EUNIS Habitat classification

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Information about the EUNIS Habitat classification:

Background

The taxonomy for classification of species has been under development for over 200 years since the pioneering work of Linnaeus. The distinction between species is clearly understood by taxonomists, although they are not without disagreements and there are frequent revisions of some groups. Many identification guides include keys so that criteria for the differences between species can be recognised.

By contrast, although botanists have been classifying vegetation for the past century, habitat classification which builds on classical phytosociology so as to include abiotic features of the habitat is a relatively new development. The need for a classification has several driving forces: establishment of habitat protection legislation; inventory of habitats in a biogeographic region, country or site; biodiversity monitoring and reporting; description of a species' habitat requirements. A habitat classification system should be comprehensive, scientific, unambiguous and easily understood without requiring detailed technical knowledge.

In the past few decades a number of national classifications have been developed, and the first European initiatives began in the early 1980s. As a result, there are several habitat type classification systems in use for monitoring and description of habitats. These systems have many similarities, but they are not identical and reporting at European level is therefore difficult. Furthermore, different international directives and conventions have used different classifications, making their inter-relationship complex.

To meet the need, there has been a continuous work programme since the inception of the EEA undertaken for the European Topic Centre on Nature Protection and Biodiversity (formerly European Topic Centre on Nature Conservation ) by its partner the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (formerly Institute of Terrestrial Ecology), UK. It builds upon the previous initiatives of the CORINE Habitat classification developed for the European Commission (DG XI) and its successor the (ongoing) Palaearctic Habitat classification, developed for the Council of Europe, but re-structures and re-defines this classification. It is further refined in the marine sector by the addition of units developed by marine conventions (Barcelona and Helcom) and the EU-funded BioMar project. Collaboration with the OSPAR Convention and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) began in 1999.

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Objectives

The aim during development of the EUNIS Habitat classification has been to create a common European reference set of habitat units with a common description of all units and a common hierarchical classification. This will enable referencing and reporting habitat data in a comparable manner for use in nature conservation (inventories, monitoring, assessment). It will not supplant existing national or sectoral systems, unless member countries or institutions so want. The specific requirements are that the classification should:

• provide a common and easily understood language for the description of all marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats throughout Europe
• be objective and scientifically based, with clear definitions and principles
• hold information in a relational database allowing interrogation based on a number of parameters
• seek as far as possible to achieve a consensus amongst those concerned with habitat classification as developers or users
• be comprehensive, but applicable at a number of hierarchical levels of complexity in recognition of the variety of its applications
• be flexible so as to evolve and allow the admission of new information, but also sufficiently stable to support users of its predecessors and other systems.

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Applications

• to provide broad categories for the assessment of the state and trends of nature for use in the European Environment Agency's reporting process
• to support the development of the EU NATURA2000 network for extension to new countries and the possible revision of Annex I of the Habitats Directive, and also for the development of the Council of Europe EMERALD network (Bern Convention)
• to map habitats at a level appropriate to the scale, whether or not in cross-reference to CORINE Land Cover maps
• to obtain an overview of habitat distribution at European level
• to enable national nature conservation authorities to place and assess their habitats in a European context
• to evaluate habitat diversity values in biodiversity assessments
• to provide a practical system for the description and monitoring of habitat types for national, regional and local nature inventory, evaluation and management relevant to both site and species information
• to identify and document the character and distribution of the most threatened habitat types in Europe e.g. in national or regional red lists.

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Definitions

Geographical scope: pan-Europe, defined in the same way as in the report "Europe's Environment - The Second Assessment" (EEA, 1998), i.e. the European mainland as far east as the Ural Mountains, including offshore islands (Cyprus; Iceland but not Greenland), and the archipelagos of the European Union Member States (Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores). Anatolian Turkey and the Caucasus are included in the classification in principle, although knowledge from these areas is more limited.

Habitat is defined as: "plant and animal communities as the characterising elements of the biotic environment, together with abiotic factors (soil, climate, water availability and quality, and others), operating together at a particular scale".

The scale of organisms and of the environmental units in which they occur is intrinsic to the definition of habitat: it is that occupied by small vertebrates, large invertebrates and vascular plants. Samples of between 1 m2 and 100 m2 will generally be adequate to categorise habitats. At the smaller scale, "microhabitats" (features generally occupying less than 1 m2 which are characteristic of certain habitat types and important for some smaller invertebrates and lower plants) can be described. Examples are decaying wood, found in mature forests and required by invertebrates whose function is decomposition, or animal dung in grassland environments. At the larger scale, habitats can be grouped as "habitat complexes", which are frequently-occurring combinations or mosaics of individual habitat types, usually occupying at least 10 ha, which may be inter-dependent. Estuaries, combining tidal water, mud flats, saltmarshes and other littoral habitats, are a good example.

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Methodology

The classification is based on general vegetation science with additions of a series of non-vegetated landscape elements, which are important animal habitats or form the basis for colonisation of vegetation. Marine elements are also included, whether or not colonised by plants or animals, including those composed of substrates of animal origin.

The starting point was the Palaearctic Habitat classification, extended from the CORINE Habitat classification which was developed for use by the European Community in the pilot CORINE Biotopes programme by the EU Commission 1986-1991. The Palaearctic Habitat classification was developed as an extension to and beyond Phare countries (of Central and Eastern Europe) in their 1992-1998 CORINE Biotopes projects. Continuity in these two phases of CORINE Biotopes was ensured by the work being undertaken throughout by the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. The Palaearctic Habitat classification continues to be extended to new countries in eastern and central Europe.

With extensions and in-depth work the Palaearctic Habitat classification has developed through several versions during more than 10 years of existence. With the advent of remote-sensing based land cover mapping, the possibilities in database development and the need to consolidate the work, the EEA has taken the responsibility to build on the Palaearctic habitat classification work, and to include habitats which were not fully represented in the Palaearctic classification, such as those in the marine environment.

The initial stages of the EUNIS work included a re-structuring of the Palaearctic classification to fit with criteria which were developed for the identification of habitats at levels 1, 2 and 3. Habitat units which did not fit clear criteria were moved between habitat types at any of these levels as appropriate in order to make the criteria more consistent and easily understood. So as to avoid duplication of effort, the decision was made that at hierarchical levels below the third, the habitat units would be attached from contributing classifications, initially Palaearctic and BioMar (marine areas around UK and Ireland), later augmented with Mediterranean and Baltic marine habitats. The linked lower level units are clearly shown by their coding, indicated in the database by the use of the level 3 EUNIS code followed by /, a classification reference letter, and the code of the unit from the other named classification, and not by EUNIS codes of four or more characters. The classification reference letters are P, B, M and H respectively. EUNIS is thus a means whereby classification systems can be combined in a common framework. Generally the names used are those of the linked parent classification, augmented or edited only where necessary for greater clarity or consistency with other EUNIS names. In a few cases, where these could not be found in the other classifications, EUNIS habitats have been added at level 4: these are listed in the database with 4-character EUNIS codes. Units at levels 5, 6 and possibly 7 have been added only to complete the linkage to the marine classifications or to Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive.

The work has been done in a series of collaborations - workshops, experts' meetings, consultations - with vegetation and habitat experts selected on the basis of their experience particularly with CORINE and the EU Habitats Directive or in other organisations such as The European Vegetation Survey. Experts both from EEA and Phare countries have been involved, as habitat experts, not as national representatives. Comment on the 1997 draft of the classification was sought in 1998 from over 150 experts, and results were used in further refinements. Collaboration with the OSPAR Convention and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) began in 1999 with a workshop of marine habitat mapping specialists held at Oban, Scotland. Following that workshop, the first definitive version of the EUNIS classification was made available through the present website, with the intention of maintaining stability for a period of one to two years.

A review of the marine units of the EUNIS habitat classification was made during a second workshop convened by OSPAR and ICES and held at Southampton, England in September 2000. The first version of the classification was heavily biased towards British waters since the majority of units included at level 4 were those from the BioMar classification. One aim of the workshop was to develop marine units to Level 4 and to propose amendments to the present classification as required by an extension of the geographical area to include the whole OSPAR, ICES and EEA area. The classification of pelagic habitats was revised completely at a meeting of the ICES Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping held at Galway, Ireland in April 2001. Proposals made at the Southampton workshop and Galway meeting were been included in an update of the EUNIS classification dated May 2001, and unresolved issues are highlighted in the 'Comment' field found in the habitat descriptions. Further work is required on these issues, but the update has been published so that all users can benefit from the progress made at the meetings mentioned above, and can contribute their feedback. Note that level 4 habitat units added in consequence of OSPAR/ICES workshops have been given a reference letter O where appropriate. A number of mainly small revisions to the non-marine parts of the classification remain have been made in February 2002.

A parameter database has been built up, starting from one developed for the Nordic Council's classification of Nordic Vegetation types. The database includes reference systems for climates, soils, water quality as well as vegetation, physiographic elements, characteristic or dominant plants and animals. Further work is required to populate the database with assessments of the parameters describing EUNIS habitats. As a starting point, parameters for marine habitats have been included from the BioMar classification.

Cross-referencing has been maintained to the classification's predecessors (CORINE and Palaearctic) at several publication dates from 1989 to 2001, to the classifications used by the marine conventions and projects mentioned above, and to the CORINE Land Cover classification. Relationships between EUNIS and the habitats listed under two legal instruments have been established.

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Relationship to legislative lists

The EUNIS Habitat classification is closely related to

• the EU Habitats Directive Annex I
• and the Bern Convention Resolution No. 4.

They all build upon the CORINE/Palaearctic Habitat classification, but because of the fixed place in legal frameworks, the EU Habitats and the Bern Convention Lists have not continued to evolve, while their parent classifications have developed further.

The EUNIS Habitat Classification is a complete classification system, i.e. it covers in one system all habitat types, whereas the two legislative lists cover only those habitat types which at a particular time were most in need of protection through international designation.

All habitats included in the legislative lists can be located through cross-references in the EUNIS classification.

Habitat lists	1987	1989	1991	1993	1996	1997	1999	2000	2001
European classifications	CORINE	CORINE	CORINE	Palaearctic	Palaearctic ==> EUNIS	Palaearctic & EUNIS	Palaearctic & EUNIS v.1		Palaearctic & EUNIS v.2
EU Habitats Directive		==> Annex I
CoE Bern Convention				==> Resolution No. 4 list
OSPAR Convention							==> 1st OSPAR/ ICES/EEA workshop on Habitat classification	2nd OSPAR/ ICES/EEA workshop on Habitat classification
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)									Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping

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References

• Connor, D.W., Brazier, D.P., Hill, T.O., & Northen, K.O. 1997. Marine Nature Conservation Review: Marine biotope classification for Britain and Ireland. Version 97.06. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
• Council of Europe.1998. The EMERALD Network - a network of Areas of Special Conservation Interest for Europe. Document T-PVS(98)13, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
• Davies C.E. & Moss, D. 1999. EUNIS Habitat Classification. Final Report to the European Topic Centre on Nature Conservation, European Environment Agency. October 1999. 256pp.
• Davies, C.E. and Moss, D. 2000. The EUNIS Habitat Classification. 2000 ICES Annual Science Conference; Theme session on Classification and Mapping of Marine Habitats. ICES CM2000/T:04. Brugge, Belgium, 27-30 September 2000
• Davies C.E. & Moss, D. 2002. EUNIS Habitat Classification. Final Report to the European Topic Centre on Nature Protection and Biodiversity, European Environment Agency. February 2002. 125pp.
• Devillers, P. & Devillers-Terschuren, J. 1996. A classification of Palaearctic habitats. Council of Europe, Strasbourg: Nature and environment, No 78.
• European Communities. 1991. Habitats of the European Community. CORINE biotopes manual, Volume 2. Luxembourg: Commission of the European Communities.
• European Communities. 1992. Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Official Journal of the European Communities, L206.
• European Environment Agency. 1998. Europe's Environment: The Second Assessment. Copenhagen: European Environment Agency.
• Helsinki Commission 1998. Red list of marine and coastal biotopes and biotope complexes of the Baltic Sea, Belt Sea and Kattegat - including a comprehensive description and classification system for all Baltic marine and coastal biotopes. Baltic Sea Environment Proceedings No. 75, Helsinki.
• ICES. 2001. Report of the Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping. ICES CM 2000/E:08, Copenhagen.
• OSPAR Commission. 1999. OSPAR/ICES/EEA Workshop on Habitat classification and Biogeographic Regions. Oban: 6 - 10 September 1999. Summary Record CLAS 99/71 - E. OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-east Atlantic.
• OSPAR Commission 2000. Second OSPAR/ICES/EEA Workshop on Marine Habitat Classification. Southampton 18-22 September 2000. Summary Record CLAS 00/8/1 - E. OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-east Atlantic.
• UNEP. 1998. Annex III. Revised classification of benthic marine habitat types for the Mediterranean region. In: WG. 149/5: Report: Meeting of experts on marine habitat types in the Mediterranean region. SPA/RAC, Tunis.