Optimizing arthropod predator conservation in permanent grasslands by considering diversity components beyond species richness
2015
Birkhofer, K. | Diekötter, T. | Meub, C. | Stötzel, K. | Wolters, V.
Grasslands host large parts of Europe’s agricultural arthropod diversity. Considering the adverse effects of ongoing land use changes on many grassland taxa, there is an urgent need to establish measures that allow for optimizing the conservation of permanent grassland habitats and their climatic, environmental and ecological benefits. Here, data from 42 permanent grasslands were used to quantify the effect of individual management practices on different diversity components in spider and ground beetle communities. Intensive fertilization and frequent cutting reduced the species richness of spiders and the number of threatened spider species, but increased the average taxonomic distinctness of communities. Moreover, high grazing intensity reduced the average body size of individuals in local spider communities. Frequent cutting led to a higher abundance of predaceous and omnivorous ground beetles but a lower abundance of herbivorous species. These opposing responses of both different biodiversity components and different taxa to individual grassland management practices confirm that no single management practice maximizes the biodiversity of arthropod predators in permanent grasslands at the local scale. Rather, our study suggests that arthropod predator diversity can only be conserved by promoting a landscape-scale combination of different management practices and intensities in permanent grasslands. When considering conservation measures, conservation goals should not only be formulated in terms of local species richness, but also need to address other components of diversity such as taxonomic or functional diversity.
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