Challenges and bottlenecks for butterfly conservation in a highly anthropogenic region: Europe's worst case scenario revisited

Abstract

The recent decline in insect diversity and abundance and the consequences for associated ecosystem functioning and services have attracted growing attention. Especially highly anthropogenic regions are affected by rapid biodiversity changes including significant losses. Two decades ago, we suggested that Flanders (northern Belgium) was Europe's worst case scenario for butterfly diversity loss with habitat destruction, fragmentation and nitrogen deposition as major causes (Maes and Van Dyck, 2001). To analyse changes since the second half of the 20th century, we used >2.5 million distribution records to calculate trends in distribution during the last three decades. By linking these trends to the species' ecology using multi-species indicators for a set of ecological and life-history traits, we determined the most important drivers policy makers and nature managers should focus on. Species showing the strongest expansion are woodland specialists and polyphagous species. On the other hand, sedentary species of nutrient-poor biotopes such as heathlands and semi-natural grasslands showed a decreasing trend, despite the ongoing policy focus and conservation efforts. We discuss our results with regard to challenges and bottlenecks for the conservation of butterflies and other insects in anthropogenic regions.