The impact of high-altitude ski pistes on ground-dwelling arthropods in the Alps

Abstract

The development of winter sport resorts above the timberline may affect every ecosystem component. We analyzed the effect of ski-pistes on the abundance and species richness of arthropods (namely carabids, spiders, opilionids, and grasshoppers) trapped in grasslands adjacent to the ski-run, on ski-pistes and at the edge between these two habitat types. Our results showed that diversity of brachypterous carabids, spiders, and grasshoppers decreased significantly from natural grasslands to ski-pistes. This was not true for the macropterous carabid guild, which included species with contrasting ecological requirements. The analysis of indicator species (IndVal) showed that most of the species (some of them precinctive to restricted areas in the north-western Alps) had clear preferences for natural grassland and few taxa were limited to ski-pistes. Generalized linear models suggested that the local extent of grass and rock cover can significantly affect assemblages: the low grass cover of ski-pistes, in particular, was a serious hindrance to colonization by spider, grasshopper, brachypterous, and some macropterous carabid species. The results obtained, support concerns over the possible disruption of local ecosystem functionality and over the conservation of arthropod species which are endemic to restricted alpine areas. In order to retain arthropod ground-dwelling fauna we suggest that: (i) new, environmentally friendly ways of constructing pistes should be developed to preserve as much soil and grass cover as possible; (ii) existing ski-pistes should be restored through management to promote the recovery of local vegetation.

Differential responses of ground dwelling arthropods to ski-piste restoration by hydroseeding

“…The arthropod data collected at the Salati site were also used in a previous paper (Negro et al 2010). Four altitudinal sampling zones were established along the ski-pistes on the basis of physionomic vegetation differences: zone 1, between 2640 and 2750 m a.s.l.…”

“…The ground beetle assemblages could have been composed of species with contrasting ecological requirements so that ecological patterns could not be appropriately revealed (Negro et al 2009(Negro et al , 2010. Accordingly, the carabids were divided into three ecological groups on the basis of their wing morphology: macropterous (full-sized wings), brachypterous (reduced wings or wingless) and wing-dimorphic (species with both winged and short-winged individuals).…”

“…Several papers concerning the impact of high altitude ski-pistes on animals, especially arthropods, have been published (Haslett 1988;Illich and Haslett 1994;Kopeszki and Trockner 1994;Rolando et al 2007;Negro et al 2010;Caprio et al 2011;Kessler et al 2012). Ground dwelling arthropods in particular are disturbed because of the removal of soil and alpine vegetation.…”

“…Ground dwelling arthropods in particular are disturbed because of the removal of soil and alpine vegetation. The low grass cover of ski-pistes is a serious hindrance to colonization by spiders, grasshoppers, and some carabid species (Negro et al 2010). The impact of ski-pistes on such arthropods is of concern because of their prime importance for alpine ecosystem functioning.…”

“…Studies on the impact of ski-pistes have mostly been concentrated on soils (Freppaz et al 2002;Gros et al 2004;Pintar et al 2009 ), and on vegetation (Delarze 1994;Van Ommeren 2001;Wipf et al 2005), or, more rarely, on the combination of soil and vegetation (Barni et al 2007;Pohl et al 2009;Martin et al 2010;RouxFouillet et al 2011). The studies conducted on animals have not considered soil, and have only taken into account vegetation marginally (Laiolo and Rolando 2005;Rolando et al 2007;Caprio et al 2011;Negro et al 2009Negro et al , 2010Negro et al , 2013Rolando et al 2013). In this study, all three components of alpine ecosystems have been considered together for the first time.…”