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Habitat quality, not patch isolation, drives distribution and abundance of two light-demanding butterflies in fragmented coppice landscapes
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Coppice forests are socio-ecological systems especially rich in biodiversity. They have been transformed into high forest and abandoned across large areas of Europe over the past 200 years. Coppice loss is likely an important driver of insect declines. It is currently unclear whether habitat quality or decreasing connectivity of the remaining fragments is more important for the survival of insect populations. We related the abundance of two coppice-associated butterflies of conservation concern, Satyrium ilicis and Melitaea athalia, to indicators of habitat quality and habitat connectivity. We estimated butterfly densities using Distance Sampling along a successional gradient (time since last cut: 1–9 years; N = 130 plots) across one of the largest remaining simple oak-birch coppice landscapes in Central Europe. Both species reached abundance peaks within four to six years after the last cut, declining rapidly in abundance with subsequent succession. We found no evidence that coupe size, coppice availability and patch (= coupe) connectivity were related to the density of the species. Besides stand age, the cover of larval foodplants explained predicted butterfly densities well. Only Satyrium ilicis benefitted from high Red Deer densities. Implications for insect conservation: Our results suggest that habitat quality and sufficient availability of coppice of suitable age matters more than coupe size and fragmentation within a traditional managed coppice landscape. Coppice restoration aiming at the study species should ensure a shifting mosaic of successional habitat to provide a large availability of resprouting oak stools and bilberry vegetation that holds dense Melampyrum pratense stands.
Descrição
Funding Information: We are very grateful to the heads of the coppice management collectives of all villages in the coppice woods of the Lahn-Dill district, Hesse for allowing access to their area and providing a large amount of information, especially Johannes Eckhardt, Roger Weitzel, Dietmar Orth and Klaus-Dieter Schmidt. Harro Schäfer and Rolf Twardella provided valuable insight into historical and current coppice management and Lepidoptera communities of the study area. We thank the Hessische Landesamt für Naturschutz, Umwelt und Geologie and Landesbetrieb (HLNUG, HessenForst) and the Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV) for granting permits. Many thanks to Claudia Frank and Josef Kallmayer who gave statistical advice. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
Palavras-chave
Coppice forest Distance sampling Habitat fragmentation Light forest species Melitaea athalia Satyrium ilicis Ecology Animal Science and Zoology Nature and Landscape Conservation Insect Science SDG 15 - Life on Land