Extent and reasons for meadows in South Bohemia becoming unsuitable for orchids

Abstract

Decline in wet grasslands, which in the past resulted particularly from the intensification of agriculture, was accompanied by the loss of a lot of populations of organisms, including protected and endangered species of plants and animals associated with these habitats e.g. terrestrial orchids. The survival of populations of many species of European orchids is strongly dependent on appropriate site management, especially regular mowing or grazing. In addition, humans can negatively affect the persistence of orchid populations in various ways, such as conversion of orchid meadows into building areas, dams, roads etc. or the intensive use of fertilizers and contamination of areas by fertilisers from nearby fields. Comparison of historical data with the present distribution of orchids can reveal a lot about the main reasons for the decline in this endangered group of plants. Here we present an extensive study of the persistence of 192 historical orchid sites in South Bohemia, with particular reference to the 5 commonest species of orchids, Anacamptis morio, Dactylorhiza majalis, Epipactis helleborine, Epipactis palustris and Platanthera bifolia. We show that the most abundant species at the sites studied was Dactylorhiza majalis. E. palustris, A. morio and P. bifolia are currently not present at any of the historical localities for these species. Considering more recent history, the situation regarding orchid localities in South Bohemia is not critical, but the fate of these species should be closely monitored. The majority of this loss is due to the cessation of mowing of the sites. Thus more attention should be paid to the management of the existing sites. During this study, some new sites were discovered.Keywords: extinction, meadows, terrestrial orchids, South Bohemia (Kull 2002), but present methods of mowing does not necessarily result in the persistence of orchid populations (Tamm 1991). Effect of management on orchid populations is best assessed by long-term monitoring (Inghe and

Illegal harvesting and livestock grazing threaten the endangered orchid Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soó in Nepalese Himalaya

“…For the long-term conservation of endangered orchids, the development of concrete conservation plans based on indigenous knowledge, long-term monitoring, genetic analysis, and scientific inputs is crucial (Dobriyal et al, 2002;Jacquemyn et al, 2007). Endangered orchid species are in need of specific conservation actions (Charitonidou et al, 2019;Mincheva & Kozuharova, 2018;Tsiftsis et al, 2011), and more attention should be paid to the management of existing sites of orchids (Stipkova & Kindlmann, 2015).…”

Rapid Decreasing of a Selected Plant Species Distribution Within Recent Decades as an Illustration of Gradual Local Extinction of Low-Productive Wet Meadow Species in Central Europe

“…The species Pedicularis sylvatica was selected as a model species to illustrate not only the change in the number of populations and changes in the sizes of populations, but overall quality decreasing of fen and wet meadow habitats in terms of biodiversity and ecological functioning. The extinction trend of fen and low-productive wet meadow species also applies to other co-occurring endangered plant species (Štípková & Kindlmann, 2015;Lienert et al, 2002;Sotek et al, 2016), including bryophytes (Štechová et al, 2012). The most negatively affected populations in lower elevated subregions point to the extinction debt, i.e.…”

Is the GBIF appropriate for use as input in models of predicting species distributions? Study from the Czech Republic

“…NDOP was chosen because we have enough experience with it. Previously, Štípková & Kindlmann (2015), Štípková et al (2018, 2020a) worked on the revision of orchid records in 24 mapping squares (see the network of mapping squares used for these purposes on https:// www.entospol.cz/sit-mapovych-ctvercu/) in South Bohemia based on NDOP. More than 82% of records included in these squares were confirmed in NDOP, when revised.…”