Pleguezuelos, J.M.; Romo, H.; Triviño, V.; Sánchez Fernández, David; Ecología e Hidrología
    The Iberian Peninsula is a major European region of biodiversity, as it harbours more than 30% of European endemic species. Despite a number of studies having evaluated the ability of nature reserves to protect certain taxa, there is still a lack of knowledge on how Iberian endemic fauna are represented in these reserves. We detected biodiversity hotspots of Iberian endemicity and evaluated the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network (N2000) in representing 249 endemic species from eight animal taxonomic groups (amphibians, mammals, freshwater fishes, reptiles, water beetles, butterflies, lacewings and dung beetles). We found that only the 10% of these Iberian endemic species are considered species of community interest (i.e. species included in the Annexes of the Habitats Directive). We conducted gap analyses and null models of representativeness in N2000. Generally, N2000 is effective in its representation of Iberian endemic fauna, although we detected spe-cies and few hotspots of endemism that were still not represented. It is necessary to declare a few new protected areas, thus enhancing N2000’s effectiveness in the conservation of the Iberian endemic fauna. Although the aim of N2000 is to pro-tect species listed in the Birds and Habitats Directives, the conservation status of endemic species from one of the most important areas of Europe in terms of biodi-versity, could be also a concern for the European Union. Our results are useful in the context of the recent European Commission mandate calling for a ‘fitness check’ of the Birds and Habitats Directives. This approach could be also applicable to other regions with high value of endemicity.
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    Matches and mismatches between conservation investments and biodiversity values in the European Union
    (Wiley, 2017) Sánchez Fernández, David; Abellán, Pedro; Aragón, Pedro; Varela, Sara; Cabeza, Mar; Ecología e Hidrología
    Recently, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity. Member states are expected to favor a more effective collection and redistribution of European Union (EU) funds under the current Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014–2020. Because of the large spatial variation in the distribution of biodiversity and conservation needs at the continental scale, EU instruments should ensure that countries with higher biodiversity values get more funds and resources for the conservation than other countries. Using linear regressions, we assessed the association between conservation investments and biodiversity values across member states, accounting for a variety of conservation investment indicators, taxonomic groups (including groups of plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates), and indicators of biodiversity value. In general, we found clear overall associations between conservation investments and biodiversity variables. However, some countries received more or less investment than would be expected based on biodiversity values in those countries. We also found that the extensive use of birds as unique indicators of conservation effectiveness may lead to biased decisions. Our results can inform future decisions regarding funding allocation and thus improve distribution of EU conservation funds.
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    Using null models to identify under-represented species in protected areas: A case study using European amphibians and reptiles
    (Elsevier, 2015-02-21) Sánchez Fernández, David; Abellán, Pedro; Ecología e Hidrología
    One of the main issues in conservation biology is assessing how much biodiversity is currently represented in protected areas (PA). Traditional approaches such as ‘gap analysis’ require the choice of arbitrary targets and thresholds that can greatly influence the obtained results. We present here a complementary approach that avoids typical methodological uncertainties being particularly useful when the aim is to explore differences in the effectiveness of PA networks in representing species with distinct features and varying range sizes. Firstly, we calculated how far the distribution of a species overlaps with a network. Then, null models were used to test if this value is significantly different from random expectations (i.e. compared with random species of the same number of occurrences), which allowed over and underrepresented species to be identified. Using this approach, we aimed to determine how well amphibian and terrestrial reptile species in Europe were represented by two protected area networks: nationally designated protected areas (NPAs) and the Natura 2000 network (N2000). We also tested to see if there were any differences in species representation depending upon their conservation status, range size and distribution type. Although N2000 is more effective than NPAs, both PA networks performed poorly in representing European amphibians and reptiles, as the level of representativeness for most species (excepting reptiles in N2000) within these networks was either not significantly different or significantly lower than expected by chance. A combination of this approach with traditional gap analyses could provide valuable information to improve the future effectiveness of PAs.