A 20-year study of a threatened butterfly: The importance of management across space and time for long-term persistence in dynamic landscapes
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| Titel: | A 20-year study of a threatened butterfly: The importance of management across space and time for long-term persistence in dynamic landscapes |
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| Autoren: | Johansson, Victor, Franzén, Markus, Bergman, Karl-Olof |
| Quelle: | Biological Conservation. 310 |
| Schlagwörter: | Land-use change, Lopinga achine, Metapopulation, Habitat quality, Grazing management, Conservation planning |
| Beschreibung: | Biodiversity loss is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, with land-use change being the primary driver globally. This crisis is particularly acute for European semi-open woodland specialists, which have declined dramatically following the abandonment of traditional management practices that historically maintained dynamic landscape mosaics. We examined population dynamics and habitat preferences of the threatened woodland brown butterfly (Lopinga achine) in Sweden, combining habitat quality assessments of 139 patches in the core area with 21-year population surveys and metapopulation modeling. We modified the Incidence function model to incorporate habitat quality and projected future dynamics under four management scenarios. The number of occupied patches remained stable until 2010 but then decreased by over 40 % by 2020. Butterfly numbers were highest in ungrazed patches with approximately 70 % tree and shrub cover. Intensive grazing significantly reduced population sizes; however, the absence of management allows succession from open woodlands to closed forests to proceed, eventually leading to local extinctions. Future projections predicted drastic declines in patch occupancy and distribution over the next century without intervention. Strategic management, including selective clearing of overgrown patches every decade, can stabilize metapopulation dynamics even with limited resources. Cost-effective conservation of semi-open woodland specialists requires balancing local habitat quality enhancement with landscape connectivity maintenance, highlighting the importance of evidence-based management strategies for restoring and maintaining the habitat mosaics upon which these species depend. |
| Dateibeschreibung: | electronic |
| Zugangs-URL: | https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-216427 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111367 |
| Datenbank: | SwePub |
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Nájsť tento článok vo Web of Science | Abstract: | Biodiversity loss is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, with land-use change being the primary driver globally. This crisis is particularly acute for European semi-open woodland specialists, which have declined dramatically following the abandonment of traditional management practices that historically maintained dynamic landscape mosaics. We examined population dynamics and habitat preferences of the threatened woodland brown butterfly (Lopinga achine) in Sweden, combining habitat quality assessments of 139 patches in the core area with 21-year population surveys and metapopulation modeling. We modified the Incidence function model to incorporate habitat quality and projected future dynamics under four management scenarios. The number of occupied patches remained stable until 2010 but then decreased by over 40 % by 2020. Butterfly numbers were highest in ungrazed patches with approximately 70 % tree and shrub cover. Intensive grazing significantly reduced population sizes; however, the absence of management allows succession from open woodlands to closed forests to proceed, eventually leading to local extinctions. Future projections predicted drastic declines in patch occupancy and distribution over the next century without intervention. Strategic management, including selective clearing of overgrown patches every decade, can stabilize metapopulation dynamics even with limited resources. Cost-effective conservation of semi-open woodland specialists requires balancing local habitat quality enhancement with landscape connectivity maintenance, highlighting the importance of evidence-based management strategies for restoring and maintaining the habitat mosaics upon which these species depend. |
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| ISSN: | 00063207 18732917 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111367 |