Nicola Arndt und Matthias Pohl - Neobiota

Later the map of biogeographical regions was extended to the whole of Europe to help implement the
Emerald network of the Council of Europe (CoE 1998) and for the implementation of Natura 2000 in
the 10 countries which joined the EU in 2004 and the remaining candidate countries. The PNV map
was used as a data source for this extension which followed the same procedure but included 5 new
regions (Anatolian, Arctic, Black Sea, Pannonian & Steppic). The first version of the Pan-European
map which was adopted by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in December 1997 was
based on the 1:15,000,000 and 1 : 10,000,000 PNV maps (BOHN 1993; BOHN et al. 2000) with
boundaries transferred by hand. A revised version was produced when a digital edition of the
1 : 2,500,000 map became available(BOHN et al. 2000). The major differences are in Central Europe
where the area of the Carpathians classified as Alpine now extends further west than before. Further
details of history and production of the map of biogeographical regions are given in ROEKARTS
(2002).
3 Information required for Natura 2000 assessments
The Natura 2000 network of sites aims to maintain or restore the habitats and species listed on Annexes
I & II of the Directive at 'Favourable Conservation Status'. To ensure that the sites proposed are
sufficient to achieve this aim a series of meetings are being held for each a series of meetings are being
held for each biogeographical region to assess the proposals and identify habitats and species where
member states should propose additional sites. To assess these proposals requires information on
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Distribution & extent of each Annex I habitat;
Variation (species composition, structure, etc) of each habitat;
Threat, trends, changes for each habitat.
However data is often lacking and when available there can be problems in comparing data from different
sources. For example several systems for classifying (& mapping) vegetation/habitats are in use
across Europe including
‘Traditional’ phytosociology/E.V.S 1
CORINE Biotopes 3 /Palaearctic 4 /EUNIS 5
EPNV map 7
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Council of Europe map 2
CORINE Land Cover 6
( 1 RODWELL et al. 1995; 2 NOIRFALISE 1987; 3 MOSS & WYATT 1994; 4 DEVILLERS & DEVILLERS-
TERSCHUREN 1996; 5 DAVIES & MOSS 1997; 6 EUROPEAN COMMISSION 1994 ; 7 Bohn et al.
2000/2003).
There are also many national and regional classifications (e.g., U.K. National Vegetation Classification,
RODWELL 1991-2000, Vegetationstyper i Norden, PÅHLSSON 1998).
To make best use of available data on distribution, etc., it is necessary to translate between these
various sytems but this can be difficult, as often there is no simple 'one to one' relationship and
sometimes precise definitions are lacking. Phytosociological syntaxa are often used as part of the
definitions in other systems and are probably the best common ground. The synonymy of alliances
produced by the European Vegetation Survey (RODWELL et al. 2002) makes this easier. The EC has
published an aid to identifying Annex I habitats which is largely based on the Palaearctic classification
(ROMÃO 1996; CEC 2003).
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