Grillo O., Venora G. (eds.) Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet

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Assessing Loss of Biodiversity in Europe

Through Remote Sensing: The Necessity of New Methodologies

EUNIS CORRELATION: G3.1

CLC 321 - Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation

associations / Natural grasslands

HC 6170 - Alpine and subalpine calcareous grasslands

EUNIS CORRELATION: E4.4,

HC 6410 - Molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Molinion caeruleae)

EUNIS CORRELATION: E3.5, E3.51

HC 6510 - Lowland hay meadows (Alopecurus pratensis, Sanguisorba officinalis)

EUNIS CORRELATION: E2.2

CLC 322 - Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation

associations / Moors and heathland

HC 4020* - Temperate Atlantic wet heaths with Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix

EUNIS CORRELATION: F4.1

HC 4030 - European dry heaths

EUNIS CORRELATION: F4.2

HC 5130 - Juniperus communis formations on heaths or calcareous grasslands

EUNIS CORRELATION: F3.1, F3.16

CLC 323 - Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation

associations / Sclerophyllous vegetation

HC 5130 - Juniperus communis formations on heaths or calcareous grasslands

EUNIS CORRELATION: F3.1, F3.16

CLC 331 - Forest and semi natural areas / Open spaces with little or no vegetation /

Beaches, dunes, sands

HC 2120 - Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria ('white dunes')

EUNIS CORRELATION: B1.3, B1.32

HC 2130* - Fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation ('grey dunes')

EUNIS CORRELATION: B1.4

CLC 332 - Forest and semi natural areas / Open spaces with little or no vegetation /

Bare rocks

HC 8130 - Western Mediterranean and thermophilous scree

EUNIS CORRELATION: H2.5, H2.5

HC 8220 - Siliceous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation

EUNIS CORRELATION: H3.1

CLC 411 - Wetlands / Inland wetlands / Inland marshes

HC 7230 - Alkaline fens

EUNIS CORRELATION: D4.1

CLC 412 - Wetlands / Inland wetlands / Peat bogs

HC 7110* - Active raised bogs

EUNIS CORRELATION: C1.4, D1.1, G5.6

HC 7120 - Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration

Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet

EUNIS CORRELATION: D1.1, D1.121

HC 7130 - Blanket bogs (* if active bog)

EUNIS CORRELATION: D1.2

CLC 421 - Wetlands / Maritime wetlands / Salt marshes

HC 1310 - Salicornia and other annuals colonizing mud and sand

EUNIS CORRELATION: A2.5

CLC 423 - Wetlands / Maritime wetlands / Intertidal flats

HC 1140 - Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide

EUNIS CORRELATION: A2.1, A2.4, A2.6

CLC 511 - Water bodies / Inland waters / Water courses

HC 3260 - Water courses of plain to montane levels with the Ranunculion fluitantis and Callitricho-

Batrachion vegetation

EUNIS CORRELATION: C2.1, C2.1B, C2.2, C2.28, C2.3, C2.34

HC 3270 - Rivers with muddy banks with Chenopodion rubri pp and Bidention pp vegetation

EUNIS CORRELATION: C3.5, C3.53

CLC 512 - Wetlands / Inland waters / Water bodies

HC 3150 - Natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion or Hydrocharition -type vegetation

EUNIS CORRELATION: C1.3, C1.33

CLC 521 - Wetlands / Marine waters / Coastal lagoons

HC 1150* - Coastal lagoons

EUNIS CORRELATION: A1.3, A2.2, A2.3, A2.4, A2.5, A3.3, A5.1, A5.2, A5.3, A5.4, A5.5, A5.6,

A7.1, A7.2, A7.3, A7.4, A7.5, A7.8, C1.5, C3.4

CLC 522 - Wetlands / Marine waters / Estuaries

HC 1130 - Estuaries

EUNIS CORRELATION: A1.2, A1.3, A1.4, A2.1, A2.2, A2.3, A2.4, A2.5, A2.6, A2.7, A3.2, A3.3,

A3.7, A4.2, A4.3, A5.1, A5.2, A5.3, A5.4, A5.5, A5.6, A7.1, A7.3, A7.4, A7.5, A7.8 ,X01

Table 11. Correspondences between Corine Land Cover classification (3

level) and habitats

of Community interest, and correspondences between habitats of Community interest (HD)

with EUNIS classification (only overlap, same and narrow relation) (Source:

www.eunis.eea.europa.eu, last accessed May 2011)

CODE DENOMINATION

31110

Forest and semi natural areas / Forests / Broad-leaved forest / Evergreen broad-leaved

woodlands

31120

Forest and semi natural areas / Forests / Broad-leaved forest / Deciduous and marcescent

forest

31150

Forest and semi natural areas / Forests / Broad-leaved forest / River forest

31210 Forest and semi natural areas / Forests / Coniferous forest / Needle coniferous forests

32111

Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations /

Natural grasslands / High-productive alpine grasslands / High-productive alpine

grasslands of temperate-oceanic climate areas

Assessing Loss of Biodiversity in Europe

Through Remote Sensing: The Necessity of New Methodologies

32112

Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations /

Natural grasslands / High-productive alpine grasslands / Mediterranean high-productive

grasslands

32121

Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations /

Natural grasslands / Other grasslands / Other grasslands of mild-oceanic climate

32122

Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations /

Natural grasslands / Other grasslands / Other mediterranean grasslands

32312

Forest and semi natural areas / Scrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations /

Sclerophyllous vegetation / Mediterranean sclerophyllous bushes and scrubs / Not very

dense Mediterranean sclerophyllous bushes and scrubs

33110

Forest and semi natural areas / Open spaces with little or no vegetation / Beaches, dunes,

sands / Beaches and dunes

33210

Forest and semi natural areas / Open spaces with little or no vegetation / Bare rocks /

Steep bare rock areas (cliffs, etc.)

33220

Forest and semi natural areas / Open spaces with little or no vegetation / Bare rocks /

Rocky outcrops and screes

41100

Wetlands / Inland wetlands / Inland marshes

41200

Wetlands / Inland wetlands / Peat bogs

42100 Wetlands / Maritime wetlands / Salt marshes

42300 Wetlands / Maritime wetlands / Intertidal flats

51110 Water bodies / Inland waters / Water courses / River and natural water courses

51210

Water bodies / Inland waters / Water bodies / Lakes and lagoons

52100

Water bodies / Marine waters / Coastal lagoons /

52200 Water bodies / Marine waters / Estuaries

Table 12. Corine Land cover European Nomeclature

CODE DENOMINATION

1130

Estuaries

1140

Mudflats and sandflats not covered by seawater at low tide

1150*

Coastal lagoons

1310

Salicornia and other annuals colonizing mud and sand

2120 Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria ('white dunes')

2130*

Fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation ('grey dunes')

3110

Oligotrophic waters containing very few minerals of sandy plains (Littorelletalia uniflorae)

3120

Oligotrophic waters containing very few minerals generally on sandy soils of the West

Mediterranean, with Isoetes spp.

3130

Oligotrophic to mesotrophic standing waters with vegetation of the Littorelletea uniflorae

and/or of the Isoëto-Nanojuncetea

3140 Hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with benthic vegetation of Chara spp.

3150 Natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion or Hydrocharition -type vegetation

3160 Natural dystrophic lakes and ponds

3260

Water courses of plain to montane levels with the Ranunculion fluitantis and Callitricho-

Batrachion vegetation

3270

Rivers with muddy banks with Chenopodion rubri pp and Bidention pp vegetation

4020*

Temperate Atlantic wet heaths with Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix

Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet

4030 European dry heaths

5130 Juniperus communis formations on heaths or calcareous grasslands

6170 Alpine and subalpine calcareous grasslands

6410 Molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Molinion caeruleae)

6430 Hydrophilous tall herb fringe communities of plains and of the montane to alpine levels

6510 Lowland hay meadows (Alopecurus pratensis, Sanguisorba officinalis)

7110*

Active raised bogs

7120

Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration

7130

Blanket bogs (* if active bog)

7230

Alkaline fens

8130

Western Mediterranean and thermophilous scree

8220

Siliceous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation

9120

Atlantic acidophilous beech forests with Ilex and sometimes also Taxus in the shrublayer

(Quercion robori-petraeae or Ilici-Fagenion)

9180* Tilio-Acerion forests of slopes, screes and ravines

91D0* Bog woodland

91E0*

Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae,

Salicion albae)

91F0

Riparian mixed forests of Quercus robur, Ulmus laevis and Ulmus minor, Fraxinus excelsior or

Fraxinus angustifolia, along the great rivers (Ulmenion minoris)

9230 Galicio-Portuguese oak woods with Quercus robur and Quercus pyrenaica

9330 Quercus suber forests

9340 Quercus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia forests

9380 Forests of Ilex aquifolium

9410 Acidophilous Picea forests of the montane to alpine levels (Vaccinio-Piceetea)

[*], Priority natural habitat types as Habitats of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC (Annex 1)

Table 13. Habitats of Community interest (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) denomination

8. Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Research Group GI-1934 TB. The Autonomous Region of Galicia

(Spain) has financed this study through the Project 10MDS276025PR of the Research

Program PGIDT-INCITE-Xunta de Galicia, Consellería de Economía e Industria.

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Biodiversity Stability of Shallow Marine Benthos

in Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada

Through Climate Regimes, Overfishing and

Ocean Acidification

Jeffrey B. Marliave, Charles J. Gibbs,

Donna M. Gibbs, Andrew O. Lamb and Skip J.F. Young

Vancouver Aquarium (JM, DG, SY) and Pacific Marine Life Surveys Inc. (CG, DG, AL)

Canada

1. Introduction

The highest human population density in British Columbia, Canada is situated around the

shores of the Strait of Georgia, where current government policy is focusing early efforts

toward achieving ecosystem-based management of marine resources. Climate regime shifts

are acknowledged to have affected commercial fishery production in southern British

Columbia (McFarlane et al., 2000), and overfishing is well documented in the Strait of

Georgia region for a variety of important species, to the extent that Rockfish Conservation

Areas have been created (Marliave & Challenger, 2009). As CO

levels rise in the

atmosphere, the oceans become progressively more acidic. While ocean acidification is

predicted to be a great threat to marine ecosystems, little is known about its ecosystem

impacts. Few taxpayer-funded studies have committed to long-term monitoring of full

ecosystem biodiversity. This document presents results of over forty years of private

taxonomic monitoring of shallow seafloors in the region centering on the Strait of Georgia.

Also presented are records of ambient ocean acidity levels (pH), documented continuously

by the Vancouver Aquarium through the same time period. Biodiversity data are

summarized in ways that enable visualization of possible relationships to climate regimes

and ocean acidification. This work does not attempt statistical analyses, in the hope that the

data trends can be incorporated into future models.

Biodiversity survey data can reveal fundamental differences in community function, as with

the disparate trophic complexity and rockfish nursery capacity of glass sponge gardens

versus reefs (Marliave et al., 2009). Trophic cascades can be elucidated when coupling

biodiversity surveys with transect abundance surveys (Frid & Marliave, 2010). It has been

suggested that biodiversity provides more accurate definition of climate regime shifts than

does physical oceanographic data (Hare & Mantua, 2000) and the abundance, survival and

spawning distribution of commercial fish species have been linked to decadal-scale changes

in ocean and climate conditions (McFarlane et al., 2000).

Ocean acidification can detrimentally impact anti-predator behaviors of fish (Dix et al.,

2010). Ocean acidification is most intensive in the geographic area of the NE Pacific Ocean

Biodiversity Loss in a Changing Planet

centering on the present area of study, surrounding the Strait of Georgia (Byrne et al., 2010).

Ecosystem impacts of ocean acidification trends have not, however, been segregated from

climate impacts such as El Niño winters or climate regime shifts. Indeed, it is difficult to

segregate shorter term El Niño and La Niña years from climate regimes (Hare & Mantua,

2000), but there is consensus that the regime shift of 1976/1977 was major, followed by a

prominent shift in 2000/2001 (Tsonis et al., 2007). McFarlane et al. (2000) provide evidence

of another possible regime shift in 1989.

This data presentation summarizes results of 44 years of biodiversity monitoring in the

Strait of Georgia region of southern British Columbia, in comparison with monitoring

results for surrounding inland sea and outer coast regions at the same latitude and to the

immediate north and south (Figure 1). The data treatment accommodates a continual

increase in the knowledge base for identification of benthic nearshore marine life. A

principal focus of this analysis is the possible climate shifts that have been proposed as

regimes for the NE Pacific Ocean. The contention that biodiversity can serve to define

climate regime shifts is implicitly tested in this study for the shallow seabeds of coastal NE

Pacific regions. As well, perhaps the first long-term documentation of ocean acidification in

this region is presented to permit comparison with any possible trends in biodiversity.

2. Methods

Biodiversity monitoring with SCUBA diving centered in the Strait of Georgia region has

been conducted by Pacific Marine Life Surveys, Inc. (PMLS) from 1967 to the present, with

over 4,500 dives entered into a database from which different data summaries can be

extracted. Programming details are explained below for this PMLS database. A total of 1,185

taxa have been documented, but analyses of different climate regime periods are limited to

the 328 more prominent species that were identified during the first regime period of 1967-

1977.

The area covered by PMLS surveys is depicted in Figure 1. The Strait of Georgia is central to

this region, with two other inland seas, Puget Sound and Johnstone Strait, to the south and

north. Offshore of the Strait of Georgia is the west coast of Vancouver Island, with northern

British Columbia and Alaska to the north, and the outer coast of Washington to the south.

This monitoring by PMLS was not derived from a traditional research program involving

designated and pre-determined sampling sites visited at regular intervals. All species

documented were observed underwater, during the actual dive profiles. The results are

derived from a long-term monitoring effort involving sites selected for their accessibility

and convenience for the three participating divers recording data. This effort was largely

based on recreational SCUBA trips and relying on shore access or boat availability (charter

or private).

An important confounding factor has been the increase over time of published taxonomic

identifications, as well as the successive publication of increasingly useful taxonomic keys

and identification guidebooks. Figure 2 shows the species accumulation at one dive site in

the first five dives of each climate regime period. A wide field of specialist taxon experts

gradually associated with PMLS as well, so that the PMLS team continuously increased the

species list. Early focus was on fishes and larger crustacean, mollusc and echinoderm

invertebrates. Sponges in particular required time to develop expertise with, and various

species remain unidentified. It should also be noted that seaweeds were not a focus for

identifications during the first 15 years of the survey. For these reasons, comparative