TY - JOUR

T1 - Local and landscape responses of biodiversity in calcareous grasslands

AU - Loos, Jacqueline

AU - Krauss, Jochen

AU - Lyons, Ashley

AU - Föst, Stephanie

AU - Ohlendorf, Constanze

AU - Racky, Severin

AU - Röder, Marina

AU - Hudel, Lennart

AU - Herfert, Volker

AU - Tscharntke, Teja

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful towards Bertram Preuschhoff and Sebastian Barthold of the nature conservation agencies Göttingen and Northeim for information and permits; towards the land managers of the calcareous grassland fragments for their support and towards Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter and Erwin Bergmeier for discussions. JL was partly funded through a Robert-Bosch Junior Professorship for Research into the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources; AL was funded through a Stapledon Travel Fellowship. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/7

Y1 - 2021/7

N2 - Across Europe, calcareous grasslands become increasingly fragmented and their quality deteriorates through abandonment and land use intensification, both affecting biodiversity. Here, we investigated local and landscape effects on diversity patterns of several taxonomic groups in a landscape of highly fragmented calcareous grassland remnants. We surveyed 31 grassland fragments near Göttingen, Germany, in spring and summer 2017 for vascular plants, butterflies and birds, with sampling effort adapted to fragment area. Through regression modelling, we tested relationships between species richness and fragment size (from 314 to 51,395 m 2), successional stage, habitat connectivity and the per cent cover of arable land in the landscape at several radii. We detected 283 plant species, 53 butterfly species and 70 bird species. Of these, 59 plant species, 19 butterfly species and 9 bird species were grassland specialists. Larger fragments supported twice the species richness of plants than small ones, and hosted more species of butterflies, but not of birds. Larger grassland fragments contained more grassland specialist plants, but not butterfly or bird specialists. Increasing amounts of arable land in the landscape from 20 to 90% was related to the loss of a third of species of plants, and less so, of butterflies, but not of birds. Per cent cover of arable land negatively correlated to richness of grassland specialist plants and butterflies, but positively to grassland specialist birds. We found no effect by successional stages and habitat connectivity. Our multi-taxa approach highlights the need for conservation management at the local scale, complemented by measures at the landscape scale.

AB - Across Europe, calcareous grasslands become increasingly fragmented and their quality deteriorates through abandonment and land use intensification, both affecting biodiversity. Here, we investigated local and landscape effects on diversity patterns of several taxonomic groups in a landscape of highly fragmented calcareous grassland remnants. We surveyed 31 grassland fragments near Göttingen, Germany, in spring and summer 2017 for vascular plants, butterflies and birds, with sampling effort adapted to fragment area. Through regression modelling, we tested relationships between species richness and fragment size (from 314 to 51,395 m 2), successional stage, habitat connectivity and the per cent cover of arable land in the landscape at several radii. We detected 283 plant species, 53 butterfly species and 70 bird species. Of these, 59 plant species, 19 butterfly species and 9 bird species were grassland specialists. Larger fragments supported twice the species richness of plants than small ones, and hosted more species of butterflies, but not of birds. Larger grassland fragments contained more grassland specialist plants, but not butterfly or bird specialists. Increasing amounts of arable land in the landscape from 20 to 90% was related to the loss of a third of species of plants, and less so, of butterflies, but not of birds. Per cent cover of arable land negatively correlated to richness of grassland specialist plants and butterflies, but positively to grassland specialist birds. We found no effect by successional stages and habitat connectivity. Our multi-taxa approach highlights the need for conservation management at the local scale, complemented by measures at the landscape scale.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Abandonment

KW - Birds

KW - Butterfies

KW - Land use intensifcation

KW - Nature conservation

KW - Vascular plants

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106537455&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10531-021-02201-y

DO - 10.1007/s10531-021-02201-y

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 30

SP - 2415

EP - 2432

JO - Biodiversity and Conservation

JF - Biodiversity and Conservation

SN - 0960-3115

IS - 8-9

ER -