RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 The geography of high-value biodiversity areas for terrestrial vertebrates in Western Europe and their coverage by protected area networks
A1 Rey Benayas, José María
A1 Assunção de Albuquerque, Maria José Teixeira
A1 Rodríguez Fernández, Miguel Ángel
K1 Vertebrados
K1 Europa
K1 Vertebrates
K1 Europe
K1 Ciencia
K1 Medio Ambiente
K1 Science
K1 Environmental science
AB We identified high-value biodiversity areas (HVBAs) of terrestrial vertebrates according to a combined index of biodiversity (CBI) for each major taxon and a standardized biodiversity index (SBI) for all taxa in 2195 cells of 50 × 50 km in Western Europe to evaluate whether these areas are included in the current protected area networks. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and NATURA 2000 protected area network were used to assess the protected area cover in HVBAs. WDPA and NATURA 2000 were geographically quite complementary as WDPA is more densely represented in Central and Northern Europe and NATURA 2000 in the Mediterranean basin. A total of 729 cells were identified as HVBAs. From the total of these HVBA areas, NATURA 2000 network was present in more cells (660) than the WDPA network (584 cells). The sum of protected land percentages across all the HVBA cells was 28.8%. The identified HVBA cells according to the SBI included 603 or 78.2% of all vertebrate species in the study region, whereas the identified HVBA cells according to the SBI for individual taxa included 47 (90.4%) species of amphibians, 79 (74.5%) of reptiles, 417 (88.5%) of birds, and 130 (91.5%) of mammals. However, neither network was present in 7 or 3% of the identified HVBA cells. Thus, we recommend expanding protected areas in Europe to fill this gap and improve coverage of vertebrate species to strengthen biodiversity conservation.
PB Copernicus Publications
SN 2193-3081
YR 2012
FD 2012
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10017/21421
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10017/21421
LA eng
NO This research was supported by theSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grants CGL2010-18312 to JMRB, and CGL2010-22119 to MAR), and theMadrid Government REMEDINAL project (S2009AMB-1783).M. J. T. Assunc¸ao-Albuquerque was supported by the Brazil- ˜ian Ministry of Education, through CAPES (Coordenac¸ao de ˜Aperfeic¸oamento de Pessoal de N´ıvel Superior) Doctoratescholarship and FSA was supported by BIOTREE-net-projectfunded by BBVA Foundation. We are indebted to two anonymousreviewers that greatly improved a former version of this manuscript
DS MINDS@UW
RD 30-nov-2023