Speaker
Description
Pan-European biodiversity monitoring is increasingly needed to support EU conservation policy and underpin a coordinated Biodiversity Observation Network for Europe, yet how well existing schemes represent the continent's biodiversity remains unclear. We assessed the joint capacity of seven pan-European monitoring schemes to support an integrated terrestrial monitoring network, evaluating their coverage of 338 rare and 1,003 common species listed under the EU Nature Directives, and 79 rare and 169 common EUNIS habitat types. Using the same distribution data, we applied a minimum-set spatial prioritisation framework to identify priority monitoring sites across the continental EU27, solving 92 scenarios at 2 × 2 km resolution and varying representation targets, cost functions, and feature sets: from species and habitats alone to combinations with protected area coverage, anthropogenic pressure gradients, and country × biogeographic region units reflecting Member State reporting obligations under the Habitats and Birds Directives.
We found that existing schemes capture only 27% of rare species, revealing substantial representational gaps. A minimum network of 550 priority monitoring sites is capable of representing all species and habitats at least once, yet existing infrastructure is never sufficient alone: new sites outnumber existing ones by a factor of two to three across all scenarios, and even modest targets require hundreds of additional sites. Incorporating accessibility costs increases reliance on existing infrastructure, while scenarios designed to enable trend attribution across pressure gradients are the most sites-demanding. A network mirroring Member State reporting obligations requires ~3,500 sites, compared to ~6,000 under unconstrained EU-level optimization. This shows that decentralised planning for monitoring aligned with reporting structures is substantially more cost-efficient. These results quantify the investment needed for a representative pan-European monitoring network and show how spatial prioritisation can guide its design.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Yes, I’m willing to present as a poster. |