PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In the Alps and the Pyrenees, specific aquatic and water-related species and habitats (lakes, bogs, mires and meadows) of mountain areas have an ‘unfavourable/inadequate’ conservation status or a decreasing status trend. This is because they have been subjected to long-standing and significant anthropogenic alterations, such as the proliferation of invasive fish species, overgrazing and trampling by livestock. More recently, mires afforestation and land abandonment have emerged as additional conservation issues in mountain areas.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE RESQUE ALPYR project will provide replicable solutions for some of the most urgent ecological threats to high-mountain lakes and aquatic habitats. The project team aim to eradicate alien fish species, improve livestock management, and control the spread of forests. In particular, the project aims at improving the conservation status of 11 habitats of Community Interest in 4 Natura 2000 sites located in the Spanish Pyrenees and the Italian Alps. These habitats include mountain lakes, mires, bogs and grasslands. The project also targets 11 species of Community Interest linked to these aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats. Most targeted habitats and species have an ‘unfavourable’ conservation status in the Alpine bioregion.
The project is expected to produce innovative results and to advance knowledge in the field of restoration ecology of aquatic and water-related habitats in mountain areas. It will contribute to the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive, and to EU policies on invasive alien species.
RESULTS
Expected results:
- Complete eradication of invasive minnows in 9 mountain lakes and salmonids in 10 lakes using mechanical methods (Habitats Directive habitat types 3110 and 3130);
- Complete eradication of invasive minnows in 3 mountain lakes using chemical methods;
- Restoration of local biodiversity and ecological functions through fish removal in a total of 21 high-mountain lakes;
- Establishment of new populations of Pyrenean brook salamander (Euproctus asper), an endemic species, and recovery of common frog (Rana temporaria) and midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans) and aquatic invertebrates in the 21 targeted lakes;
- Improvement of the conservation status of the endemic semi-aquatic mammal Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) and the several bat species (Barbastrella barbastellus, Rhinolophus hipposideros, Plecotus macrobullaris, Myotis myotis, Myotis blythii, Myotis bachsteinii, and Nyctalus lasiopterus);
- Recovery of oligotrophic levels and water quality in 10 mountain lakes impacted by nutrient input from livestock or minnow-induced trophic alterations;
- Restoration of Nardus grasslands, active raised bogs, mires, fens and bog woodland (habitat types 6230*, 7110*, 7140, 7220*, 7230 and 91D0*) and meadows (6410, 6520) by tackling the main threats (trampling and eutrophication due to livestock and afforestation);
- Restoration of wet mountain hay meadows and molinia meadows (6410 and 6520) through selective mowing; and
- Successful conservation actions transferred, and replicated in other European and non-European mountain areas.
