Winners and losers in the wilderness: response of biodiversity to the abandonment of ancient forest pastures

Horák, Jakub; Pavlíček, Jan; Kout, Jiří; Halda, Josef P.

doi:10.1007/s10531-018-1585-z

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…grow mainly in the warmest parts of Europe (lowlands); therefore, all species of biota have adapted to the same conditions. For this reason, oak saproxylic beetle species respond sensitively and positively to increases in temperature [89] and are therefore strongly affected by an open canopy, as detected in our study, which complies with numerous studies on oak stands and oak trees [19,40,62,80]. This confirms that the phylogenetic development of a tree affects the species associated with it [82,90].…”

Section: Sun Exposuresupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Beetles are ectothermic animals, and their temperature depends on the ambient temperature. The high biological value of massive trees is strongly correlated with an open canopy and sufficient insolation, and has been confirmed by several studies [9,10,40,80,84]. At a higher temperature, they are more spatially active, and their ongoing development is accelerated.…”

Section: Sun Exposurementioning

confidence: 64%

“…Traditional management of scattered massive trees has been abandoned, which naturally leads to a gradual shading of the grounds and a subsequent loss of biodiversity [38,39]. The newly formed environment then fails to meet the demands of sunny-habitat species, which leads to the homogenization of invertebrate communities [40], and, at the same time, brings about the faster death rate of large trees [10] and the failure of other ecosystem functions [41]. Old trees are threatened by felling and by the absence of active support for the future generation of solitary trees [12,13,42,43].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Heritage Trees as an Important Sanctuary for Saproxylic Beetles in the Central European Landscape: A Case Study from Litovelské Pomoraví, Czech Republic

Nakládal

Zumr

Remeš

et al. 2022

Forests

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Intensive forest and agroforestry management has greatly reduced the biodiversity of saproxylic organisms. Large trees are one of the most important refuges of saproxylic beetles. These large trees that grow outside and inside the forest are declining in the wider landscape. Heritage trees are one of the essential groups of beneficial trees in the landscape. We investigated saproxylic beetles associated with 35 selected oak heritage trees in Litovelské Pomoraví in the eastern Czech Republic. The study aimed to investigate the distribution of saproxylic beetles on trees growing inside or at the edge of forest stands, or on free-growing heritage trees. The other studied variables were the height, DBH, and light condition (sunny or shady) of heritage trees. The results showed that sunny habitats were the only significant factor found for all saproxylic species. However, the significance of increasing tree trunk dimension was found for the endangered species. Diversity indices q = 0 (species richness) and q = 1 (exponential of Shannon entropy index) were also higher for sunny trees, while solitary trees showed a high Shannon index value despite the low number of samples. Redundancy analysis of saproxylic species showed that the preferred habitats of most species were sunny massive solitary oaks. The results indicated that strictly protected heritage trees scattered in the landscape are crucial sanctuaries for many species—especially in landscapes where there are not enough suitable habitats for saproxylic beetles. Finding, conserving, and protecting these rare types of massive trees in the landscape has a significant impact on the conservation of saproxylic beetle biodiversity.

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Section: Sun Exposuresupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Sun Exposurementioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Heritage Trees as an Important Sanctuary for Saproxylic Beetles in the Central European Landscape: A Case Study from Litovelské Pomoraví, Czech Republic

Nakládal

Zumr

Remeš

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…grows in the warm lowland parts of Europe. Saproxylic beetle species living on oak, therefore, respond sensitively and positively to the increase in temperature 97 and are therefore strongly influenced by the canopy openness 98 , 99 . The importance of insolation for beetle diversity is far more significant in oak forests than in beech forests, especially for the threatened species 100 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale spontaneous dynamics in temperate beech stands as an importance driver for beetle species richness

Zumr

Remeš

Nakládal

2022

Sci Rep

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Natural dynamics in forests play an important role in the lives of many species. In the landscape of managed forests, natural disturbances are reduced by management activities. This usually has a significant effect on insect diversity. The effect of small-scale natural dynamics of protected beech stands on the richness of saproxylic and non-saproxylic beetles was investigated. Sampling was carried out by using flight interception traps in the framework of comparing different developmental stages: optimum, disintegration, and growing up, each utilizing 10 samples. We recorded 290 species in total, of which 61% were saproxylic. The results showed that the highest species richness and thus abundance was in the disintegration stage. In each developmental stage, species variation was explained differently depending on the variable. Deadwood, microhabitats, and canopy openness were the main attributes in the later stages of development for saproxylic beetles. For non-saproxylics, variability was mostly explained by plant cover and canopy openness. Small-scale disturbances, undiminished by management activities, are an important element for biodiversity. They create more structurally diverse stands with a high supply of feeding and living habitats. In forestry practice, these conclusions can be imitated to the creation of small-scale silvicultural systems with active creation or retention of high stumps or lying logs.

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“…This butterfly depends on light and humid deciduous forests with Fraxinus excelsior (Freese et al 2006) and is usually found along transitions of forest and open land, along forest pastures, and in light forests creating mosaics of trees, shrubs and grassland (Fartmann et al 2013). Such forest structures are known to be hotspots of biodiversity (Horák et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of dynamic open-canopy woodlands for the conservation of a specialist butterfly species

et al. 2022

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Context Intensification of land-use caused a reduction of ecosystem heterogeneity and diversity, and subsequently led to dramatic decrease of biodiversity. Species depending on dynamic ecosystems are particularly affected from this trend of land-use intensification, landscape homogenization, and the optimization of land-use. Forest species suffer under the intensification of forest management, in the worst case transforming light and heterogeneous deciduous forests into species-poor intensively used deciduous forests optimized for wood production. This lead to the destruction of a mosaic consisting of various successional stages in parallel. Objective In this study we analyse the relevance of forest heterogeneity, forest disturbance and microhabitat preferences of egg oviposition and larval development for a highly endangered butterfly species, Euphydryas maturna. This butterfly species mainly occurs in light and moist deciduous forests, such as riparian forests along mountain streams in northern Austria. Methods We combine detailed field observations with high resolution aerial pictures taken with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to build ensemble habitat suitability models from GAM, GBM, GLM, and Maxent models. Results We found that egg ovipositions take place exclusively on the tree species Fraxinus excelsior, preferably exposed to the south, partly shaded, and at medium height (3 m). Our habitat suitability models based on high resolution aerial pictures indicate that egg ovipositions are clustered and accumulate along forest edges and at sites with high forest heterogeneity. Conclusion Our study underlines the high relevance and importance of light deciduous forest structures with environmental dynamics creating the preconditions of specific microhabitat structures for endangered species, such as E. maturna. Our study shows that UAV-captured high precision aerial imagery are well suited to optimally connect two spatial scales, the ecosystem and microhabitat scale.

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Winners and losers in the wilderness: response of biodiversity to the abandonment of ancient forest pastures

Cited by 23 publications

References 33 publications

Heritage Trees as an Important Sanctuary for Saproxylic Beetles in the Central European Landscape: A Case Study from Litovelské Pomoraví, Czech Republic

Heritage Trees as an Important Sanctuary for Saproxylic Beetles in the Central European Landscape: A Case Study from Litovelské Pomoraví, Czech Republic

Small-scale spontaneous dynamics in temperate beech stands as an importance driver for beetle species richness

The importance of dynamic open-canopy woodlands for the conservation of a specialist butterfly species

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