Scoring of functional links between habitats of community interest and invasive alien plants: method, analysis and tool implemented in the Pyrenees and Midi-Pyrénées

Abstract

As part of its mission to support public nature protection policies, the Conservatoire botanique national des Pyrénées et de Midi-Pyrénées (CBNPMP) is proposing a tool to link the Natura 2000 european policy and the national strategy on invasive alien species (IAS) for which it provides technical and scientific support. By mobilising its habitat expertise (phytosociology, interpretation of the Natura 2000 Habitats, Fauna and Flora Directive), its invasive flora expertise and its data (maps of habitats of community interest (HCI), distribution of invasive alien plants), the CBNPMP has analysed the links between HCIs and IASs on its territory. The result of this analysis is a rating of the sensitivity to IAS of each HCI in its territory and a rating of the level of threat of each invasive alien plant with respect to HCIs. To make these ratings available and accessible for the analysis of the situation of each Natura 2000 site, the CBNPMP provides a downloadable tool (ExoNatura). The method implemented, the results obtained, the constitution of the tool and its prospects are presented here with the aim of broadly disseminating the tool on a regional scale and possibly deploying it to other territories, given the reproducibility of the method.