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Energy, Climate change, Environment

Assessing the ecological coherence and protection of valuable biodiversity in Portuguese MPAs

01 Jun 2019

Outcomes:  The author was able to identify four regions of ecological significance along the Portuguese coast and assess the level of protection offered by Natura 2000 SPAs and SCIs. One of the hotspots was found to be only partially covered by the Natura 2000 sites, suggesting more quantitative-based approaches should be applied to assist management plans in safeguarding local biological value.  

How EMODnet Seabed Habitats helped the user: EUSeaMap provided broad-scale seabed habitat maps and biozones for the study area.

Universidade de Aveiro – PhD Thesis, Departamento de Biologia

When was it used2018

What product was used: EUSeaMap 2016

How was the product used: EUSeaMap broad-scale habitat maps were used for the analysis of the association between the total biological valuation outputs and local physical characteristics. Habitat maps were combined with zonation information on data on ecosystem components to create individual biological valuation maps to identify hotspots. 

Download the full thesis here