We have already developed the EUNIS classification of habitats, we can use the hierarchical classes of habitats as equivalent of ecosystems type? When we see the upper hierarchical classes, we have a correspondence between EUNIS habitat type and for example MAES ecosystems. I my opinion we can use the same nomenclature for ecosystems types until EUNIS level 3.
Hi Florian,
Of course you can do this comparison, but in some cases it may be better to relate individual, specific habitats (habitat is the environment specific for a specific species, not of a species community) to more detailed discriptions like e.g. CORINE system. Full ecosystem certainly comprise several types of habitats.
Hope this comment was useful.
Best regards
Georg
Hi Georg,
In my opinion it is really time and resources consuming to develop alternative classification system for ecosystems, also the actual assessment on EUNIS and Nature 2000 habitats are based on phytosociology approaches where is express like the species community heterogeneity. Also at European environmental agency (EEA) they are working to develop this kind of association but they are stop at level 2 until now (http://sdi.eea.europa.eu/catalogue/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/df69de7e-3af1-4b4d-94d4-8bebe84c80b0). We have tested for Romania with good results for level 3. it is really true the CORINE system comprise several type of habitats at this level, but we really need to have a CORINE system upgraded/applied on satellite images with high resolution from last year the COPERNICUS program will work with 1.5 m resolution. Will be great to update the COPERNICUS program to work on EUNIS level 3 directly.
Best regards,
Florian
Hi Florian,
I share the view that more detailed data classification is needed for better utilizing Copernicus, and this includes high (and ideally ultra-high) resolution derivative datasets such as the habitat - ecosystem crosswalks you mention. Making the case for detailed crosswalks from the research and practitioners community may be the way for influencing the EU level budget spending on this.
Another source of uncertainty is the dominant ecosystem type approach adopted in the EEA datasets. Although I can see the resource limitations historically underlying it, such limitations are likely to decrease in relevance and better precision of CLC in next editions should be expected as a result.
It would be interesting to hear about your use case and get links to the relevant research.
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