Saproxylische Arten in der Schweiz: ökologisches Potenzial und Hotspots | Saproxylic species in Switzerland: Ecological potential and hotspots

Abstract

The conservation of species diversity has become one of the priorities of Swiss forest policy. Conservation also includes a strategy of promoting saproxylic species. The occurrence of old and dead wood in Switzerland is mostly confined to the alpine regions, and – but only in insufficient quantities – in some areas of the Plateau. A modelling and accumulation of the habitat maps of 55 saproxylic species of various taxonomic groups(birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, molluscs, fungi and lichens)show that the greatest potential for promotion for such species exists above all in the Jura and on the Swiss Plateau. Regions where many of the so-called saproxylic hotspots occur and where simultaneous ecological deficits of old and dead wood exist should be the first places where measures are taken to promote old and dead wood dependant species.