11th Symposium on the Conservation of Saproxylic Insects

Main theme

This conference will be held under the main theme Disturbances and saproxylic insects. We highly encourage all authors to submit presentations and posters related to this problem. However, other topics related to diversity, ecology and conservation of saproxylic insects are also accepted.

Background

Protected areas in forests are essential for biodiversity conservation. In practice, forest areas in national parks and reserves are often subject to strict protection. One of the main positive effects of this strategy is increased amount of dead wood in the forest – a key resource for saproxylic organisms, including large proportion of insects. Increasing dead wood volume has been acknowledged as a factor enhancing populations of saproxylic insects. At the same time, many saproxylic insects require disturbances that create specific ecological conditions in the forest, e.g., diversified dead wood and increased sun exposure. However, natural disturbances (i.e., wind, fire, insect outbreaks) are a relatively rare and unpredictable phenomena which often occur in a limited spatial scale. This may lead to the decrease of structural heterogeneity of the forest due to natural succession and, in turn, may have detrimental effect on many saproxylic insects. It is particularly important for species which breed in sun-exposed trees and for taxa associated with early successional stages of forest development. This process is evident in some protected forests in Europe, where negative effects of scarcity of natural disturbances are exacerbated by the exclusion of disturbances related to human activity. In conclusion, future conservation strategies and management plans should take into consideration diversified means of protection in the forests.