Successional changes on a former tank range in eastern Germany: Does increase of the native grass species Molinia caerulea cause decline of less competitive Drosera species?

Gaertner, Mirijam; Konold, Werner; Richardson, David M.

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2009.03.001

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Many alliens in Central European flora establish readily at disturbed grounds [46], where they may compete with some distrurbance-dependent rare species. This further highlights, however, the value of the disturbance-succession mosaics characteristic for past military use, because small-scaled patchiness arguably promotes the coexistence of multiple plants, including poor competitors, in close proximities [25], [47].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The high species richness is attributable to heterogeneous distrubance-succession mosaics, created and maintained by military activities. Regarding endangered species, those characteristic for MTAs are either species of barren surfaces [13], [24], [47], directly depending on mechanical disturbances, or species of neglected grasslands, edges and transition zones, benefiting from the diverse successional conditions [16]. Both diverse disturbance events and subsequent heterogenous conditions were common in pre-intensification cultural landscapes, from which most the MTAs were carved more than half century ago, but they are underrepresented both in the established reserves and in modern cultural landscapes [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic

et al. 2013

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Military training generates frequent and irregular disturbance followed by succession, resulting in fine-scaled mosaics of ecological conditions in military training areas (MTAs). The awareness that MTAs may represent important biodiversity sanctuaries is increasing recently. Concurrently, changes in military doctrine are leading to abandonment of many MTAs, which are being brought under civilian administration and opened for development. We surveyed vascular plants in 43 and butterflies in 41 MTAs in the Czech Republic and compared the records with plants and butterfly records from 301 and 125 nature reserves, respectively. After controlling for effects of area, geography, and climate, we found that plant species richness was equal in the two land use categories; butterfly richness was higher in MTAs; reserves hosted more endangered plants and more endangered butterflies. Ordination analyses, again controlled for potential nuisance effects, showed that MTAs and reserves differed also in species composition. While specialist species of nationally rarest habitat types inclined towards the reserves, MTAs hosted a high representation of endangered species depending on either disturbed ground, or successionaly transient conditions. These patterns reflect the history of the national nature reserves network, and the disturbance-succession dynamics within MTAs. The conservation value of formerly army-used lands is increasingly threatened by abandonment, and conservationists should support either alternative uses mimicking army activities, or sustainable management regimes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic

et al. 2013

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“…India and China (Kothyari et al 2004;Quincey et al 2007). A different, slowly expanding approach in nature conservation is to conserve strongly degraded areas, for example post-mining areas (Schulz & Wiegleb 2000), quarries (Benes et al 2003) or former military training areas (Gaertner et al 2010) as habitats for pioneer species. The idea behind this approach is to manage alternative disturbance regimes that are able to substitute for natural perturbations that are absent from populated areas, e.g.…”

Section: Conservation Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing degraded lands for biodiversity conservation

Plieninger

Gaertner

2011

Journal for Nature Conservation

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a b s t r a c tLand degradation affects an estimated 24% of the global land area. While predominantly discussed as an environmental problem, degraded lands have recently been reconsidered as an untapped resource for production industries like agriculture and forestry. Here, we investigate the biodiversity potential of degraded land compared to both used and undisturbed land. First, we find that "degraded lands" and related terms cover a wide variety of socio-ecological settings and that a standardized terminology is clearly needed. Second, degraded lands may support biodiversity levels similar to or even above those of surrounding managed landscapes. However, degraded lands generally support less biodiversity than natural areas. Third, some principles to harness degraded lands for biodiversity conservation have been developed. If applied, degraded areas may provide opportunities to extend nature conservation strategies on a broader spatial scale, and they may serve as a buffer between protected areas and intensively used land. We conclude that efforts to capitalize on degraded lands for commodity crop production generate conflicts with biodiversity conservation that have been disregarded so far.

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“…At the same time, abandoned military training areas are exposed to various threats that have arisen after the end of military activity (Herčik et al, 2014;Ellwanger and Reiter, 2019). Although these areas were saved from transformation to intensive forms of cultural landscape for a long time, they may recently face habitat loss due to construction activities or conversion into intensively cultivated farmland, and the quality of their open habitats may deteriorate due to changes driven by ecological succession in the absence of management (Gaertner et al, 2010;Dvořáková et al, 2023). Therefore, to secure the key role of abandoned military training areas in supporting European open habitat biodiversity, it is important to implement the appropriate active management in these areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity changes in abandoned military training areas: relationships to different management approaches in multiple taxa

Reif,

Chajma,

Dvořáková

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Introduction: Abandoned military training areas are biodiversity strongholds, and this is particularly true for open-habitat and threatened species in Central Europe. Such species benefited from a specific disturbance regime created by military activities that maintained small-grained environmental heterogeneity. However, the disturbance regime no longer occurs after abandonment and the biodiversity is at risk due to forest and shrub encroachment if the areas are left unmanaged. To combat these adverse changes, several management options are used. As these options are not always applied for conservation purposes and substantially differ in their implementation, it is essential to assess their impacts on biodiversity.Methods: We performed repeated standardized surveys (first in 2009–2010, second in 2020–2022) of vascular plants, grasshoppers, butterflies and birds in 42 abandoned military training areas in Czechia, a Central European country. We calculated changes of species richness and abundance between periods for each taxon and related these changes to six different management types (woody plant cutting, mowing for conservation, mowing for agriculture, grazing for conservation, grazing for agriculture, vehicle movement) performed in these areas between periods.Results: Vascular plants and grasshoppers showed generally positive changes, whereas the reverse was true for butterflies, and birds experienced mixed changes. Although beta-diversity increased between periods in plants, grasshoppers and butterflies, this increase was driven by extirpation of common species. Management impacts greatly different between respective types and between taxa. Woody plant cutting showed solely positive impacts (on plants and grasshoppers), while the impacts of both types of grazing were mixed (positive on plants and birds, negative on butterflies, mixed on grasshoppers). Mowing for agriculture supported plants and birds but had negative effects on grasshoppers. Mowing for conservation and vehicle movement were linked solely to negative biodiversity changes (former in plants, latter in butterflies).Discussion: Some components of biodiversity, i.e. plants and grasshoppers, indicate that abandoned military training areas still serve as their strongholds and the management most likely contributes to this favourable state. In contrast, the pattern found for butterflies is worrying since the management performed up to now apparently does not meet their requirements, likely because they are based on smaller-scale habitat mosaic than currently occurs in the areas. Our results may serve as a guide for future prioritization of environmental management, and we urge for development of more nuanced approaches to save the butterflies.

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Successional changes on a former tank range in eastern Germany: Does increase of the native grass species Molinia caerulea cause decline of less competitive Drosera species?

Cited by 16 publications

References 39 publications

Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic

Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic

Harnessing degraded lands for biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity changes in abandoned military training areas: relationships to different management approaches in multiple taxa

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