TY - JOUR

T1 - Conservation value of semi-open habitats for ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Cicindelidae) in Central Europe

AU - Boutaud, Estève

AU - Nolte, Dorothea

AU - Harry, Ingmar

AU - Aßmann, Thorsten

AU - Drees, Claudia

N1 - Funding Information: We like to thank the landowners and the nature conservation authorities that provided us with the authorization to work on areas under their care. This study was funded by the federal agency for nature conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Grant Number: FKZ 3512 85 0100). Thanks to Wiebke Schuett for proofreading the manuscript. We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped improve the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/5/1

Y1 - 2022/5/1

N2 - Reintroduction of grazing to counteract insect decline will lead to an increase of semi-open habitats. Semi-open habitats are highly heterogeneous, consisting of a mosaic of patches of trees or shrubs embedded in a matrix dominated by dwarf shrubs or grasses. Despite a lack of evidence, structural heterogeneity is expected to allow many species to co-occur, making semi-open habitats appear highly valuable for invertebrate conservation. We studied ground beetles in eight sites in two landscapes of Central Europe each encompassing semi-open, open, and forest habitats. Rapid response to environmental change and limited dispersal abilities make ground beetles an excellent model taxon to evaluate the effectiveness of such conservations measures. In both studied landscapes, ground beetle assemblages in semi-open habitats tended to be distinct and intermediate between those from the forest and open habitats. Species richness and functional diversity in semi-open habitats were similar to open habitats at site level. The majority of species entered the semi-open habitats, except for most threatened species, yet, few species were exclusively associated with semi-open habitats. We conclude that the continuous presence of many species in semi-open habitats likely results from mass effects rather than habitat heterogeneity per se. Our findings underline the conservation value of the existing forest, heathland, and grassland habitats over semi-open habitats which can, however, function as dispersal habitats and increase landscape connectivity. Strategies aiming at promoting semi-open habitats to counteract insect decline should target enhancing connectivity rather than the creation of habitats only.

AB - Reintroduction of grazing to counteract insect decline will lead to an increase of semi-open habitats. Semi-open habitats are highly heterogeneous, consisting of a mosaic of patches of trees or shrubs embedded in a matrix dominated by dwarf shrubs or grasses. Despite a lack of evidence, structural heterogeneity is expected to allow many species to co-occur, making semi-open habitats appear highly valuable for invertebrate conservation. We studied ground beetles in eight sites in two landscapes of Central Europe each encompassing semi-open, open, and forest habitats. Rapid response to environmental change and limited dispersal abilities make ground beetles an excellent model taxon to evaluate the effectiveness of such conservations measures. In both studied landscapes, ground beetle assemblages in semi-open habitats tended to be distinct and intermediate between those from the forest and open habitats. Species richness and functional diversity in semi-open habitats were similar to open habitats at site level. The majority of species entered the semi-open habitats, except for most threatened species, yet, few species were exclusively associated with semi-open habitats. We conclude that the continuous presence of many species in semi-open habitats likely results from mass effects rather than habitat heterogeneity per se. Our findings underline the conservation value of the existing forest, heathland, and grassland habitats over semi-open habitats which can, however, function as dispersal habitats and increase landscape connectivity. Strategies aiming at promoting semi-open habitats to counteract insect decline should target enhancing connectivity rather than the creation of habitats only.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - trophic rewilding

KW - wood-pasture

KW - corridor

KW - mass effect

KW - Habitat heterogeneity

KW - Trophic rewilding

KW - wood-pasture

KW - corridor

KW - mass effect

KW - habitat hetergeneity

KW - Corridor

KW - Habitat heterogeneity

KW - Mass effect

KW - Trophic rewilding

KW - Wood-pasture

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128476558&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/b861fa01-92c5-3602-8877-3c32779112c7/

U2 - 10.1007/s10531-022-02402-z

DO - 10.1007/s10531-022-02402-z

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 31

SP - 1469

EP - 1489

JO - Biodiversity and Conservation

JF - Biodiversity and Conservation

SN - 0960-3115

IS - 5-6

ER -