The large-scale decline of traditionally managed early-successional habitats caused by the joint effects of agricultural intensification and abandonment of marginal lands has resulted in a critical reduction of xerophilous arthopods throughout Europe. The question is whether newly generated early-successional sites of human-made habitats (in this case vineyard terraces) may partially compensate this habitat loss. My research, therefore, focusses on spiders as model organisms to determine the potential importance of xeric slopes of vineyard terraces for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. I analyzed species density, abundances, rareness degree and conservation value among vineyard terraces with two habitat types of different succession stages (sparse and dense grass turf) placed in in landscapes with varying proportions of surrounding potential source areas (steppe -- foresteppes) and different surrounding habitats (habitat structure) around studied terraces. During 2011 were collected by different methods 6040 adult specimens of spiders belonging to 171 species, 69 genus and 24 families. From this representation were calculated high proportion of rare xeric specialist (40 %) and red-listed threatened species (15 %). From the statistical analyses, overall species density and abundance of spiders did not differ significantly between the terraces with sparse and dense vegetation cover, however species density was significantly influenced by presence of xeric grasslands around vineyards. The occurence of rare and endangered epigeic was significantly associated with the type of successional stage (for epigeic and epiphytic species), as well as rareness degree, conservation value and abundances significantly increased with presence of adjacent steppe grasslands. The results indicate that artificial habitats, such as vineyard terraces, are important refuges for wide spectra of xerothermophilous spiders. To prevent losses of rare and endangered xeric species, I suggest some small scale management methods that maintain important microhabitat mosaic structures under the different succession stages.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:249339 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Košulič, Ondřej |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
Page generated in 0.0053 seconds