White-faced Darter distribution is associated with coniferous forests in Great Britain
Affiliation
Conservation Biology Research Group, Department of Biological Science, University of Chester, Chester, CH1 4BJPublication Date
2020-08-11
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Abstract 1) Understanding of dragonfly distributions is often geographically comprehensive but less so in ecological terms. 2) White-faced darter (Leucorhinnia dubia) is a lowland peatbog specialist dragonfly which has experienced population declines in Great Britain. White-faced darter are thought to rely on peat-rich pool complexes within woodland but this has not yet been empirically tested. 3) We used dragonfly recording data collected by volunteers of the British Dragonfly Society from 2005 to 2018 to model habitat preference for white-faced darter using species distribution models across Great Britain and, with a more detailed landcover dataset, specifically in the North of Scotland. 4) Across the whole of Great Britain our models used the proportion of coniferous forest within 1km as the most important predictor of habitat suitability but were not able to predict all current populations in England. 5) In the North of Scotland our models were more successful and suggest that habitats characterised by native coniferous forest and areas high potential evapotranspiration represent the most suitable habitat for white-faced darter. 6) We recommend that future white-faced darter monitoring should be expanded to include areas currently poorly surveyed but with high suitability in the North of Scotland. 7) Our results also suggest that white-faced darter management should concentrate on maintaining Sphagnum rich pool complexes and the maintenance and restoration of native forests in which these pool complexes occur.Citation
Geary, M. & Hardenberg, A. (2020). White-faced Darter distribution is associated with coniferous forests in Great Britain. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 14(1), 15-25Publisher
WileyAdditional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/icad.12438Type
ArticleISSN
1752-458XEISSN
1752-4598ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/icad.12438
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