Linear infrastructure habitats increase landscape-scale diversity of plants but not of flower-visiting insects

Juliana Dániel-Ferreira,Riccardo Bommarco,Erik Öckinger,Jörgen Wissman

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-78090-y

Juliana Dániel-Ferreira, Riccardo Bommarco + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78090-y

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
Citations: 11	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Abstract

Habitats along linear infrastructure, such as roads and electrical transmission lines, can have high local biodiversity. To determine whether these habitats also contribute to landscape-scale biodiversity, we estimated species richness, evenness and phylogenetic diversity of plant, butterfly and bumblebee communities in 32 4 km2 landscapes with or without power line corridors, and with contrasting areas of road verges. Landscapes with power line corridors had on average six more plant species than landscapes without power lines, but there was no such effect for butterflies and bumblebees. Plant communities displayed considerable evenness in species abundances both in landscapes with and without power lines and high and low road verge densities. We hypothesize that the higher number of plant species in landscapes with power line corridors is due to these landscapes having a higher extinction debt than the landscapes without power line corridors, such that plant diversity is declining slower in landscapes with power lines. This calls for targeted conservation actions in semi-natural grasslands within landscapes with power line corridors to maintain biodiversity and prevent imminent population extinctions.

Highlights

Habitats along linear infrastructure, such as roads and electrical transmission lines, can have high local biodiversity
Species richness within a certain habitat typically increases with area, but it remains unclear if the effect of area on diversity at the patch scale (α diversity) is observed at the landscape scale (Υ diversity, i.e., data pooled among sites within a landscape27)[28]
A total of 2 704 butterfly individuals belonging to 51 species, 1 316 bumblebee individuals belonging to 19 species and 128 species of plants were recorded within the three habitats in the 32 landscapes

Summary

Introduction

Habitats along linear infrastructure, such as roads and electrical transmission lines, can have high local biodiversity To determine whether these habitats contribute to landscape-scale biodiversity, we estimated species richness, evenness and phylogenetic diversity of plant, butterfly and bumblebee communities in 32 4 k m2 landscapes with or without power line corridors, and with contrasting areas of road verges. Given the appropriate abiotic conditions, the plant species composition in verges along linear transportation infrastructure such as railways, roads and power line corridors, can at least to some extent resemble the vegetation in traditionally managed semi-natural grasslands[10,11,12]. Managing linear infrastructure habitats for promoting diversity of plants and pollinators, and for infrastructure maintenance, can be crucial if their core habitat continues to diminish[11,31]

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