Can hay harvesting detrimentally affect adult butterfly abundance?

Dover, John W.; Rescia, Alejandro J.; Fungariño, S.; Fairburn, Jonathan; Carey, Peter; Lunt, Paul; Dennis, Roger L. H.; Dover, C. J.

doi:10.1007/s10841-010-9267-5

Cited by 44 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The negative impact of mowing on butterfly abundance has been pointed out in previous studies (e.g. Dover et al 2010). A more striking finding in the present study was the scale of the impact on the scarce copper.…”

Section: Habitat Requirementssupporting

confidence: 85%

How to preserve a butterfly species within an urbanising settlement and its surroundings: a study of the scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae L.) in southern Sweden

Haaland

2017

J Insect Conserv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Habitat Requirementssupporting

confidence: 85%

How to preserve a butterfly species within an urbanising settlement and its surroundings: a study of the scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae L.) in southern Sweden

Haaland

2017

J Insect Conserv

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Due to individualistic (Bourn & Thomas 2002) and often not precisely known species requirements, it is impossible to design a cutting strategy that would perfectly suit all species present at each site. As convincingly argued by Dennis et al (2003Dennis et al ( , 2010, and others (e.g., Vanreusel & Van Dyck 2007), the components of arthropod habitats, including larval and adult food, shelter, roosting and mating sites, etc., may occur disjunctly in time and space. In terms of ecosystem dynamics, the coexistence of diverse species assemblages results from interplays of patchily occurring disturbances followed by succession (Wu & Loucks 1995), to which species adapt via dynamic metapopulation processes (Aviron et al 2007).…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Whereas a majority of plants growing at seminatural grassland will, by default, regenerate after hay cutting or grazing (e.g., Hegland et al 2001;Bissels et al 2004; but see Kohler et al 2005), populations of specialised and relatively sedentary animals, including insects, may be negatively affected. Export of biomass depletes insect of food and shelter (Morris 2000;Kruess & Tscharntke 2002;Huntzinger et al 2008) and directly kills individuals (Schtickzelle et al 2007;Dover et al 2010;Humbert et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moths and management of a grassland reserve: regular mowing and temporary abandonment support different species

Šumpich

Konvička

2012

Biologia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although reserves of temperate seminatural grassland require management interventions to prevent succesional change, each intervention affects the populations of sensitive organisms, including insects. Therefore, it appears as a wise bet-hedging strategy to manage reserves in diverse and patchy manners. Using portable light traps, we surveyed the effects of two contrasting management options, mowing and temporary abandonment, applied in a humid grassland reserve in a submountain area of the Czech Republic. Besides of Macrolepidoptera, we also surveyed Microlepidoptera, small moths rarely considered in community studies. Numbers of individiuals and species were similar in the two treatments, but ordionation analyses showed that catches originating from these two treatments differed in species composition, management alone explaining ca 30 per cent of variation both for all moths and if split to Marcolepidoptera and Microlepidoptera. Whereas a majority of macrolepidopteran humid grassland specialists preferred unmown sections or displayed no association with management, microlepidopteran humid grassland specialists contained equal representation of species inclining towards mown and unmown sections. We thus revealed that even mown section may host valuable species; an observation which would not have been detected had we considered Macrolepidoptera only. Our results highlight the necessity of diversified management, including temporary abandonment, to conserve the biodiversity of grassland reserves and grasslands in general.

show abstract

“…During the twentieth century, mechanisation in both agriculture and forestry brought the era of intensive land use (Young et al 2005;Wrbka et al 2008;Korösi et al 2014), and the traditional land use practices were no longer economically viable (Konvicka et al 2005;Henle et al 2008). Consequently, the land became either intensively used or abandoned, which led to population declines in numerous butterfly species (Dover et al 2010;Horák et al 2013;Loos et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These principles involve (i) relatively low mowing intensity, with a single fragment being mown no more than once per year, and (ii) mowing different fragments at different times in order to ensure heterogeneous turf height within meadows (Morris 2000). A higher mowing frequency may be beneficial for xerophilous species, which prefer short vegetation, e.g., (2007); (41) Kolev (2003); (42) Kolev (2005); (43) Konvička and Kuras (1999); (44) Konvička et al (2005); (45) Konvička et al (2008a); (46) Konvička et al (2008b); (47) Konvička et al (2014); (48) Korb (1994); (49) Kozlov and Kullberg (2008); (50) Kudrna et al (2015); (51) Kuras et al (2003); (52) Leigheb et al (1998); (53) Lelo and Spasojević (2012); (54) Lelo (2000); (55) Mowing should optimally take place outside the flight periods of target butterfly species so as to maintain high availability of nectar sources for their imagoes, and a sufficient number of host plants for oviposition (Johst et al 2006;Mládek et al 2006;Dover et al 2010;Wynhoff et al 2011). This may be a serious limitation if several target ( Wynhoff et al (2011) species occur sympatrically at the same site, which is frequently the case with Maculinea butterflies (Sliwinska et al 2006).…”

Section: Favourable Management Rotational Mowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land management impacts on European butterflies of conservation concern: a review

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent land use changes, namely the intensification of agriculture and forestry as well as the abandonment of traditional grassland management methods, have resulted in the decline of butterfly diversity in Europe. Appropriate management of butterfly habitats is thus required in order to reverse this negative trend. The aim of our study was to review the available literary information concerning the effects of various types of management on European butterflies of conservation concern, and to provide practical recommendations for the management of butterfly habitats. Since vegetation succession is a major threat to butterfly populations, there is a need for activities to suppress this process. Extensive grazing and rotational mowing, which imitate the traditional way of meadow use, appear to be the most suitable management in this respect. Both grazing and mowing should optimally be of low intensity and follow a mosaic design, with different land fragments being successively used at different times. Habitat disturbance through trampling, either associated with grazing or various sporting activities (hiking, biking, horse riding), or through occasional small-area burning, also prove to be beneficial for many butterflies. In the case of woodland species, maintaining open habitats within forests (glades, clearings, wide road verges) and thinning forest stands is recommended. Among the unfavourable management activities identified, the most harmful are afforestation of open lands and drainage works. Therefore, such activities must be stopped at butterfly sites in order to ensure the effective conservation of species of conservation concern.

show abstract

Can hay harvesting detrimentally affect adult butterfly abundance?

Cited by 44 publications

References 27 publications

How to preserve a butterfly species within an urbanising settlement and its surroundings: a study of the scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae L.) in southern Sweden

How to preserve a butterfly species within an urbanising settlement and its surroundings: a study of the scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae L.) in southern Sweden

Moths and management of a grassland reserve: regular mowing and temporary abandonment support different species

Land management impacts on European butterflies of conservation concern: a review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About