Traditional woodland management created a mosaic of differently aged patches providing favorable conditions for a variety of arthropods. After abandonment of historical ownership patterns and traditional management and the deliberate transformation to high forest after World War II, large forest areas became darker and more homogeneous. This had significant negative consequences for biodiversity. An important question is whether even small-scale habitat structures maintained by different levels of canopy openness in abandoned coppiced forest may constitute conditions suitable for forest as well as open habitat specialists. We investigated the effect of canopy openness in former traditionally coppiced woodlands on the species richness, functional diversity, activity density, conservation value, and degree of rareness of epigeic spiders. In each of the eight studied locations, 60-m-long transect was established consisting of five pitfall traps placed at regular 15 m intervals along the gradient. Spiders were collected from May to July 2012. We recorded 90 spider species, including high proportions of xeric specialists (40%) and red-listed threatened species (26%). The peaks of conservation indicators, as well as spider community abundance, were shifted toward more open canopies. On the other hand, functional diversity peaked at more closed canopies followed by a rapid decrease with increasing canopy openness. Species richness was highest in the middle of the canopy openness gradient, suggesting an ecotone effect. Ordinations revealed that species of conservation concern tended to be associated with sparse and partly opened canopy. The results show that the various components of biodiversity peaked at different levels of canopy openness. Therefore, the restoration and suitable forest management of such conditions will retain important diversification of habitats in formerly coppiced oak forest stands. We indicate that permanent presence of small-scale improvements could be suitable conservation tools to prevent the general decline of woodland biodiversity in the intensified landscape of Central Europe.

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KOŠULIČ ONDŘEJ, HULA VLADIMÍR: Rare and remarkable spiders (Araneae) from vineyard terraces in Pálava region (South Moravia, Czech Republic). Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 3, pp. 663-676

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Seminatural grasslands are among the most valuable habitats for arthropod conservation in Central Europe. The abandonment of traditional farming has caused these areas to become overgrown and homogeneous, thereby resulting in loss of arthropod biodiversity. This traditional farming therefore needs to be complemented by active conservation management methods. An important question is whether small-scale conservation management may support arthropod diversity and habitat specialists inhabiting abandoned seminatural grasslands. We investigated the effects of mowing, prescribed burning, mechanical turf disturbance, and absence of active management on species richness, functional diversity and composition, conservation value, abundance of Red List species, and assemblage composition of spiders. The management methods were applied on small-scale (4 × 5 m) patches in protected xeric grassland. Spiders were sampled using pitfall traps and sweeping during 2017 and 2018. A total of 11,634 specimens from 154 species were recorded, including many rare and threatened species. The temporal responses of spider assemblages to active conservation management depended on the particular group of spiders. Changes in assemblage composition and resulting shifts in the community weighted mean values were distinct in the second year of the experiment. Management had no significant effect on the species richness of grounddwelling spiders. Mechanical turf disturbance shifted the assemblage composition of grounddwelling spiders towards habitat generalist species. Vegetation-dwelling spiders had the highest species richness in unmanaged patches. Their functional diversity was lower in disturbed patches. Burnt patches supported species of conservation concern for both spider groups. Prescribed burning had positive results for most of the studied indicators.Nevertheless, mechanical turf disturbance had a rather negative effect on the spider assemblages. Our results indicate that even small, patch-like interventions with minimal costs 3 can considerably support the valuable spider assemblages of xeric grassland in the intensified landscape of Central Europe.