Biodiversity of most dead wood-dependent organisms in thermophilic temperate oak woodlands thrives on diversity of open landscape structures Jakub Horak a,⇑ , Stepan Vodka b , Jiri Kout c , Josef P. Halda d , Petr Bogusch e , Pavel Pech e a Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Department of Forest Protection and Entomology, Kamycka 1176, CZ-165 21 Prague, Czech Republic b Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Branisovska 31, CZ-370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic c University of West Bohemia, Faculty of Education, Department of Biology, Geosciences and Environmental Education, Klatovska 51, CZ-306 19 Plzen, Czech Republic d Muzeum and Gallery of Orlicke Mts., Jiraskova 2, CZ-516 01 Rychnov nad Kneznou, Czech Republic e University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Rokitanskeho 62, CZ-500 03 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic article info Article history: Received 17 July 2013 Received in revised form 13 December 2013 Accepted 15 December 2013 Available online 11 January 2014 Keywords: Lichens (Lichenes) Fungi Beetles (Coleoptera) Aculeata Hymenoptera Saproxylic organisms Biodiversity management abstract Oak and mixed deciduous forests with oaks are the most widespread woodland types in the central European lowlands. The aim of this study was to analyse how the biodiversity of saproxylic organisms (fungi, lichens, beetles, and ants, bees and wasps) in thermophilic temperate oak woodlands respond to the openness in landscape structure of tree habitats. We sampled 32 sites in a split-plot design in Kri- voklatsko (Czech Republic), which were chosen to include spatial diversity, including dense forests, open forests, woodland edges and solitary trees. A canonical correspondence analyses (CCA) and generalized additive models (GAM) were used for analyses. The results indicated that the taxa studied showed differ- ences in species composition among the studied landscape structures and most taxa preferred more open and light conditions of the woodland environment. We also observed positive effect of the heterogeneity in open landscape structures on biodiversity of saproxylic organisms. As it is recently showed by ecolo- gists, most of the thermophilic oak woodlands are threatened by succession, saproxylic organisms are facing decline throughout the world and traditional forest management (e.g. game keeping, wood pastur- ing or coppicing) appears to be one solution to mitigate biodiversity loss. Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Many parts of the Earth are facing biodiversity loss and many places important for their biological legacy are negatively affected by the homogenisation and intensification of recent environmental management methods (Vitousek et al., 1997; Dirzo and Raven, 2003). Many species are predicted to be lost before they have been explored for science, and in the best case scenario, specimens are at least currently preserved in several museum collections around the world (Ponder et al., 2001; Horak et al., 2012). The number of threatened species is increasing and these species are losing their former strongholds and survive on the edges of their distribution areas (Channell and Lomolino, 2000). Many formerly common spe- cies and their habitats have been vanishing on various landscape scales (Konvicka et al., 2008). However, in contrast, some species are increasing in abundance and distribution (e.g. extralimitally) or are colonising new disjunctive areas (Kloot, 1984). Most proba- ble causes are changes in land use and climate (Horak et al., 2013a). Woodlands dominated by oaks are recently facing the abandon- ment of traditional forest management, and the modern forest man- agement of high forests (Peterken, 1993) together with artificial regeneration are probably factors that have jeopardized their main- tenance (Mielikainen and Hynynen, 2003). Wide areas of woodlands at lower altitudes have been pastured in the past by domestic ani- mals (cattle, pigs, sheeps and goats), intensively coppiced or copp- iced with standards, gathered for litter, used for game keeping and hunting and many disparate management types have created the fine mosaic of woodland patch types in which many species thrive (Vera, 2000; Horak et al., 2012). The abandonment of such manage- ment activities and the creation of conservation areas with unman- aged oaks have led to the expansion of early successional tree species such as birch, which shade lower canopy strata and overgrow soli- tary trees with limbs in the lower canopy (Ranius and Jansson, 2000). A similar problem is observed with maples and ashes on high nutrient soils, beech at high altitudes on mesic (or deep) soils and with conifers (spruce and pine) artificially planted under the oak canopy (Hofmeister et al., 2004; Janik et al., 2011). The loss of formerly common species is reported also from tem- perate oak woodland areas (Buse et al., 2007; Hedl et al., 2010). Oak and mixed deciduous forests with oaks are the most 0378-1127/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2013.12.018 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +420 777838284. E-mail address: jakub.sruby@gmail.com (J. Horak). Forest Ecology and Management 315 (2014) 80–85 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forest Ecology and Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foreco