Abstract
Appropriate vegetation management in semi-natural grasslands can provide important habitats for grassland species. However, an increasing number of semi-natural grasslands are being abandoned worldwide due to changes in lifestyle and resource use, which has resulted in a drastic decline in grassland-dependent species. Ski pistes can function as important habitats for various grassland flora and fauna, but they have been increasingly closed because of climate change and population decline. However, it remains unclear how the abandonment of pistes affects biodiversity. Here, we examined how butterfly communities change with time since the abandonment of pistes in Japan. We assessed the species richness and abundance of grassland, ruderal, and forest butterflies; vegetation height; and the amount of food resources for larval and adult butterflies on both abandoned and active pistes. We then analyzed the relationships between butterfly species richness and abundance and years since abandonment to explore their potential drivers. The species richness and abundance of grassland and ruderal butterflies were negatively related to years since piste abandonment, whereas those of forest butterflies were highest in pistes abandoned for around 10 years. We also found that butterfly species richness and abundance were largely explained by vegetation height and food resource availability. Our results indicate that the abandonment of pistes likely negatively affects the butterfly communities in these environments. Regular vegetation management could mitigate the biodiversity loss caused by abandonment.
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Acknowledgements
This study was partly funded by the Zoshinkai Fund for the Protection of Endangered Animals, Japan, and the Institute of Global Innovation Research, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
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Partial financial support was received from the Zoshinkai Fund for the Protection of Endangered Animals, Japan, and the Institute of Global Innovation Research, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
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Conceptualization and Methodology: Kazuhito Oki, Masashi Soga, Tatsuya Amano, Shinsuke Koike; Formal analysis, Investigation, and Writing—original draft preparation: Kazuhito Oki; Writing—review and editing: Kazuhito Oki, Masashi Soga, Tatsuya Amano, Shinsuke Koike; Funding acquisition: Kazuhito Oki. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Oki, K., Soga, M., Amano, T. et al. Abandonment of ski pistes impoverishes butterfly communities. Biodivers Conserv 31, 2083–2096 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02422-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02422-9