Prospects for sustainable development: The future of plants and butterflies in Transylvania

Project: Dissertation project

Project participants

Description

Human activities have converted natural ecosystems worldwide, mostly for agricultural purposes. This change in land use has been recognized as one of the key drivers causing mass extinction of biodiversity. Yet, there are species which persist particularly in traditional, low-intensity agricultural areas. However, this farmland biodiversity is increasingly threatened by the consequences of land-use intensification and land abandonment. One effect of these two processes is the change in existing landscape structures. This dissertation aimed at quantifying the relationship between biodiversity and landscape structures because a better understanding of current biodiversity patterns and their drivers is needed to navigate biodiversity conservation for a sustainable development. Specifically, this dissertation anticipates the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity in Southern Transylvania, focusing on butterflies and plants as study groups.
In a first step, a methodological baseline for subsequent biodiversity studies is developed by exploring an optimal survey strategy, allocating the available resources in a study design that enables high statistical power and covers a wide range of environmental conditions. This study shows that in the highly heterogeneous farmland mosaic of Southern Transylvania, survey effort can be moderately reduced while still showing similar patterns of species richness, species turnover and species composition (Chapter 2). In a second step, biodiversity patterns of plants and butterflies are empirically investigated in response to different landscape structures, particularly towards heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover. These studies provide evidence that all main land-use types in Southern Transylvania, namely arable land, grassland and forests, contribute to an overall landscape pool. Species richness of plants, but not of butterflies, differed significantly between arable land and grassland. Presence of woody vegetation in farmland had a positive effect on plant species richness. Heterogeneity has been found beneficial for butterfly species richness in arable land, but not in grasslands. Species composition of plants was determined by land-use, but butterfly species composition was widely overlapping in arable land and grassland (Chapters 3 & 4). Investigations on the potential spread of invasive plant species in the Transylvanian landscape exhibited that distance to roads and heterogeneity, especially in arable land, were key variables determining the invasibility of the landscape (Chapter 5). By studying movement patterns of butterflies in agricultural landscapes, land-use intensity could be revealed having an impact on butterfly movements. Furthermore, butterflies were found to prefer non-arable patches within farmland (Chapter 6).
In a third step, this dissertation conceptually embeds socio-economic considerations into the local and international discourse on sustainable rural development: Reflections on a participatory projects on establishing butterfly monitoring in Romania conclude that involving citizens in biodiversity conservation is possible in Romania, but need tailored approaches which consider the unique social and cultural settings (Chapter 7). Current recommendations from scientific literature to increase the agricultural yield, for example in Eastern European landscapes, through ´sustainable intensification´ for global food security are scrutinized for their engagement with sustainability. This dissertation concludes that genuine sustainable solutions need to respect the various aspects of sustainability, including procedural and distributive justice. Furthermore, it is clarified that general recommendations for agricultural intensification, for instance in Romania, may lead to devastating impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functions (Chapter 8).
This dissertation provides evidence that the beneficial characteristics of the Translvanian farmland are linked to the fine spatial scale of the agricultural mosaic, the amount and distribution of semi-natural elements and the scattered woody vegetation throughout the landscape. Hence, the future of biodiversity depends on human interventions in the ancient cultural landscape. Navigating biodiversity conservation in Southern Transylvania thus needs genuine sustainable solutions, which integrate socially acceptable and ecological meaningful landscape management.
StatusFinished
Period01.07.1115.06.15

Documents

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. Monitoring Phenological phases of the crops using TerraSAR-X Spotlight Images based on Factor Analysis
  2. International Online Conference "What is Entrepreneurship Education and how can it be implemented?" 2020
  3. Self-directed career management, presence of calling, and core self-evaluations: Test of a mediation model
  4. Barriers to Equity in Healthcare Utilization: A Comparison between the United States, Germany, and Canada
  5. Assessment of Age-correlated Occupational Strain as a Basis for an Age-Adequate Work-Sequence Organization
  6. Lernprozessbegleitende Diagnostik und lernförderliche Leistungsrückmeldung im inklusiven Fachunterricht
  7. Open Innovation Mindset and School Leadership: How Innovations can be successfully implemented at schools
  8. Intra-firm Wage Dispersion and Cost Coverage of Training: Evidence from German Linked Employer-Employee Data
  9. Von „Salus per Aquam“ bis „Ich-Zeit“ – Veränderungen der Destinationen und Gästewünsche im Gesundheitstourismus
  10. Gruenes Wissen.NET: Ein Angebot der Wissenschaftskommunikation im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit und Globaler Wandel
  11. Drivers of non-Apis pollinators in California almond orchard and their benefits for almond pollination 2011
  12. Wie beeinflussen sekundäre Samenausbreitung und Samenfraß die erfolgreiche Etablierung von Wiesenkräutern?
  13. University-industry collaboration to stimulate learning in the context of sustainability-oriented innovations
  14. Mapping Urban Information as an Interdisciplinary Method for Geography, Art and Architecture Representations
  15. Sustainable use of arable lands within the Elbe river biosphere reserve in Lower Saxony, Germana using SAR-Data

Publications

  1. Ein innerstädtischer Wasserweg als bedeutendes stadtgestaltendes Element: Der Isebekkanal in Hamburg
  2. Verordnungspraxis von Antidepressiva bei älteren und jüngeren Patienten – Eine Routinedatenauswertung
  3. Knut Ebeling, Stephan Günzel (Hrsg.): Archivologie: Theorien des Archivs in Philosophie, Medien und Künsten
  4. Internationales Projektmanagement in der interkulturellen Forschung – am Beispiel des Projektes iGOES
  5. Trends im Europäischen Gesundheitstourismus: Neue Perspektiven für einen traditionellen Tourismuszweig
  6. Arithmetische Basiskompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern in den Klassen 5 bis 7 der Sekundarstufe
  7. Effect of thermal treatment on thermal expansion behaviour of magnesium alloy based hybrid composites
  8. Control of a two-thermoelectric-cooler system for ice-clamping application using Lyapunov based approach
  9. Weltmeisterschaft als Bildungschance? Events zwischen Ansprüchen der Ergebnisorientierung und Teilhabe
  10. Materielle Änderungen und verfahrensrechtliche Regelungen durch die sog. Verwaltungsgrundsätze-Verfahren
  11. Mit qualitativen "insights" aus der Nische zum Mainstream: Nachhaltiger Konsum von Körperpflegeprodukten
  12. 〉Welcome home, darling!〈 - John Fords »Rio Grande« und der geschlechterkampf an der frontier des Kalten Krieges
  13. Holland-Cunz, Barbara: Gefährdete Freiheit. Über Hannah Arendt und Simone de Beauvoir. Opladen u.a. (Budrich) 2012
  14. Pflanzenbehandlungs- und Schädlingsbekämpfungsmittel in niedersächsischen Fließgewässern von 1994 bis 2001
  15. Der Beitrag der UN-Dekade 2005-20014 zur Verbreitung und Verankerung der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung
  16. Wasserbauliche Maßnahmen zur Sicherung des ökologisch notwendigen Mindestabflusses kleiner Fließgewässer
  17. University-Industry Collaboration to Stimulate Learning in the Context of Sustainability-Oriented Innovations
  18. Zur biographischen Genese subjektiver Geschlechts- und Medienidentitäten in (familien-)systemischer Perspektive
  19. Tracing exploratory modes in digital collections of museum Web sites using reverse information architecture
  20. Time and Income Poverty: An Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty Approach with German Time Use Diary Data
  21. Anthropogenic factors overrule local abiotic variables in determining non-native plant invasions in mountains