There are contrasting opinions on the use of prescribed burning management in European grasslands. On the one hand, prescribed burning can be effectively used for the management of open landscapes, controlling dominant species, reducing accumulated litter or decreasing wildfire risk. On the other hand burning can have a detrimental impact on grassland biodiversity by supporting competitor grasses and by threatening several rare and endangered species, especially arthropods. We studied the effects of prescribed burning in alkaline grasslands of high conservation interest. Our aim was to test whether dormant-season prescribed burning can be an alternative conservation measure in these grasslands. We selected six sites in East-Hungary: in three sites, a prescribed fire was applied in November 2011, while three sites remained unburnt. We studied the effects of burning on soil characteristics, plant biomass and on the composition of vegetation and arthropod assemblages (isopods, spiders, ground beetles and rove beetles). Soil pH, organic matter, potassium and phosphorous did not change, but soluble salt content increased significantly in the burnt sites. Prescribed burning had several positive effects from the nature conservation viewpoint. Shannon diversity and the number of flowering shoots were higher, and the cover of the dominant grass Festuca pseudovina was lower in the burnt sites. Graminoid biomass was lower, while total, green and forb biomass were higher in the burnt plots compared to the control. The key finding of our study was that prescribed burning did not decrease the abundance and diversity of arthropod taxa. Species-level analyses showed that out of the most abundant invertebrate species, 10 were not affected, 1 was negatively and 1 was positively affected by burning. Moreover, our results suggest that prescribed burning leaving unburnt patches can be a viable management tool in open landscapes, because it supports plant diversity and does not threaten arthropods.

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Background and purpose: Timber-oriented forest management has an important impact on biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Recovery dynamics of two groups of beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Staphylinidae) were studied after reforestation with native English oak (Quercus robur). We expected that reforestation with heavy site preparation causes a shift in the diversity of surface-dwelling beetles in early phases of reforestation. Moreover, we tested the habitat specialist hypothesis, assuming that diversity of forest specialist species will be lower in early phases with open canopy than later phases of reforestation after the canopy closure. Materials and methods:We compared litter sifter samples among mature (130-year-old) oak forest, and recently established (5-year-old), young (15-year-old), middle-aged (45-year-old) reforestations. Results: Our results showed that diversity of ground beetles was the highest in the recently established reforestation, while it was the lowest in the mature oak forest. Contrarily, diversity of rove beetles was the lowest in recently established reforestation and it was the highest in the mature oak forest. In agreement with the habitat specialist hypothesis, the diversity of forest specialists of both taxa was lower in the recently established reforestation than in the young and middle-aged reforestations as well as mature forest. Discussion: Our results suggested that clear-cutting of mature forest, site preparation before reforestation and cultivation by light tilling in early phases of reforestation have detrimental effects on forest specialist rove beetles and ground beetles. However, reforestation with native species could be a feasible management method in pannonic mesophile sand steppe, because forest specialist species can recover after the canopy closure.IntRoductIon T imber-oriented forest management has a crucial impact on the structure and function of forest ecosystems. It also has a harmful effect on biodiversity, as several groups of animals, fungi, and plants are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance and environmental changes (1, 2). The cover of planted and naturally regenerated forests with human interventions accounted for 64 percent of the world's forest area in 2010, while cover of primary forests has been steadily decreasing since 2000 (3 to halt biodiversity loss and promote sustainable management, and have included in the Natura 2000 network (4). In spite of these measures the designated forest area for conservation of biodiversity was still 4.6 percent of European forests in 2015 (5).During forest management there are important decisions; selection of tree species (native, non-native species), sustainable practices, such as even-aged (modified clearcutting, seed tree method and shelterwood harvesting) and uneven-aged (group selection, single tree selection) regeneration methods (2, 6). Well-chosen forest practices contribute to maintaining forest biodiversity, because these practices have less intensive and less harmful impacts on environment tha...

Background and purpose Timber-oriented forest management alters the environmental conditions, threatening the survival of many native and rare arthropod species. Recognition of the scale and effects of the forest loss has resulted in a considerable degree of interest in the reforestation. Nowadays, the uneven-aged management is recommended during the reforestation procedure, because this is less intensive and could be less harmful than evenaged practices. Our aim was to test the effects of clear-cutting (as even-aged method) and group selection harvesting (as uneven-aged method) on forest specialist epigaeic arthropods. Material and methods Epigaeic arthropod assemblages (ground beetles, spiders and woodlice) in gaps harvested IntroductIonT he widespread timber-oriented forest managements cause increased fragmentation and considerable environmental changes in almost all European native forests. These alterations in the original habitats threaten the survival of many native organisms (1, 2). In Europe 36% of the land surface are forested, however only 1.7% of these forests are considered natural (1). The unmanaged forests support the formation of microhabitats and food resources (such as decaying materials, old and large trees, cavities) required by forest specialist species (2, 3). While generally, the managed forests have homogeneous tree composition, homogeneous vertical stratification and age structure (4, 5).During the even-aged management a large part of a forest is harvested and then reforested, which creates monocultural stands with the same age and structure (1). It also has significant effect on the composition of the original arthropod fauna (6, 7). Conventional clear-cutting of mature forest with site preparation (grubbing, tilling, and deep-loosening) is one of the most inappropriate method among the even-aged silvicultural practices, because it increases the evaporation rate and the soil and air temperature due to removed roots with rhizomes and the ploughed soil (1, 8).Uneven-aged management methods could be a useful in the maintenance of forest biodiversity (1). During this management trees are removed individually (single tree method) or in small groups (group selection method) from the forest; thus, forest structure and age become diverse ensuring continuous forest cover in the forested area. Multi-aged reforestations may provide more favourable condition for sensitive species compared to even-aged stands, contributing to the maintenance and regeneration of the original arthropod fauna (1, 6, 9). However, only a few papers studied the effects of uneven-aged forest management on arthropods, although there is a growing need for comprehensive researches (1, 6).Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) and woodlice (Isopoda: Oniscidae) are commonly used indicator organisms during the forest management studies. These taxa taxonomically well known and they could be easily collected by pitfall trapping or litter sifting (8, 10).The aim of our study was to explore the...