Download Congratulations from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and

Congratulations from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment where
I work, to the European Environment Agency and its European Topic Center for
Biological Diversity for their work.
The Spanish Ministry has recently (april 2013) published a List of Marine habitats
present in Spain with a new national classification as part of the Spanish Inventory of
Habitats and Marine Species, this fact is being considered in different European
projects in order to integrate the new Spanish typologies together with France, Portugal
and Spain:



MeshAtlantic project coordinates input from Madeira and Canaries to ensure all
Macaronesia is covered properly.
MeshAtlatinc project involves France, Spain and Portugal in order to consider
the inclusion of new types proposed in the Atlantic Region
COCONET FP7 it is expected to be the potential source of useful information to
propose coherent typologies in the Mediterranean Sea
These projects consider the List of Marine habitats present in Spain as the Spanish
source of information of a existing classification in order to guarantee the coherence in
the new proposals at a Regional level.
So, I will to make two observations:
A) Considered as justified the inclusion of Macaronesia in EUNIS structure (Level
3) as an independent marine biogeographic region of the Atlantic region, with its own
characteristics completly different from other regions. This statement is based on the
following five arguments:
1. The Macaronesian region, and particularly, the Canary Islands, have
biogeographic elements different from the rest of the Atlantic waters (in terms of
biology, geology, oceanography, wind patterns and weather) this fact is relevant
enough to be considered independently as a separatly region. For the
preparation of the List of Marine habitats present in Spain a geographical
division to respect the confluence of three distinct biogeographic provinces in
marine waters was adopted Spanish, as part of the Spanish Inventory of
Habitats and Marine Species; so each region has got its own characteristics:
the Lusitana, temperate-cold, the Mauritanian, with subtropical influence, and
the Mediterranean. Thus, the Spanish List was structured considering three
marine regions: Atlantic, Macaronesian and Mediterranean.
Thus, it is considered that the current proposal for EUNIS geographic structure
based on general patterns of temperature and salinity of water masses, it is too
simplistic and not properly correspond to the special characteristics
Macaronesian.
2. Moreover, the particularities of the Macaronesian region become even more
apparent at the EUNIS classification for European seas, especially in contrast
with the more northern areas of the Atlantic coast.
3. It has been found that the marine waters of the Canary Islands (and
Macaronesia) are nowadays in a process of progressive tropicalization, what
implies that the biogeographical differences with other Atlantic waters may be
also greater in the future. This would justify even more, if possible, the
independent management of this marine region within EUNIS where their
particular habitats are collected.
4. The marine environment of the Macaronesia is not represented in
international forums where he is currently working on the identification and
definition of their respective marine habitats, for proper management and
protection, such as OSPAR, HELCOM, Barcelona Convention or Convention
Bucharest. To the extent that decisions made in these areas tend to influence
European policies, a clear distinction of the Macaronesian waters from the rest
of the NE Atlantic could help to create an appropriate forum that protects and
assimilate to other European seas.
5. Adding a new Macaronesia biogeographical region make EUNIS
classification more intuitive and understandable, also more realistic and, in this
way, help alleviate the current lack of definition of the types of macaronesian
habitats are presented as unclear in EURedLisTypology.
In conclusion, it is proposed that the EUNIS level 3 (Bioregion) remains structured as
follows:
Cold marine (Arctic)
Cool brackish (Baltic)
Temperate marine
(Atlantic)
Warm marine (Macaronesian) Warm marine (Mediterranean)
Warm brackish (Black Sea)
Level 3, which is one in which the different marine regions differ, not shown in the
Spanish List, considering the region as a separate attribute of habitats, except for
specific exceptions, in which case it is considered Macaronesia as an independent
marine region.
B) In regards with biogenic habitats of EUNIS Level 2, biogenic habitat (faunal) are
not considered as a kind of independent substrate in the Spanish List being
represented in levels 3-5 on the List. However, certain biogenic habitats of vegetal
origin, which have been elevated himself to the level of independent substrate, as is
proposed in the new proposal EUNIS, but treated as equivalent to all seagrass habitats
composed infralitorales, and not limiting ourselves only to Posidonia.
Also marshes have not been considered in our Spanish List as biogenic habitats
(vegetal) independent from substrate that supports them. This is due to the inherent
complexity of these habitats, which may occupy more than one biological zone, and the
difficulty of differentiation beyond habitats belonging to estuarine complexes.
Best regards
Antonio Fdez y G de Vinuesa
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
General Directorate for Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea
Division for the Protection of the Sea
[email protected]