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Can highland habitat type distributions replace mapping of harvestman species?

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Abstract

In nature conservation, providing new, advanced knowledge of protected habitats and biota often requires extensive sampling, which contradicts the main goal of minimizing damage and disturbance. How to avoid this innate collision was the main concern in our study. Highland habitats are suitable for addressing this problem, since they are relatively species-poor and therefore easier to analyze. Invertebrate distributions are, to some extent, expected to vary congruently with habitat type (HT) distributions. However, studies of such effects are scarce. In this study we researched harvestmen (Opiliones) in highland habitats above 1,800 m in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, a Natura 2000 area in Slovenia. The question was whether mapping of HT distributions could predict the presence of the harvestman species and replace their laborious mapping. For this purpose, we studied relationships between the HT distributions and the harvestman species distributions with respect to environmental conditions. Chao2 and Jackknife1 were found to provide the best estimates of total species diversity. In assessing the species richness, the incidence-based approach was applied. No indicator harvestman species for the HTs, and no statistical difference was found in the harvestman community structure of three most frequently inhabited HTs. Most HTs and harvestman species responded gradually and in parallel to the changing environmental conditions along the altitudinal gradient, revealing covariation of their distributions. Hence, knowledge of highland HT distributions cannot replace the mapping of harvestmen.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Marko Goličnik, Saška Lipovšek, Bernarda Pačnik, Matej Pačnik, Jure Tostovršnik and Marija Verbuč for help with the field investigations. We are indebted to Axel Schönhofer for a substantial revision of the initial version of the manuscript and help with Trogulus determinations. We are grateful to Michelle Gadpaille for valuable improvements to the language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Tone Novak, Franc Janžekovič, Danijel Ivajnšič & Sonja Škornik

  2. Brezje 28, 3330, Mozirje, Slovenia

    Mihaela Rak

  3. Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Karst Research Institute, Titov trg 2, 6230, Postojna, Slovenia

    Peter Kozel

  4. UNESCO Chair on Karst Education, University of Nova Gorica, Glavni trg 8, 5271, Vipava, Slovenia

    Peter Kozel

  5. Ozare 31, 2380, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia

    Ljuba Slana Novak

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  1. Tone Novak
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Correspondence to Tone Novak.

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Novak, T., Janžekovič, F., Rak, M. et al. Can highland habitat type distributions replace mapping of harvestman species?. J Insect Conserv 21, 331–343 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-017-9979-x

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