Abstract
Landscape heterogeneity is regarded as a key factor for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in production landscapes. We investigated whether grassland sites at close vicinity to forested areas are more frequently used by bats. Considering that bats are important consumers of herbivorous insects, including agricultural pest, this is important for sustainable land management. Bat activity and species richness were assessed using repeated monitoring from May to September in 2010 with acoustic monitoring surveys on 50 grassland sites in the Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin (North-East Germany). Using spatial analysis (GIS), we measured the closest distance of each grassland site to potentially connecting landscape elements (e.g., trees, linear vegetation, groves, running and standing water). In addition, we assessed the distance to and the percent land cover of forest remnants and urban areas in a 200 m buffer around the recording sites to address differences in the local landscape setting. Species richness and bat activity increased significantly with higher forest land cover in the 200 m buffer and at smaller distance to forested areas. Moreover, species richness increased in proximity to tree groves. Larger amount of forest land cover and smaller distance to forest also resulted in a higher activity of bats on grassland sites in the beginning of the year during May, June and July. Landscape elements near grassland sites also influenced species composition of bats and species richness of functional groups (open, edge and narrow space foragers). Our results highlight the importance of forested areas, and suggest that agricultural grasslands that are closer to forest remnants might be better buffered against outbreaks of agricultural pest insects due to higher species richness and higher bat activity. Furthermore, our data reveals that even for highly mobile species such as bats, a very dense network of connecting elements within the landscape is beneficial to promote activity in open areas and thus assure vital ecosystem function in agricultural landscapes.
Highlights
Within the cultural landscapes of Central Europe, natural vegetation cover has been largely replaced by managed agricultural areas [1] and fragments of production forest systems [2,3]
We unambiguously identified echolocation sequences of Pipistrellus nathusii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus pygmeaus, Nyctalus noctula, Eptesicus nilssonii, Myotis myotis, M. nattereri and Barbastella barbastellus (S1 Fig)
Landscape elements revealed a high importance for increased species richness and bat activity above grassland sites (Table 1)
Summary
Within the cultural landscapes of Central Europe, natural vegetation cover has been largely replaced by managed agricultural areas [1] and fragments of production forest systems [2,3]. Key structures for maintaining or enhancing structural complexity and local biodiversity and ecosystem service function in agro-ecosystems are landscape elements [7] such as single trees [16], hedges [17] or water bodies [18], as they provide food [19], shelter, breeding and roosting opportunities [20] for many animal species Such landscape elements can serve as corridors and stepping stones connecting suitable habitat patches for many wildlife species [21] with remnants of mature forested areas which might provide a source for species diversity due to higher habitat heterogeneity [22,23]. It is important to understand the effect of different connecting landscape elements on species distribution, and their potential to buffer species declines and decreasing ecosystem service contributions in agricultural landscapes
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