R2D2forests – Retracing Romania’s Danubian Degraded forests

Wetland habitats can support a wide variety of species due to their diverse and complex conditions, being thus among the most biodiverse ecosystems. Despite this, the Danube floodplains and islands remain one of Europe's most endangered forest habitats, with only 5-20% currently forested. Despite being an integral part of the Danube floodplain landscape, responsible for storing large amounts of carbon and supporting a rich biodiversity specially adapted to wet conditions, close to three-quarters of the Lower Danube's floodplains were cut off from the main river by dikes and transformed into agricultural areas during the second half of the XXth century. Decades of anthropogenic intervention have left these unique floodplain habitats in poor condition and at a fraction of their former size. Unsustainable forest management practices have also harmed, if not destroyed, native Danubian floodplain forests. Traditional management approaches have mainly focused on increasing wood and pulp output through large-scale clear-cutting and the planting of non-native tree species. These non-native monocultures could not maintain the diversity of species. Furthermore, considering the short harvesting cycle, these ecosystems are unable to reach maturity and in turn enhance the rich natural undergrowth.
With rising temperatures and less rainfall caused by the present climate trends, the future of this unique environment is in jeopardy.
In terms of ecosystem services, the restoration of riparian flooded forests and islands is vital not only for nature but also for humans.
Knowing the backdrop, the first step will be to conduct an environmental impact assessment in order to determine how complex land use management practices and anthropogenic pollution have affected the Danube in terms of biodiversity and ecological services over the previous decades. Following that, the project will concentrate on locating the last remnants of Romania's floodplain forests, in support of conserving or fully reconstructing the diversity associated with this unique forest, thus contributing to Objective 1 - Target 2. The distribution probability of various native species (species distribution modelling based on environmental covariates), combined with flood risk analysis (hydrological modelling) and historical tendencies (multi-temporal active remote sensing), will allow for the large-scale projection of various restoration procedures (different levels of ecological reconstruction, dislodging established invasive species) in support of restoring flood forest areas.
A common misconception is that simply presenting ecosystem services variety to people influence their preferences for management options by encouraging them to consider the broader range of benefits that nature provides. Hence one of the main objectives of the proposal is to cover the gap between science and the common ecosystem services awareness increasing activities.
Integrating the proposed research’ results in the already established context of the Lower Danube Green Corridor Agreement and the Natura2000 Network under a harmonized environmental legislation umbrella (EU Water Framework Directive) opens new opportunities to restore biodiversity and related ecosystem services and serves as foundation for translating governmental decisions into actions.