No abstract

No abstract

Influence of mulching treatment on eplgeic spiders in vineyards of the Kalserstuhl area (SW-Germany). The spider fauna found in vineyards treated either by mulching or soil tilling was investigated and compared. Mulching treatment results in a spider community that is richer in species and in numbers. Many species found are typical for dry habitats and represent characteristic species of the Kaiserstuhl area.

The distribution of syntopic Atypus affinis and Atypus piceus (Araneae: Atypidae) in a succession area of vineyard slopes in the Kaiserstuhl (south-western Germany). The orthognath spiders Atypus affinis Eichwald, 1830 and A. piceus (Sulzer, 1776) are morphologically and biologically similar. One of the few sites where both species live syntopically is located in the Kaiserstuhl Mountains in south-west Germany. This has been shown in a continuous 22 year long-term study of the recolonisation of vineyard slopes after large-scale land consolidation. The males of both species differ in size and the annual timing of their surface activity. The recolonisation history of A. affinis and A. piceus was recorded. As typical K-strategists, their population sizes have increased slowly. Today they are still growing. Atypus species can be used as models regarding problems of nature conservation, since they are particularly endangered by large-scale and catastrophic habitat changes as a result of their long generation time. In the Kaiserstuhl such catastrophic events could include fire management, which has recently been permitted again for the preservation of the slopes.

Spider communities as indicators of the development (succession) of afforested coal mining sites. On the basis of a space-for-time-substitution the succession of the spider coenosis of a Lusatian lignite mining area (pine afforestation) was investigated. Spiders were chosen because of their high abundance in both species and individuals and as representatives of a high trophic level. By comparing pine afforestations of different ages which additionally are located far away from each other we could detect a typical succession pattern in the spider coenosis. The pioneer Oedothorax apicatus (Linyphiidae) is characteristic of the initial state. Ten years after afforestation this species has disappeared and the locality shows a mixed population of spiders including species which prefer open habitats as well as species occurring in forests. After 30 years the typical species community of open, dry pine forests has established.