Wet grasslands and biodiversity: a case study from Greece

Wet grasslands host a rich biodiversity. Μany of the Natura 2000 areas in Greece include or consist of wet grasslands habitats. One of these areas is the “Epanomi Lagoon”, North Greece – Thessaloniki, which is designated as a Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area under the Bird and Habitats Directives (Natura 2000 EU Protected Area Network). The Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS)/ BirdLife Greece has been monitoring Epanomi’s biodiversity status (particularly birds) since the 1980s, and since 2008, intense and methodical bird monitoring has being carried out by volunteers. The monitoring protocol registers birds’ presence and behavior, habitat threats and human activities. The scope of this paper is to publish the most recent methodical monitoring results of HOS regarding the biodiversity status of typical Greek wet grasslands and to connect these results to current human activities. The protected area covers nine wet grasslands habitat types hosting almost 120 different bird species. The wet grasslands host 20 different species of waders. It seems that the core factors for high biodiversity in such types of protected areas are the presence of water and habitat heterogeneity. Human activities that could have negative effects on biodiversity were illegal waste disposal and traffic. HOS has proposed several versions of a management plan since 1998, in which key issues have been water presence and sustainable human activities.