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The main objective of the project Common strategies and best practices to IMprove the transnational PRotection of ECOsystem integrity and services - IMPRECO is to enhance the safeguarding of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Additionally, the aim of this project is to tackle their environmental vulnerability by strengthening the potential of the Protected Areas in biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services conservation. This is expected to be addressed by maintaining it through their transnational networking located in the European Adriatic-Ionian Macro-Region. The aim of this research is: 1) to characterise the habitats and ecosystems involved in the coastal-marine protected areas considered; 2) to set a biodiversity baseline; 3) to understand what current ecosystems’ conditions are; 4) to build up a transnational biomonitoring programme of target species and habitats and 5) to assess their response to pilot actions. To do so, a transnational inventory of species, habitats, ecosystems and ecosystem services was established, starting with the seven coastal-marine protected areas involved in the project. Data collection was carried out using different sources of information: scientific literature, officially available data from NATURA 2000 Standard Data Forms, checklists from local biomonitoring programmes, personal observations and citizen science, historical maps and data from new in-field analyses. Data were filled in the transnational biodiversity geo-databases according to the NATURA 2000 standards about habitat features, species protection level and species features. The presence of alien species (non-indigenous species, NIS) was also acknowledged and references about data collection were provided in the databases according to the Darwin Core standards.

Analysis of the herpetological collection of Natural History Museum in Split found that snakes were represented in the herpetological collection by 183 inventory numbers with 224 samples. Samples in the collection belong to 4 families, 5 subfamilies, 11 genera and 15 species of snakes, with Vipera ammodytes being the most numerous species. The largest number of samples were collected by Cvitanić A. and Girometta U. in the Dalmatian part of Adriatic. A large part of the collection doesn't contain information of collector or collection date. The material is stored in alcohol and in formalin with the exception of 27 samples that are stored like dermoplastic preparation.

This paper gives an analysis of the chelonians deposited in the herpetological collection of the Natural History Museum in Split.

Internal factors such as experience (e.g. age) and motivation for breeding, and external ones such as environmental conditions (e.g. meteorology and landscape characteristics) can promote differences in migratory behaviour and routes among seasons, regions and populations. Using satellite telemetry we investigated whether such differences occur and which factors promote them among migrating Eleonora’s falcons breeding in the Mediterranean area (Spain and Croatia) and wintering in Madagascar. We found that during autumn migration no age differences occur when crossing the Sahara desert, but in the remaining African regions, juveniles were more prone than adults to fly at a slower and more tortuous rate, as well as exhibiting longer stop-overs, particularly in the Sahel region. Such differences might be promoted by a lower foraging and pre-migratory fattening efficiency in juveniles. During spring, routes were significantly more eastern than during autumn, resulting in a loop migration occurring in all studied populations. This could be accounted by seasonal variation in the distribution of trophic resources. Our results show that Eleonora’s falcons integrate spatially seasonal changing resources on a continental scale throughout their annual cycle, changing their movement patterns in response to internal (age) and external (habitat) factors. This loop migration pattern may prove to be widespread among other Palearctic trans-continental migratory bird species. The Terra Natura Foundation and the ‘Servicio de Biodiversidad’ (Generalitat Valenciana) funded the Spanish part of the project. UM is supported by an FPU grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education (reference AP2008-0947). PLL is supported by a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ postdoctoral grant of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (reference JCI-2011-09588).

Za istraživano područje Šćadina (srednja Dalmacija) do sada je registrirano 446 svojti vaskularnih biljaka koje su svrstane u 272 roda i 82 porodice. Otprije su za istraživano područje bile poznate 122 svojte vaskularnih biljaka, a u radu se navode nove 324 svojte. Od ukupnog broja vrsta najviše ih pripada mediteranskom flornom elementu (144 svojte ili 32,2%) u okviru kojeg su najbrojnije opće-mediteranske biljke. Najzastupljeniji životni oblik su hemikriptofiti sa 158 svojti (35,3%). Najveći broj svojti zabilježen je u porodicama Fabaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae i Brassicaceae., For the investigated area Šcadin (Central Dalmatia), 446 vascular plants have been registered and classified within 272 genera and 82 families. From the total number of taxa, 144 taxa (32.2%) belong to different groups of the Mediterranean floral element, and the most numerous are Circum-Mediterranean plants. The most prevalent group of life-forms are hemicryptophytes with 158 taxa (35.3%). The greatest number of species is registered within the Fabaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Brassicaceae families.