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Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests
Version 1
: Received: 28 February 2024 / Approved: 29 February 2024 / Online: 29 February 2024 (10:01:33 CET)
How to cite:
Berberich, G.M.; Berberich, M.B. Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests. Preprints2024, 2024021681. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.1681.v1
Berberich, G.M.; Berberich, M.B. Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests. Preprints 2024, 2024021681. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.1681.v1
Berberich, G.M.; Berberich, M.B. Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests. Preprints2024, 2024021681. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.1681.v1
APA Style
Berberich, G.M., & Berberich, M.B. (2024). Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.1681.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Berberich, G.M. and Martin B. Berberich. 2024 "Re-inventories at two study sites in the Oberpfalz (Bavaria, Germany): Increase in RWA nests, herb biodiversity and dead wood in sustainably managed forests" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202402.1681.v1
Abstract
The outstanding occurrences of red wood ant nests (RWA; Formica rufa-group) at two study sites in the Oberpfalz, NE Bavaria, Germany, could be confirmed by the 2023 re-inventory (a total of 5,393 nests and an increase by ≈8 %). RWA nests preferred mature and medium mature pine-dominated forests. Standing and downed dead wood do not negatively influence nests. Nest counts with woodpecker cavities and the diversity of the herb layer increased. The highly clustered nests in NW-SE direction suggests a strong interaction between nests distributions and the tectonic environment. Our developed (re-)inventory approach in combination with the comprehensive photo database is a valuable tool for a) monitoring the entire forest habitat including woodpecker cavities and dead wood in, at and around nests, and b) identifying GeoBio-Interactions. Such a comprehensive approach leads to more accurate and realistic counts of RWA nests during (re-)inventories and provides scientific evidence of the status quo of RWA occurrence. Our results disproved the unfounded and scientifically unsubstantiated blanket statement by laymen of the ASW Landesverband Bayern e.V. that RWA nest numbers in the Oberpfalz or even in the entire Bavaria are in sharp decline. We suggest seven to eight years as a suitable time interval for re-inventories.
Keywords
re-inventory; red wood ants; dead wood; woodpecker; forest habitat; tree age; tree species; natural restocking, GeoBio-Interactions; Erbendorfer fault line
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Ecology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
