title: Life History Traits Reflect Changes in Mediterranean Butterfly Communities Due to Forest Encroachment.
abstract: The biodiversity of the Southern Balkans, part of the Mediterranean global biodiversity hot-spot, is threatened by land use intensification and abandonment, the latter causing forest encroachment of formerly open habitats. We investigated the impact of forest encroachment on butterfly species richness, community species composition and the representation of life history traits by repeated seasonal visits of 150 one-hectare sites in five separate regions in three countries-Greece, Bulgaria, and the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM-the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)- 10 replicates for each habitat type of grasslands, open formations and scrub forest within each region. Grasslands and open formations sites hosted in average more species and more red-listed species than scrub forest, while no pattern was found for numbers of Mediterranean species. As shown by ordination analyses, each of the three habitat types hosted distinct butterfly communities, with Mediterranean species inclining either towards grasslands or open formations. Analysing the representation of life history traits revealed that successional development from grasslands and open formations towards scrub forest shifts the community composition towards species overwintering in earlier stages, having fewer generations per year, and inhabiting large European or Eurosiberian (e.g. northern) ranges; it decreases the representation of Mediterranean endemics. The loss of grasslands and semi-open formations due to forest encroachment thus threatens exactly the species that should be the focus of conservation attention in the Mediterranean region, and innovative conservation actions to prevent ongoing forest encroachment are badly needed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Slancarova
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bartonova
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zapletal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kotilinek
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Faltynek Fric
authors.affiliation: Macedonian Entomological Society (ENTOMAK), Skopje, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
authors.forename: Nikola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Micevski
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Patras, Agrinio, Greece.
authors.forename: Vasiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kati
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konvicka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002080:Butterflies / Q000254:growth & development*; D065928:Forests; D005843:Geography; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D019083:Mediterranean Region; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013045:Species Specificity