WIND poster: Sustainable scenario for windfarm spatial planning in Greece for minimal impact of wind energy projects on biodiversity
Electronic brochure/poster (pdf) summarizing how the climate targets for clean energy in Greece can be achieved from the operation of wind farms, without substantial damage to biodiversity, in the context of European environmental policy and the Sustainable Development Goals. What is the European Green Deal? What is the Greek energy and climate policy? What is the value of Greece in terms of its biodiversity? Are wind farms damaging biodiversity and when? What is the international experience on this issue? What does new research in Greece suggest for the proper sitting of wind farms with little damage to biodiversity? The answers in the form of a wall poster. (in English)
Hua, F., et al., 2024. Ecological filtering shapes the impacts of agricultural deforestation on biodiversity. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02280-w
The biodiversity impacts of agricultural deforestation vary widely across regions. Previous efforts to explain this variation have focused exclusively on the landscape features and management regimes of agricultural systems, neglecting the potentially critical role of ecological filtering in shaping deforestation tolerance of extant species assemblages at large geographical scales via selection for functional traits. Here we provide a large-scale test of this role using a global database of species abundance ratios between matched agricultural and native forest sites that comprises 71 avian assemblages reported in 44 primary studies, and a companion database of 10 functional traits for all 2,647 species involved. Using meta-analytic, phylogenetic and multivariate methods, we show that beyond agricultural features, filtering by the extent of natural environmental variability and the severity of historical anthropogenic deforestation shapes the varying deforestation impacts across species assemblages. For assemblages under greater environmental variability—proxied by drier and more seasonal climates under a greater disturbance regime—and longer deforestation histories, filtering has attenuated the negative impacts of current deforestation by selecting for functional traits linked to stronger deforestation tolerance. Our study provides a previously largely missing piece of knowledge in understanding and managing the biodiversity consequences of deforestation by agricultural deforestation.
Kati, V*., Kassara, C*., Panagos, P., Tampouratzi, L., Gotsis, D., Tzortzakaki, O., Petridou, M., Psaralexi, M., Sidiropoulos, L., Vasilakis, D., Zakkak, S., Galani, A., Mpoukas, N., 2023. The overlooked threat of land take from wind energy infrastructures: Quantification, drivers and policy gaps. Journal of Environmental Management 348, 119340.
Wind harnessing is a fast-developing and cost-effective Renewable Energy Source, but the land impacts of wind power stations are often overlooked or underestimated. We digitized land take, i.e., the generation of artificial land, derived from 90 wind power stations in Greece constructed between 2002 and 2020 (1.2 GW). We found substantial land take impacts of 7729 m2/MW (3.5 m2/MWh) of new artificial land, 148 m/MW of new roads and 174 m/MW of widened roads on average. Models showed that the number and size of wind turbines, the absence of other existing infrastructures and the elevational difference across new access roads increased artificial land generation. The elevational difference across new and widened access roads also increased their length. New wind power stations in Greece are planned to be installed at higher elevations and in terrains facing higher risks for soil erosion and soil biodiversity. The general tendency in the European Union is to sit fewer wind power stations in mountainous and forested land. Still, this pattern is inversed in several countries, particularly in Southern Europe. After screening 28 policy and legal documents, we found that land take is indirectly inferred in the global policy but more directly in the European policy through five non-legally binding documents and three Directives. However, the current European energy policies seem to conflict with nature conservation policies, risking land take acceleration. The study provides insights for reducing land take when planning and constructing wind power stations. We underline the need for better quantification of land take and its integration in the complex process of sustainable spatial planning of investments.
Zografou K, Anagnostellis K, Brokaki M, Dimaki M. 2023. MEIOSIS: Museum specimens shed light in biodiversity shrinkage, Helecos 11th National Ecological Conference, 4-7 October 2023, Patra, Greece. Poster.
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Toli, E.-A., Zacharopoulou, P., Bounas, A., Kati, V., Sotiropoulos, K. 2023. Conservation genetics of the steno-endemic Chorthippus lacustris (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Journal of Insect Conservation.
Invertebrate populations are amongst the most widespread species, inhabiting a variety of habitats, however there is limited conservation effort due to the scarce knowledge on their population genetics. Here, we assess levels of genetic diversity and population structure of the Epirus dancing grasshopper (Chorthippus lacustris), a steno-endemic species, located in Northwest Greece, exhibiting a fragmented distribution. By utilizing two mitochondrial genes and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), we detected moderate to high levels of genetic diversity of the focal populations. Haplotype network analysis revealed the existence of private haplotypes with low genetic differentiation suggesting a sudden expansion of the species in the study area with subsequent isolations on suitable habitats. Despite the low genetic differentiation between the studied populations, our data further suggest a subtle subdivision of the populations and the existence of three genetic clusters. Implications for insect conservation: Our study is the first to provide insights into the population genetics of the steno-endemic grasshopper C. lacustris, highlighting the importance of preserving focal populations. The species inhabits areas subject to high changes in land use and fragmentation. We argue that the preservation and management of suitable habitats is essential for the viability of the grasshopper populations.
Petridou, M., Benson, J.F., Gimenez, O., Iliopoulos, Y., Kati, V. 2023. Do husbandry practices reduce depredation of free-ranging livestock? A case study with wolves in Greece. Biological Conservation 283, 110097
Livestock depredation is the primary driver of wolf-human conflict worldwide, threatening wolf conservation and impacting human livelihoods. Most countries implement relevant compensation programs, which are however rarely accompanied by proactive husbandry practices vetted with scientific research. We investigated the influence of husbandry practices on wolf depredation losses for 70 sheep/goat and 68 cattle herds with quantitative modeling of data from semi-structured interviews of livestock farmers along a livestock damage gradient in NW Greece. Sheep/goat herds were better protected than cattle herds in seven preventive measures and annual losses of sheep/goat livestock units were three times lower than losses of cattle livestock units in our study area. Furthermore, according to national compensation data from Greece, costs paid for cattle have doubled in recent years, whereas they have been cut in half for sheep/goats. Our modeling identified three core preventive measures that significantly reduced wolf depredation risk for both herd types, namely increased shepherd surveillance, systematic night confinement, and an adequate number of livestock guardian dogs (optimal ratio was 3 Greek guardian dogs per 100 sheep/goats and 7 guardian dogs per 100 cattle). Keeping young livestock in enclosures and not abandoning livestock carcasses in pastures were additional effective preventive measures for cattle herds. Our study provides evidence to inform the subsidizing policy put forth in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. It can also serve to inform or revise wildlife-livestock conflict mitigation policy in countries challenged with the competing goals of conserving large carnivores while maintaining traditional grazing regimes. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
Kati, V., Petridou, M., Tzortzakaki, O., Papantoniou, E., Galani, A., Psaralexi, M., Gotsis, D., Papaioannou, H., Kassara, C. 2023. How much wilderness is left? A roadless approach under the Global and the European Biodiversity Strategy focusing on Greece. Biological Conservation 281, 110015.
Preserving ecosystems of high ecological integrity is a crucial target in Biodiversity Strategies, also serving the 10 % target of strict land protection in the European Union (EU). We recommend roadless mapping to delineate wilderness and monitor progress against loss in natural areas. We mapped Greece’s roadless land and assessed its ecological attributes. It accounted for 6.1 % of Greece and comprised 451 roadless sites of size over 1 km2: 389 roadless areas and 62 fully roadless islands. Roadless sites occurred in mountains and islands, were undeveloped (no artificial land), undisturbed (no major pressures, [removed]99 % of natural and seminatural vegetation cover, 68 % of their extent in the Natura 2000 network). They also lay in a wilderness continuum of low landscape fragmentation index. Most roadless sites (302) were larger than 10 km2. Larger roadless areas occurred more in higher mountains and steeper terrains, had a lower Human Influence Index and a better Natura 2000 coverage. Roadless sites demonstrated a buffering capacity against naturalness loss and fires (2.5 times lower percentage of burnt land than the national average) but were vulnerable to Renewable Energy Sources deployment, particularly wind farms (33 % of roadless areas might be affected). In support of a roadless policy we suggest using roadless sites to delimit the strictly protected zones in the EU (and Greece), to map primary-old-growth forests, and pinpoint new candidate protected areas. We strongly recommend revisiting the REPowerEU plan to define roadless sites as non-go-to areas for relevant infrastructure deployments. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd.
Grigoropoulou, A., Hamid, S.A., Acosta, R., Akindele, E.O., Al-Shami, S.A., Altermatt, F., et al., 2023. The global EPTO database: Worldwide occurrences of aquatic insects. Global Ecology and Biogeography n/a.
Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macroecological studies and applied freshwater research is missing. We aim to fill this gap and present the Global EPTO Database, which includes worldwide geo-referenced aquatic insect occurrence records for four major taxa groups: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata (EPTO). Main type of variables contained: A total of 8,368,467 occurrence records globally, of which 8,319,689 (99%) are publicly available. The records are attributed to the corresponding drainage basin and sub-catchment based on the Hydrography90m dataset and are accompanied by the elevation value, the freshwater ecoregion and the protection status of their location. Spatial location and grain: The database covers the global extent, with 86% of the observation records having coordinates with at least four decimal digits (11.1 m precision at the equator) in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) coordinate reference system. Time period and grain: Sampling years span from 1951 to 2021. Ninety-nine percent of the records have information on the year of the observation, 95% on the year and month, while 94% have a complete date. In the case of seven sub-datasets, exact dates can be retrieved upon communication with the data contributors. Major taxa and level of measurement: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata, standardized at the genus taxonomic level. We provide species names for 7,727,980 (93%) records without further taxonomic verification. Software format: The entire tab-separated value (.csv) database can be downloaded and visualized at https://glowabio.org/project/epto_database/. Fifty individual datasets are also available at https://fred.igb-berlin.de, while six datasets have restricted access. For the latter, we share metadata and the contact details of the authors.
Petridou, M., Benson, J.F., Gimenez, O., Kati, V. 2023. Spatiotemporal Patterns of Wolves, and Sympatric Predators and Prey Relative to Human Disturbance in Northwestern Greece. Diversity 15.
In an era of increasing human pressure on nature, understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of wildlife relative to human disturbance can inform conservation efforts, especially for large carnivores. We examined the temporal activity and spatial patterns of wolves and eight sympatric mammals at 71 camera trap stations in Greece. Grey wolves temporally overlapped the most with wild boars (Δ = 0.84) and medium-sized mammals (Δ > 0.75), moderately with brown bears (Δ = 0.70), and least with roe deer (Δ = 0.46). All wild mammals were mainly nocturnal and exhibited low temporal overlap with human disturbance (humans, vehicles, livestock, and dogs; Δ = 0.18–0.36), apart from roe deer, which were more diurnal (Δ = 0.80). Six out of nine species increased their nocturnality at sites of high human disturbance, particularly roe deer and wolves. The detection of wolves was negatively associated with paved roads, the detection of roe deer was negatively associated with human disturbance, and the detection of wild boars was negatively associated with dogs. The detection of bears, boars, and foxes increased closer to settlements. Our study has applied implications for wolf conservation and human–wildlife coexistence.
Κατή Β., Πετρίδου Μ., Τζωρτζακάκη Ο., Παπαντωνίου Ε., Γαλάνη Α., Ψαραλέξη Μ., Γκότσης Δ., Παπαϊωάννου Χ. & Χ. Κασσάρα. 2023. Οι περιοχές χωρίς δρόμους της Ελλάδας ως προτεραιότητα για την προστασία της άγριας φύσης και του τοπίου: σύνδεση με το δίκτυο Natura 2000 και το χωροταξικό σχεδιασμό. 11ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Οικολογίας. Πάτρα, 4-7 Οκτωβρίου 2023.
Η διατήρηση οικοσυστημάτων υψηλής οικολογικής ακεραιότητας αποτελεί στόχο της Παγκόσμιας Στρατηγικής για τη Βιοποικιλότητα, συνάδοντας με το στόχο της αυστηρής προστασίας του 10% του εδάφους στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση.
Παρουσιάζουμε τον εθνικό χάρτη των Αδιατάρακτων Φυσικών Περιοχών χωρίς δρόμους (ΑΦΠ) της Ελλάδας (https://bc.lab.uoi.gr/el/research/projects/roadless/). Καλύπτουν το 6.1% της Ελλάδας (451 περιοχές) και βρίσκονται κυρίως στα βουνά και τα νησιά: 256 στην ηπειρωτική Ελλάδα, 133 στα νησιά, και 62 είναι νησιά εξολοκλήρου άνευ δρόμων (ΝΑΦΠ). Οι περισσότερες νησίδες έκτασης μικρότερης του ενός τ.χλμ δεν έχουν δρόμους (96%: 3456 νησίδες).
Οι ΑΦΠ/ΝΑΦΠ δεν έχουν τεχνητές εκτάσεις, είναι αδιατάρακτες (γεωργική δραστηριότητα 99% της έκτασής τους καλύπτεται από δάση και ημιφυσικές εκτάσεις). Το 68% και 86% της έκτασης των ΑΦΠ και ΝΑΦΠ αντίστοιχα εμπίπτει στο δίκτυο Natura 2000. Aπαντώνται επίσης σε τοπία με χαμηλό δείκτη κατακερματισμού. Είναι ανθεκτικές στην απώλεια της φυσικότητας και στις πυρκαγιές. Οι πυρκαγιές έκαψαν το 1.6% της έκτασης των δασών και ημιφυσικών εκτάσεών τους την περίοδο 2008-2022, αλλά το ποσοστό ήταν 2.7 φορές μεγαλύτερο στα αντίστοιχα οικοσυστήματα με δρόμους της Ελλάδας (4.3%). Οι περισσότερες περιοχές (302) έχουν έκταση άνω των 10 τ.χλμ και ικανοποιούν τα κριτήρια θεώρησής τους ως άγριες φυσικές περιοχές (wilderness). Η διείσδυση των ΑΠΕ απειλεί τις μισές ΑΦΠ (48%) και το ένα τρίτο των ΝΑΦΠ (33%).
Υποστηρίζουμε τη χρήση των ΑΦΠ/ΝΑΦΠ (α) στην οριοθέτηση των αυστηρά προστατευόμενων ζωνών του δικτύου Natura, (β) στον εντοπισμό, χαρτογράφηση και προστασία των πρωτογενών-παλαιών δασών, (γ) στην επέκταση του δικτύου προστατευόμενων περιοχών, (δ) στην προστασία των φυσικών τοπίων, και (ε) στην οριοθέτηση ζωνών αποκλεισμού νέων υποδομών και αναπτυξιακών έργων στα χωροταξικά σχέδια. Προτείνουμε μια οριζόντια εθνική νομοθεσία προστασίας του τοπίου, με επίκεντρο τις 302 άγριες φυσικές περιοχές της Ελλάδας.
Grigoropoulou, A., Hamid, S.A., Acosta, R., Akindele, E.O., Al-Shami, S.A., Altermatt, F., et al., 2023. The global EPTO database: Worldwide occurrences of aquatic insects. Global Ecology and Biogeography n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13648 (open access).
Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macroecological studies and applied freshwater research is missing. We aim to fill this gap and present the Global EPTO Database, which includes worldwide geo-referenced aquatic insect occurrence records for four major taxa groups: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata (EPTO). Main type of variables contained: A total of 8,368,467 occurrence records globally, of which 8,319,689 (99%) are publicly available. The records are attributed to the corresponding drainage basin and sub-catchment based on the Hydrography90m dataset and are accompanied by the elevation value, the freshwater ecoregion and the protection status of their location. Spatial location and grain: The database covers the global extent, with 86% of the observation records having coordinates with at least four decimal digits (11.1 m precision at the equator) in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) coordinate reference system. Time period and grain: Sampling years span from 1951 to 2021. Ninety-nine percent of the records have information on the year of the observation, 95% on the year and month, while 94% have a complete date. In the case of seven sub-datasets, exact dates can be retrieved upon communication with the data contributors. Major taxa and level of measurement: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata, standardized at the genus taxonomic level. We provide species names for 7,727,980 (93%) records without further taxonomic verification. Software format: The entire tab-separated value (.csv) database can be downloaded and visualized at https://glowabio.org/project/epto_database/. Fifty individual datasets are also available at https://fred.igb-berlin.de, while six datasets have restricted access. For the latter, we share metadata and the contact details of the authors.