title: Additional disturbances as a beneficial tool for restoration of post-mining sites: a multi-taxa approach.
abstract: Open interior sands represent a highly threatened habitat in Europe. In recent times, their associated organisms have often found secondary refuges outside their natural habitats, mainly in sand pits. We investigated the effects of different restoration approaches, i.e. spontaneous succession without additional disturbances, spontaneous succession with additional disturbances caused by recreational activities, and forestry reclamation, on the diversity and conservation values of spiders, beetles, flies, bees and wasps, orthopterans and vascular plants in a large sand pit in the Czech Republic, Central Europe. Out of 406 species recorded in total, 112 were classified as open sand specialists and 71 as threatened. The sites restored through spontaneous succession with additional disturbances hosted the largest proportion of open sand specialists and threatened species. The forestry reclamations, in contrast, hosted few such species. The sites with spontaneous succession without disturbances represent a transition between these two approaches. While restoration through spontaneous succession favours biodiversity in contrast to forestry reclamation, additional disturbances are necessary to maintain early successional habitats essential for threatened species and open sand specialists. Therefore, recreational activities seem to be an economically efficient restoration tool that will also benefit biodiversity in sand pits.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic. klara.rehounkova@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Klára
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Řehounková
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lukáš
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Čížek
authors.affiliation: Calla-Association for Preservation of the Environment, Fráni Šrámka 35, 370 01, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jiří
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Řehounek
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Šebelíková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tropek
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Kamila
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lencová
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové, Rokitanského 62, 500 03, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bogusch
authors.affiliation: Beleco, Slezská 125, 130 00, Praha 3, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marhoul
authors.affiliation: , Na Potoce 276, 391 81, Veselí nad Lužnicí, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Máca
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D018153:Czech Republic; D016468:Forestry; D008906:Mining; D010944:Plants; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Biodiversity conservation; Human-made habitats; Post-industrial sites; Restoration ecology; Sand mining; Trampling management