Conservation potential of abandoned military areas matches that of established reserves: plants and butterflies in the Czech Republic.

Oldrich Cizek,Jiri Koptik,Jaroslav Zamecnik,Tomas Kucera,Pavel Marhoul,Martin Konvicka,Jiri Benes,Zaboj Hrazsky,Pavel Vrba,Olle Terenius

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053124

Abstract

Military training generates frequent and irregular disturbance followed by succession, resulting in fine-scaled mosaics of ecological conditions in military training areas (MTAs). The awareness that MTAs may represent important biodiversity sanctuaries is increasing recently. Concurrently, changes in military doctrine are leading to abandonment of many MTAs, which are being brought under civilian administration and opened for development. We surveyed vascular plants in 43 and butterflies in 41 MTAs in the Czech Republic and compared the records with plants and butterfly records from 301 and 125 nature reserves, respectively. After controlling for effects of area, geography, and climate, we found that plant species richness was equal in the two land use categories; butterfly richness was higher in MTAs; reserves hosted more endangered plants and more endangered butterflies. Ordination analyses, again controlled for potential nuisance effects, showed that MTAs and reserves differed also in species composition. While specialist species of nationally rarest habitat types inclined towards the reserves, MTAs hosted a high representation of endangered species depending on either disturbed ground, or successionaly transient conditions. These patterns reflect the history of the national nature reserves network, and the disturbance-succession dynamics within MTAs. The conservation value of formerly army-used lands is increasingly threatened by abandonment, and conservationists should support either alternative uses mimicking army activities, or sustainable management regimes.

Highlights

Space is the ultimate ecological resource, and habitat loss and degradation represent the major cause of species’ declines [1]
Around 60 training grounds used by heavy armour, and several hundreds infantry training fields, had existed in Czech Republic alone until the 1990s, which allows assuming that thousands such sites could have existed across Europe
The reserves harboured a majority of the Czech Republic flora and butterfly fauna, and the military training areas (MTAs) harboured a tenth of red-listed vascular plants species and a half of red-listed butterflies

Summary

Introduction

Space is the ultimate ecological resource, and habitat loss and degradation represent the major cause of species’ declines [1]. With accelerating biodiversity loss, it has been accepted that reserves should safeguard a maximum of biotic potentials of respective regions to allow for continuation of evolutionary processes [3] and future biodiversity restoration [4], [5]. This view calls for conserving, in addition to natural and seminatural [6] habitats, locations heavily affected by humans, but hosting otherwise rare species or processes [7], [8], [9]. Around 60 training grounds used by heavy armour, and several hundreds infantry training fields, had existed in Czech Republic alone until the 1990s, which allows assuming that thousands such sites could have existed across Europe

Methods

Results

Conclusion