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>Assessing the Risk of Impact of Farming Intensification on Calcareous Grasslands in Europe:A Quantitative Implementation of the MIRABEL Framework
Assessing the Risk of Impact of Farming Intensification on Calcareous Grasslands in Europe:A Quantitative Implementation of the MIRABEL Framework
＜正＞ Intensification of farming practices is still a major driver ofbiodiversity loss in Europe,despite the implementation ofpolicies that aim to reverse this trend.A conceptualframework called MIRABEL was previously developedthat enabled a qualitative and expert-based assessmentof the impact of agricultural intensification on ecologicallyvaluable habitats.We present a quantitative update of theprevious assessment that uses newly available pan-European spatially explicit data on pressures and habitatsat risk.This quantitative assessment shows that thenumber of calcareous grasslands potentially at risk ofeutrophication and overgrazing is rapidly increasing inEurope.Decreases in nitrogen surpluses and stockingdensities that occurred between 1990 and 2000 haverarely led to values that were below the ecologicalthresholds.At the same time,a substantial proportion ofcalcareous grassland that has so far experienced lowvalues for indicators of farming intensification has facedincreases between 1990 and 2000 and could well becomeat high risk from farming intensification in the near future.As such,this assessment is an early warning signal,especially for habitats located in areas that have tradi-tionally been farmed extensively.When comparing theoutcome of this assessment with the previous qualitativeMIRABEL assessment,it appears that if pan-Europeandata are useful to assess the intensity of the pressures,more work is needed to identify regional variations in theresponse of biodiversity to such pressures.This is wherea qualitative approach based on regional expertise shouldbe used to complement data-driven assessments.
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