Mind the gap in data poor Natura 2000 sites and how to tackle them using Earth Observation and scientific diving surveys

Dimitris Poursanidis; Kostas Mylonakis; Spyros Christofilakos; Antonios Barnias

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114595

Mind the gap in data poor Natura 2000 sites and how to tackle them using Earth Observation and scientific diving surveys

Mar Pollut Bull. 2023 Mar:188:114595. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114595. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Authors

Dimitris Poursanidis¹, Kostas Mylonakis², Spyros Christofilakos³, Antonios Barnias⁴

Affiliations

¹ terraSolutions marine environment research, Arximidous 63, PO 71601, Heraklion, Crete, Greece; Remote Sensing Lab, Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, 100 N. Plastira Str., Vassilika Vouton, Heraklion 70013, Greece. Electronic address: dpoursanidis@iacm.forth.gr.
² terraSolutions marine environment research, Arximidous 63, PO 71601, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
³ German Aerospace Center (DLR), Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF), Department of Photogrammetry and image Analysis, Rutherford 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Management Unit of Samaria National Park and the Protected Areas of Western Crete, Old National Road Chanion-Kissamou, Agioi Apostoloi, opposite to the supermarket Lidl, P.O. Box 73100, Chania, Greece.

PMID: 36738725
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114595

Abstract

Charismatic species drives decisions for the conservation of marine areas in the view of the coverage of the Natura 2000 sites in the European Union and other forms of Marine Protected Areas in Europe. However, when used solely, critical seascapes and habitats are systematically ignored and practically it can take decades to fulfill baseline needs on habitats distributions, habitats conservation status and species distributions and biodiversity assessments. Luckily, in the last decade, the use of new technologies in conjunction with scientific diving and budget friendly hydroacoustic tools and applications, has allowed to fill the gap in knowledge in such situations and seascapes. The current work demonstrates the use of Earth Observation and Science Dive to fill the gap of knowledge in a newly established Natura 2000 area in Crete, Greece, East Mediterranean, paving the road for replicable approaches in similar situations.

Keywords: Copernicus; CubeSat; Greece; Natura 2000; Planet; Scientific diving; Sentinel 2.

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources
Diving*
Ecosystem
Europe