The Role of Vegetation Monitoring in the Conservation of Coastal Habitats N2000: A Case Study of a Wetland Area in Southeast Sicily (Italy)

The coastal wetlands are among the most vulnerable and threatened environments of the Mediterranean area. Targeted actions for their conservation require in-depth knowledge of current and past natural vegetation. In this paper, we surveyed the vegetation composition and the spatio-temporal changes of a coastal wetland area in southeastern Sicily (“Saline di Priolo” SAC). Based on 128 phytosociological surveys and several plant collections, a total of 304 taxa, 28 plant communities, and 16 habitats have been identified. Furthermore, three new plant associations were described, including two in wetland and one in rocky coast environments. For the classification of plant communities and habitats, a hierarchical clustering was performed by using Euclidean coefficient and beta-flexible algorithm. The life form spectrum of the current flora highlights the dominance of therophytes and hemicryptophytes. The Mediterranean species are largely prevailing with 123 taxa. The cartographic analysis performed with ArcGis 10.3 shows a radical reduction in the wetland habitats in the last 70 years, and a strong alteration of the ecological succession of the psammophilous-hygrophilous vegetation. Moreover, landscape configuration of the coastal vegetation and habitat types was well highlighted by a set of specific landscape metrics. In particular, our outcomes identify three habitats (2110, 2210, and 5220* EU code) with bad conservation status, among which we identified one of priority conservation (Zyziphus arborescent matorral) that requires urgent restoration measures.