Ecological classification of land and conservation of biodiversity at the national level: The case of Italy

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Abstract

The aims of this study are to describe the ecological classification of land in Italy and to show how the resulting land units can act as reliable frameworks for coarse scale environmental analyses that can be used to implement national conservation strategies. We first collected, homogenised and drew physical thematic maps, which were then linked to biological and human features. We then performed a gap analysis of land heterogeneity compared with Natural Protected Areas and Natura2000 network on the basis of three categories: Total gaps, Partial gaps, and Protected. Moreover, we assessed the conservation status of the land units by summarising the environmental quality using the Index of Landscape Conservation. We identified and mapped 3 Land Regions, 24 Land Systems, and 149 Land Facets. Total gaps account for 28% of the country, Partial gaps for 38% and Protected for 34%. The Natura2000 network is more representative than the system of National Protected Areas of the overall land heterogeneity as regards both the types (18 out of 24) and extent (72%) of the Land Systems. Low conservation status prevails in the Land Facets of the Mediterranean Region located along the coasts and plains on sedimentary deposits, whereas high and very high conservation status is found along the higher belts of the Alpine and Apennine chains. These results highlight the potential use of ecological land classification for biodiversity monitoring and conservation purposes, e.g. when identifying land units that need to be recovered or targeted for enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services protection.

Highlights

► We made an ecological classification of land units of Italy. ► We performed a gap analysis of land units compared with protected areas. ► Conservation status of land units was assessed by the Index of Landscape Conservation. ► Gap analysis highlighted land units that lack protection and those over-represented. ► The ILC yields land units from very low to very high values of conservation status.

Introduction

Ecosystems result from complex interactions between physical and biological factors, and human activities (CBD, 2004, Pickett and Cadenasso, 2002, Tansley, 1935). Given the importance of land management and biodiversity conservation, ecosystems need to be described, characterised and spatially located (Sims et al., 1996). The need to ensure ecosystem diversity at different spatial scales is now fully acknowledged by international strategies for the protection of biodiversity and for sustainable development. The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), the European Habitats Directive (1992), the Pan European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (1996), and the European Landscape Convention (2000) have all focused on environmental heterogeneity in terms of ecosystem diversity and/or landscape diversity as a result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.

Following the boost received from these initiatives, in recent times ecological classifications of land have been receiving an increasing amount of attention. They offer the opportunity to capture ecosystem patterns and associated ecological processes that occur at the landscape scale (Bailey, 1996, McMahon et al., 2004), such as biotic response to climate change (Beier and Brost, 2010), rates of primary production (Dale et al., 2000) and hydrological regimes, (Higgins et al., 2005) as well as to address environmental challenges under an ecosystem management perspective (Hobbs and McIntyre, 2005, Yaffee, 1999). The ecological classification of land identifies land units on the basis of their homogeneity according to physical and biological features at various scales (Bailey, 2004, Cleland et al., 1997, Zonneveld, 1995). Land units provide a geographical framework that can be used to address environmental issues according to ecological boundaries (Gallant et al., 2004, Omernik, 2004) and, more specifically, they represent a surrogate for the manifold aspects of biodiversity that can effectively be used to support conservation policies (Oliver et al., 2004, Pressey et al., 2000, Wessels et al., 1999).

In Italy, the conservation of natural resources and environmental services is based above all on National Protected Areas (NPAs), Sites of Community Interest (SCIs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) under the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as well as on the fulfilment of strategic objectives in the National Biodiversity Strategy (Andreella et al., 2010). In 2005, a project designed to complete and update the environmental information available and to provide a uniform ecological classification of land units at the national level was undertaken by the “Biodiversity, Plant Sociology and Landscape Ecology” Interuniversity Research Center at the Sapienza University of Rome, with the support of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea Protection. A top-down deductive process (Bailey, 2004, Klijn et al., 1995, Sayre et al., 2009) was adopted to highlight the role of physical determinism in characterising the territory.

The aims of this paper are (i) to describe the land units that emerge from the afore-mentioned project and (ii) to verify whether environmental analyses based on such land units are effective for formulating priority conservation targets in Italy.

Section snippets

Study area

Italy is located in the southern Europe, central Mediterranean basin. It covers approximately 300,000 square kilometres and is particularly heterogeneous in climate, physiography, vegetation cover and land use.

There are two major ranges of mountains (the Alps and the Apennines), extensive hilly zones, wide river valleys (first and foremost the Po plain), many large and small islands, and a long coastline. Land cover is characterised predominantly by agricultural areas (52%), while 42% of the

Hierarchical classification of land in Italy

The land classification process led to the identification and mapping of 3 Land Regions, 24 Land Systems and 149 Land Facets (Fig. 1).

The Mediterranean Land Region covers 25% of the national territory and is characterised by a summer drought lasting longer than two months, a reduced difference between summer and winter temperatures, and precipitation concentrated in the autumn/winter period. The vegetation potential is mainly represented by evergreen sclerophyllous forests or shrub. The

Strength and weakness of the proposed ecological classification of Italian land

This research implements the existing global and European broad-scale projects for the ecological classification of land, which are aimed at establishing spatial reference systems for environmental assessment, protection, management and planning (Bailey, 1995, Mücher et al., 2010, Sayre et al., 2007). Indeed, we used accurate basic maps that allow to represent in detail the biophysical richness and diversity of Italy at the national level.

This improvement allows the Italian Ministry for the

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