Life history traits reflect changes in mediterranean butterfly communities due to forest encroachment

0458263 - BC 2017 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Šlancarová, Jana - Bartoňová, Alena - Zapletal, Michal - Kotilinek, M. - Faltýnek Fric, Zdeněk - Micevski, N. - Kati, V. - Konvička, Martin
Life history traits reflect changes in mediterranean butterfly communities due to forest encroachment.
PLoS ONE. Roč. 11, č. 3 (2016), č. článku e0152026. ISSN 1932-6203. E-ISSN 1932-6203
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-33733S
Grant - others:GA JU(CZ) 114/2012/P; GA JU(CZ) 168/2013/P; GA JU(CZ) 144/2010/P; European Social Fund(CZ) CZ.1.07/2.4.00/17.0138
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : butterfly * forest encroachment * biodiversity
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 2.806, year: 2016
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0152026

The study targets a pressing conservation issue, forest encroachment of
Mediterranean landscapes due to land abandonment in the global biodiversity
hot-spot of Mediterranean basin, using the model group of butterflies. To
date, this problem has been tackled either by local-scale community
studies, or by comparisons using atlas data. We followed different
approach, based on butterfly community surveys from relatively large scale
(5 separate regions in three countries: Bulgaria, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia and Greece), and besides of univariate analyse based
on mere species numbers, performed ordinations of community structure and
subsequent interpretation of ordination results according to species life
history traits. This integrative approach allowed us not only detect
negative impacts of forest encroachment on Mediterranean open habitat
specialists, but also to understand mechanistic background of these
impacts. Specifically, successional development from grasslands and open
formations towards scrub forest shifts the community composition towards
species overwintering in earlier stages, having fewer generations per year,
and inhabiting large European or Eurosiberian (e.g. northern) ranges.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0258552