potential responses of habitats and species to both management measures and
climate-related impacts (e.g. Table 14.1.), each of the defined challenges for the
environment of the Biebrza Valley and the stakeholders should be taken into
consideration in the broad context of internal and external threats.
Despite the fact that the MOs are renewed every 2 years, the review of those
documents revealed that not much attention is paid to any form of climate-proof
management adaptation in the BNP. Neither the dynamic status of ecosystems nor
climate changes were so far defined as threats to the ecosystems of the Biebrza
Valley. In the long-term, more flexibility is needed in establishing management
measures such as invasive species management, mowing, biomass removal and
pasture grazing. It is likely that the contemporary setup of strictly/actively protected
areas, which is not critically reviewed on the basis of habitat monitoring and species
composition, will fail to fulfil sustainable environmental conservation requirements. The transient character of physical processes induced by climate as well
as ecosystem dynamics can result in the deterioration of environmental values. In
habitats of the most climate-change sensitive plant associations (Caricion
davallianae, Caricion nigrae, Alopecurion pratensis and Molinion caeruleae), the
lack of flexibility in management implementation is likely to induce habitat deterioration by the overexploitation of certain vegetation patches by mowing, or by the
cessation of mowing in wetter conditions. Hence, the establishment of an effective
“monitoring-decision making” feedback tool is needed in order to prevent negative
management influences on the environment. As such, some decision support tools
were already proposed for the Biebrza Valley (Chorman ´ski et al. 2009; Kardel
et al. 2011). However, further interactive and practice-orientated approaches should
be developed in order to manage climate-induced impacts on stakeholders and
ecosystems. Even though the climate change influence on the Biebrza Wetlands
was not so far revealed in detail, a knowledge base and scientific support regarding
the hydrology and ecology of the Biebrza Valley is rich and can be successfully
applied in wetland adaptive management.
Despite the intensified monitoring of ecosystems and their species composition,
further functional assessment is required in order to analyse the continuous feedbacks between the ecosystem status, response to management and resilience to
climate change. It is certain that when facing the climate-related pressures, certain
ecosystems will require newly developed measures. Contradictorily, it is likely that
some other ecosystems will not require any active management measures as they
will either evolve into the new ecosystems, adapted to the changing conditions, or
the new (climate) conditions will be sufficient in order to maintain the ecosystem in
an appropriate ecological status. Therefore, the adaptive management should
require extensive ecosystem monitoring in which both the “managed” and
“unmanaged” ecosystems will be critically reviewed as to the (1) efficiency of
the applied measures in order to conserve the nature, (2) influence of climate and
ecosystem evolution processes on the habitat with no measures applied, and
(3) possibility of new measures development and application, which will be
adjusted to possible climate influences and accepted by the managers and stakeholders.
The iterative, management-response feedback loops (Fig. 14.5) should therefore
226
M. Grygoruk et al.
climate-related impacts (e.g. Table 14.1.), each of the defined challenges for the
environment of the Biebrza Valley and the stakeholders should be taken into
consideration in the broad context of internal and external threats.
Despite the fact that the MOs are renewed every 2 years, the review of those
documents revealed that not much attention is paid to any form of climate-proof
management adaptation in the BNP. Neither the dynamic status of ecosystems nor
climate changes were so far defined as threats to the ecosystems of the Biebrza
Valley. In the long-term, more flexibility is needed in establishing management
measures such as invasive species management, mowing, biomass removal and
pasture grazing. It is likely that the contemporary setup of strictly/actively protected
areas, which is not critically reviewed on the basis of habitat monitoring and species
composition, will fail to fulfil sustainable environmental conservation requirements. The transient character of physical processes induced by climate as well
as ecosystem dynamics can result in the deterioration of environmental values. In
habitats of the most climate-change sensitive plant associations (Caricion
davallianae, Caricion nigrae, Alopecurion pratensis and Molinion caeruleae), the
lack of flexibility in management implementation is likely to induce habitat deterioration by the overexploitation of certain vegetation patches by mowing, or by the
cessation of mowing in wetter conditions. Hence, the establishment of an effective
“monitoring-decision making” feedback tool is needed in order to prevent negative
management influences on the environment. As such, some decision support tools
were already proposed for the Biebrza Valley (Chorman ´ski et al. 2009; Kardel
et al. 2011). However, further interactive and practice-orientated approaches should
be developed in order to manage climate-induced impacts on stakeholders and
ecosystems. Even though the climate change influence on the Biebrza Wetlands
was not so far revealed in detail, a knowledge base and scientific support regarding
the hydrology and ecology of the Biebrza Valley is rich and can be successfully
applied in wetland adaptive management.
Despite the intensified monitoring of ecosystems and their species composition,
further functional assessment is required in order to analyse the continuous feedbacks between the ecosystem status, response to management and resilience to
climate change. It is certain that when facing the climate-related pressures, certain
ecosystems will require newly developed measures. Contradictorily, it is likely that
some other ecosystems will not require any active management measures as they
will either evolve into the new ecosystems, adapted to the changing conditions, or
the new (climate) conditions will be sufficient in order to maintain the ecosystem in
an appropriate ecological status. Therefore, the adaptive management should
require extensive ecosystem monitoring in which both the “managed” and
“unmanaged” ecosystems will be critically reviewed as to the (1) efficiency of
the applied measures in order to conserve the nature, (2) influence of climate and
ecosystem evolution processes on the habitat with no measures applied, and
(3) possibility of new measures development and application, which will be
adjusted to possible climate influences and accepted by the managers and stakeholders.
The iterative, management-response feedback loops (Fig. 14.5) should therefore
226
M. Grygoruk et al.