Rotational fallows as overwintering habitat for grassland arthropods: the case of spiders in fen meadows

Schmidt, Martin H.; Rocker, Sabine; Hanafi, Jamal; Gigon, Andreas

doi:10.1007/s10531-008-9412-6

Cited by 57 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The method used in this study for trapping emerging insects has rarely been used in the past (Idinger & Kromp, 1997;Schmidt et al, 2008). This technique has the advantage of providing population densities of all the insects that overwintered in a given place and survived the winter, whatever the overwintering stage (adults or larvae).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance and species richness of overwintering ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are higher in the edge than in the centre of a woodlot

Roume¹,

Ouin²,

Raison³

et al. 2011

Eur. J. Entomol.

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Abstract. Semi-natural habitats are key components of rural landscapes because they shelter a significant number of overwintering arthropods that are beneficial to agriculture. However, woodlots are semi-natural habitats with high patch-level heterogeneity and this aspect has been poorly studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of woodlot heterogeneity on overwintering ground beetles. Woodlot heterogeneity was characterized in terms of distance from the woodlot boundary and date of the most recent logging operation. We used emergence traps to quantify the population density of ground beetles that overwintered in the different parts of the woodlot. In woodlot edges the densities and species richness of ground beetles were significantly higher than in the rest of the woodlot. Ground beetles that are active in crop fields overwintered in the edges but not in the inner zone of the woodlot. Species assemblages of ground beetles overwintering in the edges were highly diverse. The date of the most recent logging operation did not explain the distribution of ground beetles that overwintered in the woodlot. Our results show that woodlots, and in particular their edges, are used as a winter shelter by ground beetles that spend part of their life in crops, which potentially favours biological control in adjacent crop fields.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance and species richness of overwintering ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are higher in the edge than in the centre of a woodlot

Roume¹,

Ouin²,

Raison³

et al. 2011

Eur. J. Entomol.

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“…However, as argued by Morris (2000), it does not suffice that management of small grassland reserves just mimics traditional land use, because in homogenised landscapes, existing reserves need to pack a maximum of the past biodiversity of wider landscapes. The current increasingly advocated practices such as rotational fallow (Schmidt et al 2008), or strip-mowing with postponed cuts (Grill et al 2008;Čížek et al 2012) represent methods of including temporary abandonment to reserve management techniques.…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Šumpich

Konvička

2012

Biologia

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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.

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“…field margins) for the number of both species and individuals of animals has been demonstrated in numerous studies (e.g. Lys and Nentwig 1992, Thomas et al 1992a, Hawthorne et al 1998, Fournier and Loreau 1999, Pfiffner and Luka 2000 Peter et al 2001, Maudsley et al 2002, Pywell et al 2005, Saska 2007, Schmidt et al 2008, Geiger et al 2009, Anjum-Zubair et al 2010, Roume et al 2011. From the standpoint of the entire life cycle of an insect Obrist 2003, Tscharntke et al 2005), the role of uncut grassland should not be underestimated.…”

Section: Insect Hibernation -The Impact Of Autumnal Mowingmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Meadows that remain unmown throughout the winter and that therefore show a high structural diversity of dry herbal and grassy plant structures, may also provide habitats suitable for hibernation (e.g. Schmidt et al 2008, Rothenwöhrer 2012, Rothenwöhrer et al 2013.…”

Section: Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation

Unterweger¹,

Klammer²,

Unger³

et al. 2018

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Citation: Unterweger PA, Klammer J, Unger M, Betz O (2018) Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation. BioRisk 13: 1-29. https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.13.22316 AbstractInsect conservation is challenging on various ecological scales. One largely neglected aspect is the quality of undisturbed hibernation sites. This study aims to fill a lack of knowledge concerning insect hibernation on uncut meadows persisting in urban green spaces during the winter season in a middle-sized town in south Germany. During two years of sampling, 13,511 insect specimens of the orders Heteroptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera were caught from their winter stands. The specimens were assigned to 120 families and 140 taxonomic species were determined from the orders Heteroptera, Coleoptera and Diptera and 324 morphotypes from the orders Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. The data indicate the importance of winter fallows for insect hibernation. Unmown meadows offer additional plant structures in winter (flower heads, stems, tufts and leaves) that are absent from mown ones. This increased structural diversity results in both higher species diversity and numbers of insect individuals during spring emergence. The results of this study thus emphasise the value of unmown structures for insect conservation and suggest a mosaic-like cutting maintenance of meadows, way-and river-sides and other green infrastructure in both the urban area and the open landscape.

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Rotational fallows as overwintering habitat for grassland arthropods: the case of spiders in fen meadows

Cited by 57 publications

References 23 publications

Abundance and species richness of overwintering ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are higher in the edge than in the centre of a woodlot

Abundance and species richness of overwintering ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are higher in the edge than in the centre of a woodlot

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

Insect hibernation on urban green land: a winter-adapted mowing regime as a management tool for insect conservation

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