Extractive sites are profoundly interlinked with their territory. Through their life cycle, quarries modify the landscape with extraction progressing through mineral deposits and constantly creating a large diversity of ecosystems, from temporary habitats to more permanent ones. In many cases, the biological role and ecosystem services provision of quarries are neglected, though they potentially play a significant role as core habitat or stepping-stones for patrimonial species and ecosystems services provisioning for Green Infrastructure in landscapes. In highly urbanized and controlled landscapes, quarries are an exceptional opportunity to maintain rare and threatened transient habitats hosting fugitive species. Biodiversity challenges for quarries should be aligned with ecosystems management to maximize ecosystem services (ES).
This report is a deliverable of the Life in Quarries project (LIFE14 NAT/BE/000364) action D3 – Monitoring of Ecosystem Services – following the implementation of the project between 2015 and 2021. It synthetizes the results of the assessment of ecosystem services provided by quarries in 2016 (action A6) and 2020 to assess the diversity of ecosystem services delivered by quarries, the evolution of the provision of these ecosystem services resulting from the implementation of biodiversity conservations actions (actions C) and the development of dynamic biodiversity management plans (action D5).
According to the objective of action D3, it must thus allow to:
“Evaluate Ecosystem Services dynamic in quarries during the realization of temporary management actions (C2) and permanent nature management (C3).
Besides, this report delivers a synthesis of key points to consider when evaluating Ecosystem Services in dynamic systems such as quarries and an adapted methodology for this evaluation that considers the multiple values of ecosystems for human society.”
