Czech research highlights rapid decline in Europe’s biodiversity
The diversity of plants in Europe's forests, wetlands and meadows is rapidly declining. This long-term trend has been confirmed by data collected by botanists from Masaryk University in Brno in collaboration with their European colleagues. To assess the changes in flora, vegetation and habitats, they created the largest database to date. I asked Milan Chytrý from the university’s department of zoology and botany how they collected the data:
“We simply sent invitations to our colleagues from across Europe asking them to take their data and enter them into a single database.
“The thing is that many botanists and plant ecologists across Europe collect data on species composition of flora in specific locations and many of these observations are repeated in time on the same location.
“They are usually used for analysis of species change in a small region, maybe in a specific habitat like in a single forest or single grassland, but they have never been integrated into one database, so that was our aim.
“And we got an overwhelming response. More than 250 colleagues contributed their data to the database and we spent about three years to integrate all of them.”
So, what does this extensive database reveal about Europe's biodiversity?
“Unfortunately, we found that in most places the biodiversity of plants is declining. It means that species that are typical of specific habitats, such as certain forest types or grassland types are declining.
“On the other hand, species that have broad distribution ranges and are not very selective about the habitats in which they grow are spreading over the landscape. Alien or invasive species that come from other continents are spreading.
“As a result, the species composition in different places in the landscape is becoming more and more similar and the distinctions, or heterogeneity, in flora is disappearing.”
When you are talking about forests, what’s the situation like here in the Czech Republic?
“Here in the Czech Republic natural forests are changing in a very similar way as in other countries of central and north-western Europe. So they are becoming darker and less rich in nutrients. This also causes changes in the composition of the flora in the lower layer, in the forest understorey.”
You database paints quite a grim picture of Europe’s biodiversity. Have you noticed any change for the better?
“Unfortunately, we haven’t noticed many changes for the better. However, we compared the changes of flora in protected areas and outside the protected areas and we found out that outside the protected areas the decline of plant biodiversity is faster.
“In protected areas there is also some decrease of biodiversity, but it is not that fast. So protected areas are important, but on average they are just slowing down the decline of biodiversity, they are not improving it, even though there are exceptions, of course. If a protected area is well-managed then biodiversity can return to this area.”
I know this wasn’t the aim of your research, but still, is there a way to reverse this trend of dwindling biodiversity? Would you say that perhaps setting up more protected areas is one way to do that?
“Partly it is. But I believe there is a great chance in the European nature restoration law, which was adopted just a few days ago. Under the new legislation, EU member states will have to launch projects on restoration of biodiversity not only in the protected areas.
“We also need to return biodiversity to the landscape outside the protected areas, especially to agricultural landscapes. We have to improve forest management and restore the natural flow of rivers, and so on.
“So this will be a big challenge for the European Union for the next years or even decades. Hopefully it will at least stop the decline of biodiversity or even reverse it and bring it back to the landscape.”
