Development of distribution maps of grassland habitats of EUNIS habitat classification Joop H.J. Schaminée Milan Chytrý Jürgen Dengler Stephan M. Hennekens John A.M. Janssen Borja Jiménez-Alfaro Ilona Knollová Flavia Landucci Corrado Marcenò John S. Rodwell Lubomír Tichý and data-providers Report EEA/NSS/16/005 1 Alterra, Institute within the legal entity Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek Professor Joop Schaminée Stephan Hennekens Partners Professor John Rodwell, Ecologist, Lancaster, UK Professor Milan Chytrý, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Doctor Ilona Knollová, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Doctor Lubomír Tichý, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Date: 07 December 2016 Alterra Postbus 47 6700 AA Wageningen (NL) Telephone: 0317 – 48 07 00 Fax: 0317 – 41 90 00 In 2003 Alterra has implemented a certified quality management system, according to the standard ISO 9001:2008. Since 2006 Alterra works with a certified environmental care system according to the standard ISO 14001:2004. © 2014 Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior permission in writing of Stichting Dienst Landbouwkundig Onderzoek. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 Scope of the project 2.1 Background 2.2 Review of the EUNIS grassland habitat types 3 Indicator species of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 3.1 Background 3.2 Expert system method to classify grassland habitats 3.3 Data and information sources used to create the expert system and habitat classification 3.4 Indicator species of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 4 Maps of distribution of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Maps of distribution of phytosociological relevés for each of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 4.3 Comparison of maps 5 Description in a standard format of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 5.1 The existing EUNIS habitat definitions 5.2 The habitat descriptions of the revised EUNIS grassland types 6 EUNIS revision and the European Red List of Habitats 6.1 Background 6.2 Habitat typology 6.3 Geographical scope 6.4 Ecological scope 6.5 The descriptive frame 6.6 The Red List and Annex I 3 7 Recommendations and future prospects 8 References Appendix A: Crosswalk of EUNIS and Red List habitat codes and names with possible further revisions Appendix B: List of the grassland habitat types that are treated in the project, based on the revised EUNIS classication Appendix C: Formal definitions of EUNIS grassland habitat types used in the expert system Appendix D: Lists of indicator species of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types Appendix E: Descriptions of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types Appendix F: List of data providers Appendix G: Maps of distribution of phytosociological relevés of the revised EUNIS grassland habitat types 4 1 Introduction The EU and global biodiversity targets for 2020 call for an enhanced capability of monitoring, reporting and assessing progress in the thematic area of biodiversity. A review of the available tools used to describe components of biodiversity at a European scale is a necessary preparatory action to meet the needs of the new biodiversity targets. The EEA hosts and maintains the biodiversity data centre, where European data sets and information on sites, species and habitats of Europe are published. Together with data sets provided by other environmental data centres, these data sets support the assessment of progress in achieving biodiversity targets as shown in the Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE). BISE, along with the Water Information System for Europe (WISE), anticipates an integration of ecosystem assessment across Europe. The EEA has developed the European Nature Information System (EUNIS) habitat classification and maintains it as part of the biodiversity data centre. The aim of the EUNIS habitat classification (Davies & Moss 1999) is to provide a pan-European reference set of habitat units with a common unit description within a hierarchical classification aiming to fulfil specific objectives and support specific applications related to biodiversity monitoring and reporting at the European scale. Such applications include reporting for the implementation of the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention, as well as providing information in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Regional Development Funds. A European standard list of habitat types is also necessary for the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive, to which other national or regional classifications will have to make reference to be comparable. Further to the above, the EEA is participating in the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), an activity within the framework of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. Relevant to this activity, and in support of the ecosystem assessment of Europe, is the development of a baseline for documenting, monitoring and assessing the quality of habitats across Europe, by analysing existing in situ vegetation monitoring data in accordance with the EUNIS habitat classification. The aim of this contract is to provide distribution maps and descriptions of EUNIS grassland habitat types. The requested services are building on the outcomes of work package 1 under Service contract 3417/B2015/EEA.56197, of which the results were published earlier this year (Schaminée et al. 2016). The grassland habitat types in focus are included under habitat group E (Grasslands), specifically subgroups E1, E2, E3 and E4 and, if appropriate, subgroups E5 and E6, as well as grasslands included under habitat group B, subgroups B1.4 (Coastal stable dune grassland) and B1.9 (Machair), on the basis of in situ vegetation measurements across Europe. The mapping of 5 distribution of phytosociological relevés for the grasslands will be based on lists of indicator species, derived from the analysis of vegetation databases across Europe. The maps and the data supporting them are intended to be used in the EUNIS website and also for modelling the predicted habitat suitability of these habitats across Europe for each of the grassland habitat types. The assessment of the EUNIS grassland habitat types fits in a series of projects, that started in 2012 with a project to revise the crosswalk of EUNIS to phytosociological syntaxa (Rodwell et al. 1998, 2002) and to inform on the capacity of in situ vegetation recording for demonstrating trends in habitat diversity and quality (Schaminée et al. 2012). The actual underpinning of the EUNIS classification with in situ vegetation plot data was the next step. As a first group of habitat types the forests were considered, resulting in the EEA technical report Review of EUNIS forest habitat classification (Schaminée et al. 2013). A second group of habitat types (heathland, scrub and tundra vegetation) was the subject of an EEA project that was carried out in 2014 (Schaminée et al. 2014). As mentioned in the 2016 report, Grasslands are of great importance in European nature policy, of widespread distribution, housing a large proportion of the biodiversity in this part of the world, and everywhere under threat. The existing descriptions are insufficient and inadequately supported by in situ vegetation data which limit the usability of the EUNIS habitat classification. The objectives of the project were specified as tasks in the Annex I of the tender specifications (EEA/NSS/16/003) and elucidated in the Inception Report (February 2016, Service Contract No. 3417/B2016/EEA.56510):1 Task 2 To prepare lists of ‘indicator species’ of all grassland habitat types (level 3) based on vegetation database analyses, taking into account the outcome of work package 1 of Service contract 3417/B2015/EEA.56197. Task 3 To prepare maps of distribution of phytosociological relevés for each of the grassland habitat types for which fact sheets are provided in work package 1 of Service contract 3417/B2015/EEA.56197. Task 4 To provide descriptions, in the standard format, for each of the grassland habitat types, and to provide input for relevant updates in relation to grasslands for each alliance of the EuroVegChecklist to the EUNIS- 1 Task 1 of the Work Package concerned the Inception Report. The approach to the work was discussed at a meeting on the results of the previous grassland project (Service contract 3417/B2015/EEA.56197) at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen on the 22nd of February 2016, attended by Mette Palitzsch Lund (EEA project manager), Annemarie Bastrup- Birk (EEA Copenhagen), Joop Schaminée, Stephan Hennekens (both Alterra Wageningen, The Netherlands), John Rodwell (Lancaster, UK), Milan Chytrý (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic), and – by teleconferencing – Doug Evans (ETC-BD Paris). 6 EuroVegChecklist crosswalks of 2012 (in case changes have been introduced to the latter). With the agreement of the EEA, also included in this report is a chapter on relationships between the EUNIS revision process and the European Red List of Habitats (hereafter Red List) and an indication of how this convergence might be taken forward. 7 2 Scope of the project 2.1 Background In 2015, the European Environment Agency (EEA) launched an open call for tender No EEA/NSV/15/005 aiming at the ‘Review of grassland habitats and development of distribution maps of heathland/scrub