The relationships of biotopes, habitat structure and habitat quality to the provision of ecosystem services (ES-LUPPI)

Aims of the study

The aims of this research project are two-folded: First (tasks 1-3), we aim to study the role of biodiversity and biotopes for ecosystem services (ES). Secondly (tasks 4-6), we will evaluate how ES are covered with current means of nature protection and how their integration in environmental management could improve conservation. More precisely, the research tasks are to:

1. select ES for mapping and quantification and find appropriate indicators for ES, biodiversity, and habitat quality; collate available environmental data sets,
2. collect field data and measure parameters for habitat structure and quality from the study sites at local scale,
3. map and quantify biotope and ES data and identify areas of high ES provision potential by scoring different indicator values and combining results in maps, check the accuracy of results in the field,
4. analyze strengths and gaps of used methodology and current means of nature protection (such as Natura 2000 network),
5. find out geographical locations where synergies between conservation and sustainable use could be enhanced, or where human pressure is directed having negative influence on biodiversity and habitat quality,
6. give recommendations how biodiversity and ES could be taken better into account in land use planning and environmental management.

This study will provide understanding of relationships between biodiversity and ES and answer the urgent needs to halt the loss of biodiversity and degradation of ES that is, for instance, a concern of European Commission's biodiversity strategy. It will also contribute to the ongoing activities on mapping ESs at EU scale (Maes et al. 2011) and the European Environment Agency's work for implementation of EUNIS habitat classification (Davies et al. 2004), as well as ecological forecasting based on remote sensing and CORINE land cover database (CLC2000/2006)

Research area

The study will be located in the Archipelago sea biosphere reserve.

Further information

Petteri Vihervaara, Finnish Environment Insitute, Tel. +358 40 513 8185, firstname.lastname@environment.fi

Laura Mononen, Finnish Environment Insitute, firstname.lastname@environment.fi