COCONUT in a nutshell
Purpose
- Provide decision basis to meet EU target to halt biodiversity by 2010 and beyond
- Improve understanding on how terrestrial biodiversity is affected by historic and current land use changes
Method
- Assemble existing data on land use change (GIS) and effects on organisms from literature and existing databases
- Focus on Natura 2000 sites and habitat types
- Perform meta-analysis and statistical modeling
- Incorporate results in policy driven land use scenario models
Main results
- Habitat loss and the quality of the landscape surrounding the habitat drives biodiversity loss
- Species traits modify the extinction risk
- Mainly plants have extinction debts in fragmented landscapes
- Habitat quality to biodiversity has deteriorated around but not within Natura 2000 sites in the years 1950 to 2000
- CORINE and available biodiversity information from Natura 2000 areas are too low quality to allow for biodiversity modeling
- Novel land use modeling methods were developed to linking biodiversity to land use
- Intensified land use in future scenario models leads to biodiversity declines in
Natura 2000 sites
List of deliverables and links to them are available in the Publications section of the website.
