Is grazing always the answer to grassland management for arthropod biodiversity? Lessons from a gravel pit restoration project

Helden, Alvin J.; Chipps, James; McCormack, Stephen; Pereira, Luiza

doi:10.1007/s10841-020-00243-1

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Cases when site conditions modulate the impacts of conservation interventions might be rather common (e.g. Morris (2000), Helden et al (2020), Dumont et al (2020), Bussan (2022)) and if ignored, they may result in undesirable outcomes of well-intended activities. This highlights the necessity to flexibly adapt vegetation management to both local variation amongst sites and interannual variation in such aspects as rainfall or phenology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Tájek¹,

Tenčík²,

Konvička³

et al. 2023

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A selection of sites occupied by the EU-protected marsh fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) in western Czech Republic were subjected to a vegetation survey 15 years ago and again recently. In the 66 time-replicated 25 m2 plots from 12 sites, representing the diversity of E. aurinia-occupied oligotrophic grasslands in the Slavkovský les Protected Landscape Area (and covering a fifth of the currently-occupied Czech sites), we recorded quantitative representation of vascular plants and mosses. We analysed the data using multivariate ordinations, asking how the vegetation changed between the surveys, how was it affected by the conservation management applied and how it affected occupancy by the butterfly larval nests; the vegetation patterns were interpreted using Ellenberg’s plant indicator values. Between the two surveys, the overall representation of the larval host plant, Succisa pratensis, did not change; tree and herbs layers (both grasses and forbs) increased and the moss layer decreased. Across surveys, the main driver of vascular plants’ species composition was moisture, followed by soil reaction and nitrogen, whereas in mosses, nitrogen was the main factor. The main change between the surveys was the increase of nitrogen accompanied by decreased light, probably due to increase of competitively strong plants. Butterfly occupancy declined at sites with high soil moisture and increased at sites with higher soil reaction. Mowing of moist nitrogen-rich sites, but not drier nitrogen-poor sites, increased occupancy, illustrating the need for context-dependent interventions. All the evidence thus shows that E. aurinia prefers drier, warmer and less acidic conditions within the generally moist acidic grasslands and that ongoing eutrophication represents a potential problem in the future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Tájek¹,

Tenčík²,

Konvička³

et al. 2023

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“…While A. argentata seems to respond directly to grazing, A. quadrilorata , which exclusively inhabits the cattle-resistant Eryngium horridum , is indirectly affected by grazing. Therefore, although grazing may not be the best solution for all kinds of grassland management (Helden et al 2020), moderate grazing using limited animal load, up to 0.6 AU/ha/year (Jansen et al 2013; Clendenin 2016; Toupet et al 2020), seems to have the potential to maintain and preserve spiders and other generalist predators that are intrinsically linked to vegetation structure. Moreover, the ability of these spiders to disperse through ballooning offers a potential survival strategy in the face of grazing pressure, but it presents challenges related to identifying suitable habitats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The removal of above-ground plant biomass provoked by chronic grazing (Tälle et al 2016; Pett and Bailey 2019; Ferreira et al 2020; da Silva Bomfim et al 2021) directly affects the primary hunting strategy of orb-weavers, the ability to build webs using the tridimensional vegetal structure (Nogueira and Pinto-da-Rocha 2016). Without physical structures to build their web, species are unable to find prey (Torma et al 2019; Helden et al 2020; Fischer et al 2021) and mates (Cory and Schneider 2018; Weiss and Schneider 2021), as well as avoid predation (Blackledge and Wenzel 1999; da Silva Bomfim et al 2021; Narimanov et al 2021). Consequently, the simplification of habitat structure induced by grazing can culminate in the decline of local populations, resulting in the exclusion of orb-weaver species from grasslands (Oyarzabal and Guimarães 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strands of Connection: Livestock Grazing, Vegetation Density, and Orb-Weaver Spider Persistence

Oyarzabal,

Guimarães

2023

Preprint

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Studies on the effects of grazing disturbances in grasslands have shown mixed results for spider diversity, mainly regarding their guilds. While ungrazing, low, and moderate grazing potentially enhance diversity of orb-weavers, heavy grazing seems to reduce specieś richness. On the population level, studies of orb-weavers are scarce, and the effects of grazing are unknow. In this way, we investigated the effects of different levels of grazing on population persistence of orb-weaver spiders, hypothesizing that low to intermediate disturbances benefit populations. We predict that high grazing, due to the removal of vegetation structure, will negatively affect occupancy and abundance of orb-weavers. For that, we experimentally controlled grazing pressure and obtained population occurrence and counts of two orb-weaver spider species,Argiope argentataandAlpaida quadrilorata. We found thatA. argentatawas directly affected by grazing, as it relies on higher vegetation for web-building. In contrast,A. quadrilorata, which occurs in cattle-resistant rosette plants, showed no effects of grazing.Implications for insect conservation:Our study emphasizes the need for balanced grazing practices and habitat conservation to protect orb-weaver spiders and other arthropods, as well as, species-specific effects for species from the same guild, underscoring their ecological significance in maintaining ecosystem stability.

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“…This notion is particularly widespread among plant ecologists, as abandonment frequently reduces plant diversity (Öckinger et al ., 2006; Dengler et al ., 2014; but see Baur et al ., 2006). However, a high value of fallows has also been found in other studies, though depending on the study area and the taxon investigated (Schmidt et al ., 2008; Görn et al ., 2014; Toivonen et al ., 2015; Bucher et al ., 2016; Řezáč & Heneberg, 2018; Hanappel & Fischer, 2019; Helden et al ., 2020; Wietzke et al ., 2020). This is also the main conclusion of a comprehensive review on this matter, pointing out that scientific reports of positive or negative effects of abandonment depend on regional background (both geographic and cultural) and conservation focus (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassland fallows as key for successful insect conservation

Frenzel

Wörsdörfer

Khedhiri

et al. 2021

Insect Conserv Diversity

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1. There is widescale evidence for declines in insect biodiversity at a global scale. Agricultural intensification is considered to be one of the major causes of these declines. Traditionally managed habitat types, such as hay meadows, harbour a rich diversity of plants and animals but have been often transformed into crop fields or silage grassland.2. To evaluate the role of (i) agricultural intensification for insect declines and of (ii) traditionally managed hay meadows and fallows for biodiversity conservation, we here compare bee, hoverfly, and leafhopper assemblages on 45 sites along a gradient of land use intensity in western Germany. We included moist long-term grassland fallows, three types of hay meadows, and silage grasslands, each represented by nine replicates.3. Species numbers of bees and leafhoppers were significantly higher on fallows than other management types. Grassland fallows also harboured the most distinct assemblages, while those of hay meadows and silage grassland were very similar and largely overlapping.4. The surprising similarity of hay meadow and silage assemblages may be due to investigating highly mobile taxa within a landscape composed of a fine-scale mosaic of traditionally managed and intensified grassland. Our results demonstrate the high importance of unmanaged areas, even when the overall land use intensity is still comparatively low.5. We suggest that temporal grassland fallows (unmanaged for 3-5 years) should be subsidised in agri-environmental schemes to increase landscape heterogeneity and to preserve insect diversity.

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Is grazing always the answer to grassland management for arthropod biodiversity? Lessons from a gravel pit restoration project

Cited by 8 publications

References 56 publications

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Strands of Connection: Livestock Grazing, Vegetation Density, and Orb-Weaver Spider Persistence

Grassland fallows as key for successful insect conservation

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Is grazing always the answer to grassland management for arthropod biodiversity? Lessons from a gravel pit restoration project

Cited by 8 publications

References 56 publications

﻿Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

﻿Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Strands of Connection: Livestock Grazing, Vegetation Density, and Orb-Weaver Spider Persistence

Grassland fallows as key for successful insect conservation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly

Vegetation changes at oligotrophic grasslands managed for a declining butterfly