Assessing Habitat Vulnerability and Loss of Naturalness: Applying the GLOBIO3 Model in the Czech Republic

0543647 - ÚVGZ 2022 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Pechanec, V. - Cudlín, Ondřej - Zapletal, Miloš - Purkyt, Jan - Štěrbová, Lenka - Chobot, K. - Tangwa, E. - Včeláková, Renata - Prokopová, Marcela - Cudlín, Pavel
Assessing Habitat Vulnerability and Loss of Naturalness: Applying the GLOBIO3 Model in the Czech Republic.
Sustainability. Roč. 13, č. 10 (2021), č. článku 5355. E-ISSN 2071-1050
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LM2018123
Research Infrastructure: CzeCOS III - 90123
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : central-europe * nitrogen deposition * land-use * biodiversity * spruce * populations * ecosystems * grasslands * vegetation * diversity * biodiversity * detailed scale * naturalness of habitats * the GLOBIO model
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)
Impact factor: 3.889, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5355

Global and regional biodiversity loss is caused by several drivers including urban development, land use intensification, overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution, and climate change. The main aim of our study was to adapt the GLOBIO3 model to the conditions of the Czech Republic (CR) to assess loss of naturalness and biodiversity vulnerability at the habitat level on a detailed scale across the entire CR. An additional aim was to assess the main drivers affecting the biodiversity of habitat types. The GLOBIO3 model was adapted to CZ-GLOBIO by adapting global to local scales and using habitat quality and naturalness data instead of species occurrence data. The total mean species abundance (MSA) index of habitat quality, calculated from the spatial overlay of the four MSA indicators by our new equation, reached the value 0.62. The total value of MSA for natural and near-natural habitats was found to be affected mainly by infrastructure development and fragmentation. Simultaneously, intensity of land use change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributed primarily to the low total value of MSA for distant natural habitats. The CZ-GLOBIO model can be an important tool in political decision making to reduce the impact of the main drivers on habitat biodiversity in the CR.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0320835