Importance of Primary Forests for the Conservation of Saproxylic Insects

Lachat, Thibault; Müller, Jörg

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75937-1_17

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…Untouched primeval beech forests rarely exist in Central Europe today and are mainly restricted to the Carpathian Mountains (Korpel', 1996). Their multi-aged stand structure largely differs from EA managed beech forests, with many microhabitats and high amounts of deadwood of differing quality favouring several taxonomic groups (Dymytrova, Nadyeina, Hobi, & Scheidegger, 2014;Lachat & Müller, 2018). The increasing awareness of the importance of biodiversity and structural heterogeneity for ecosystem functions and services (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can multi‐taxa diversity in European beech forest landscapes be increased by combining different management systems?

Schall

Heinrichs

Ammer

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Forest management greatly influences biodiversity across spatial scales. At the landscape scale, combining management systems that create different stand properties might promote biodiversity due to complementary species assemblages. In European beech forests, nature conservation and policy advocate a mixture of unmanaged (UNM) forests and uneven-aged (UEA) forests managed at fine spatial grain at the expense of traditionally managed even-aged shelterwood forests (EA).Evidence that such a landscape composition enhances forest biodiversity is still missing.2. We studied the biodiversity (species richness 0 D, Shannon diversity 1 D, Simpson diversity 2 D) of 14 taxonomic groups from bacteria to vertebrates in 'virtual' beech forest landscapes composed of varying shares of EA, UEA and UNM and investigated how γ-diversity responds to landscape composition. Groups were sampled in the largest contiguous beech forest in Germany, where EA and UEA management date back nearly two centuries, while management was abandoned 20-70 years ago (UNM). We used a novel resampling approach that created all compositional combinations of management systems.3. Pure EA landscapes preserved a maximum of 97.5% γ-multidiversity ( 0 D, 1 D) across all taxa. Pure and mixed UEA/UNM landscapes reduced γ-multidiversity by up to 12.8% ( 1 D). This effect was consistent for forest specialists ( 1 D: −15.3%). We found only weak complementarity among management systems. Sebek et al., 2015).It is not known, however, whether the application of a single, but diverse, management system is sufficient to support maximum landscape-scale diversity. Previously reported positive effects of environmental heterogeneity on biodiversity at larger spatial scales rather indicate the necessity for a mosaic of different management systems as well as protected areas across the forest landscape (Nolet, Kneeshaw, Messier, & Béland, 2018). Such a mosaic would promote landscape-scale biodiversity when the different systems support complementary species assemblages (Colwell & Coddington, 1994; Schall, Gossner, et al., 2018). In tropical systems Edwards et al. (2014)4. Landscape composition significantly affected γ-diversity of 6-9 individual taxa, depending on the weighting of species frequencies with strongest responses for spiders, beetles, vascular plants and birds. Most showed maximum diversity in pure EA landscapes. Birds benefited from UNM in EA-dominated landscapes.Deadwood fungi showed highest diversity in UNM. Synthesis and applications.Our study shows that combining fine-grained forest management and management abandonment at the landscape scale will reduce, rather than enhance, regional forest biodiversity. We found an even-aged shelterwood management system alone operating at intermediate spatial scales and providing stands with high environmental heterogeneity was able to support regional biodiversity. However, some taxa require certain shares of uneven-aged and unmanaged forests, emphasizing their general importance. We encourage using the here presented r...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can multi‐taxa diversity in European beech forest landscapes be increased by combining different management systems?

Schall

Heinrichs

Ammer

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Since both ecological continuity and dead wood abundance are considered crucial factors for biodiversity protection in forests (Grove 2002;Lassauce et al 2011;Mikusińska et al 2013;Kunttu et al 2015), newly planted forests are expected to exhibit lower values for various forest species than for old-growth forests remnants. Although this hypothesis has been proven for various taxonomic groups (Bremer and Farley 2010;Paillet et al 2010;Brumelis et al 2011;Pawson et al 2013;Bradshaw et al 2015;Lachat and Müller 2018), there is a strong belief that secondary forests may help in biodiversity restoration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale habitat model reveals a key role of large trees and protected areas in the metapopulation survival of the saproxylic specialist Cucujus cinnaberinus

2019

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Deforestation for agricultural purposes and logging over centuries has resulted in a significant loss of forest cover and the deep structural and functional simplification of persistent European woodlands, which has led to a large-scale decline in biodiversity. Despite recent reforestation efforts in many regions of Europe, populations of numerous forest species remain unrecovered. Due to the loss of ecological continuity and the simplification of the ecosystem structure and functionality, the value of secondary forests in sustaining habitat specialists is being questioned. Here, we build a large-scale habitat suitability model to predict the current potential of forests to host populations of the flagship European saproxylic beetle Cucujus cinnaberinus. Our maximum entropy model revealed that the distribution of suitable habitats strongly corresponds to the occurrence of large and well-preserved forest complexes that are characterized by an ecological continuity of the stands. Among the analysed environmental variables, the mean tree diameter and distance to protected areas were the most important suitable habitat contributors. The optimum habitats were identified almost exclusively within some parts of the Carpathians and the northeastern part of the country, particularly in the Białowieża Forest, which include the best preserved European forests. Although a large number of small habitat patches was revealed across the country, these patches were highly scattered and had low predicted suitability. This study demonstrates that most woodlands are unsuitable for C. cinnaberinus, which points to the limited value of secondary forests for habitat specialists. Our findings emphasize the importance of large and intact forests with undisrupted ecological continuity as key areas for the persistence of the rare saproxylic beetle, which provokes questions about the effectiveness of reforestation as a tool for the conservation of forest habitat specialists. Communicated by Nigel E. Stork.

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“…Also the Shannon Wiener diversity index for the examined community was the highest (Table 4 ). The Białowieża Primeval Forest is unique in Europe, and thus it deserves special legal protection, as it is one of the very last places in Europe where researchers can observe natural processes with no or very little human-caused disturbance (Kujawa et al 2016 ; Lachat and Müller 2018 ). Nowadays, only 17% of about 62,000 ha of the Polish part of the Białowieża Primeval Forest is legally protected as a national park, about 19% is regarded as nature reserve, and the other parts of this unique forest complex are economic forests (Pracownia na rzecz Wszystkich Istot 2019 ; WWF.pl 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The maturity index for Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata) communities as an indicator of human-caused disturbance in selected forest complexes of Poland

Napierała

Błoszyk

2021

Exp Appl Acarol

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The necessity of monitoring changes occurring in soil compels us to look for new methods that will allow easy and precise evaluation of the soil quality in a given area. One proposed method is the maturity index (MI) – an index that is based on the distribution of species along the r-to-K continuum in examined populations. In this study, mites from the suborder Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata) were examined for their appropriateness in MI-based assessments of soil quality. The first aim of the study was to establish the criteria on the basis of which the evaluation of the r-to-K reproductive strategies was conducted for Uropodina in the examined communities. The second aim was to evaluate the performance of the maturity index of communities of Uropodina as indicator of human-caused disturbance in five areas that are legally protected in Poland. The selected areas were: Białowieża Primeval Forest, Gorce National Park, and three nature reserves: Jakubowo, Las Grądowy nad Mogilnicą, and Cisy Staropolskie im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego. We found that as many as 68 out of the 96 analyzed Uropodina species in Poland are K-stategists. The highest values of the maturity index were recorded for the nature reserves Cisy Staropolskie im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego and the Białowieża Primeval Forest.

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Importance of Primary Forests for the Conservation of Saproxylic Insects

Cited by 21 publications

References 107 publications

Can multi‐taxa diversity in European beech forest landscapes be increased by combining different management systems?

Can multi‐taxa diversity in European beech forest landscapes be increased by combining different management systems?

Large-scale habitat model reveals a key role of large trees and protected areas in the metapopulation survival of the saproxylic specialist Cucujus cinnaberinus

The maturity index for Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata) communities as an indicator of human-caused disturbance in selected forest complexes of Poland

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