You have full access to this open access article. Coppice forests are socio-ecological systems especially rich in biodiversity. They have been transformed into high forest and abandoned across large areas of Europe over the past years. Coppice loss is likely an important driver of insect declines. It is currently unclear whether habitat quality or decreasing connectivity of the remaining fragments is more important for the survival of insect populations.
We related the abundance of two coppice-associated butterflies of conservation concern, Satyrium ilicis and Melitaea athalia , to indicators of habitat quality and habitat connectivity. Both species reached abundance peaks within four to six years after the last cut, declining rapidly in abundance with subsequent succession.
Besides stand age, the cover of larval foodplants explained predicted butterfly densities well. Only Satyrium ilicis benefitted from high Red Deer densities. Implications for insect conservation: Our results suggest that habitat quality and sufficient availability of coppice of suitable age matters more than coupe size and fragmentation within a traditional managed coppice landscape.
Coppice restoration aiming at the study species should ensure a shifting mosaic of successional habitat to provide a large availability of resprouting oak stools and bilberry vegetation that holds dense Melampyrum pratense stands.
Habitat loss through anthropogenic land-use change is the most important driver of biodiversity decline globally Jaureguiberry et al. Habitat loss has large, consistently negative effects on biodiversity Fahrig The effects of habitat fragmentation are less clear. Habitat fragmentation is often defined as the division of habitat into smaller and more isolated fragments, separated by a matrix of human-transformed land cover Haddad et al.
