The optimization of typical species inventory of habitat types of a NATURA 2000 site using a phytosociological approach

Abstract

The definition of typical species inventories of the 92/43/EEC Directive habitat types is a valuable information for the optimization of the conservation status assessment. Habitat-specific assessment protocols and predefined local inventories of typical species provide a method for a relatively fast and accurate assessment of the criterion “structures and functions”. Habitat types are often defined and described on the basis of a phytosociological description of vegetation units, mainly at the syntaxonomical level of alliance. Therefore, the definition of typical species inventories can be based on phytosociological approaches. Within this concept we surveyed the vegetation of a NATURA 2000 Special Area of Conservation in northern Greece in order to optimize and downscale the existing region-wide inventories of typical species. In total, we sampled 164 relevés in beech and in thermophilous deciduous broadleaved forests. The relevés were assigned to vegetation units and habitat types using numerical approaches and their differential and constant taxa were defined. We used these taxa to draw up the optimized, site-specific inventories of typical species for seven habitat types of community interest and one habitat type of national interest.