Ecological network for species dependent on ancient broadleaf trees using Osmoderma barnabita as a model species: a new approach

Abstract

1. Organisms that depend on rare and endangered microhabitats, such as old, hollow trees, have a high conservation value.2. To conserve these species, it is necessary to apply methods that identify habitats suitable for their survival.3. Until now, a comprehensive method has not been developed for predicting the occurrence of species associated with old, hollow trees.4. Here, we developed criteria to identify habitats for organisms associated with old, hollow trees, using Osmoderma barnabita as a model species.5. We used hexagonal tessellation to identify suitable habitats for hermit beetle. 6. Criteria for predicting the occurrence of a hermit beetle were applied in practise, and as result 47.56% of the known hermit beetle localities coincided with the hexagons where the probability of occurrence of the species was the highest. Based on these results, an ecological network was created for species dependency on old, hollow trees, using the hermit beetle as a model species.7. The proposed approach makes it possible to plan and implement environmental protection measures for species living in territories spanning several countries. In this work, we propose a method to identify species occurrence in core areas and to determine ecological corridors and gaps. This method could tailor conservation planning efforts.

Cryptic diversity of Oxythyrea flower chafers and its implication for conservation of non‐forest biotopes in the Balkans

“…Among the European flower chafers (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) several saproxylic representatives are considered as flagship or umbrella species for biodiversity protection (Ranius et al, 2005; Aving et al, 2014; Trizzino et al, 2014; Landvik et al, 2016). These beetles are usually highly endangered across vast portions of their distribution area, exhibiting highly fragmented populations associated with old‐growth solitary trees (Ranius et al, 2005; Valainis et al, 2021). Some of these species are included in the European Union Natura 2000 network, or are protected by the legal acts of individual countries (e.g., Thomaes et al, 2015) or listed in various national (e.g., Král & Bezděk, 2017) or European Red Lists of threatened species (Cálix et al, 2018).…”