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Habitats are effective indicators of biodiversity. Remote sensing data and techniques are of great utility for their long-term monitoring. Habitat maps can be derived from land cover (LC) maps through rules obtained from expert knowledge and integrated within situdata. Spatial (vegetation pattern) and temporal (phenology and water seasonality) relationships were explored and documented to infer reliable rules for LC (according to the Food and Agricultural Organization Land Cover Classification System (FAO-LCCS) taxonomy) to habitat (Annex I to the 92/43 EEC Directive and EUNIS) class translation. A coastal site in southern Italy was considered as study site for the definition and validation of such rules. Phenological data of the plant communities were collected on the basis of vegetation plots randomly distributed within the study site. Water seasonality was extracted from periodical observation of the water surface. Vegetation pattern was analyzed by means of vegetation survey along transects. The potentiality of rules, based on this specific expert knowledge, was tested in an experimental setting for habitat mapping. The overall accuracy of the habitat map was 75.1%. Such a result supports the usefulness of prior expert knowledge for habitat mapping from LCCS classes and disambiguation on one-to-many relations between LC/LU and habitat types. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An overview of the coastal vegetation of Site of Community Importance “Zone Umide della Capitanata” (Puglia Region) is here presented. Original relevés were performed in different locations of the site. On the basis of the in-field observations (142 original relevés) and of literature data, 44 plant communities have been defined, belonging to the following classes:Lemnetea minoris,Ruppietea maritimae, Potametea pectinati,Phragmito-Magnocaricetea, Cakiletea maritimae,Ammophiletea,Helichryso-Crucianelletea maritimae,Juncetea maritimi,Sarcocornietea fruticosae,Saginetea maritimae,Thero-Suaedetea,Tuberarietea guattatae,Nerio-Tamaricetea. For each vegetation unit, the distribution area at local and regional level and the relation to habitat types of the 92/43 EEC Directive are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Gargano is one of the richest Mediterranean areas in biodiversity. The work reports an assessment of the presence and conservation status of the habitats according to the 92/43/EEC Directive of Gargano coastal and low hill belts, their relationships with plant communities, threatened species, phytoclimatology, threats, and suggestions for management purposes. The field surveys revealed 33 habitats of Directive, and 6 of them are priority (1150*Coastal lagoons, 2250*Coastal dunes withJuniperusssp., 2270*Wooded dunes withPinus pineaand/orPinus pinaster, 6220*pseudo-steppe with grasses and annuals of theThero-Brachypodietea, 7210*Calcareous fens withCladium mariscusand species of theCaricion davallianae, 91AA*Eastern white oak woods). The updates of six Special Areas Conservation and three Special Protection Areas of Natura 2000 network are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]