Hornung, Elisabeth, Szent Istvan University, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Institute for Biology; Ferenc Vilisics, Faculty of Bio- and Environmental Sciences, Urban Ecology Research Group, Univer; Zita Kemencei, National Institute for Environment; Peter Sólymos, University of Alberta, Edmonton
A scoring method for habitat quality assessment based on occurrence and abundance of soil invertebrates
Informed conservation and management actions require the assessment of biodiversity. Invertebrates make up a large and underrepresented portion of biodiversity. Locations with similar vegetation might provide different conditions for soil invertebrates depending on availability of microclimatic shelters, disturbance history and landscape context. Therefore we developed scoring methods for Hungarian terrestrial isopods and gastropods to be used in the habitat quality assessment, thus allowing invertebrates part of the evaluation and decision process. Our scoring methods for species (Mollusc Rarity Index, MRI; Terrestrial Isopod Naturalness Index, TINI) combined range size, national area of occurrence, and tolerance to human disturbance. The habitat based index is the average MRI or TINI score for the species found weighted by their local relative abundance. We tested our indices on data collected from managed and unmanaged forests for gastropods and along an urban- rural gradient for isopods to compare habitat naturalness. Our results generally reiterate the positive relationship between measures of rarity at different spatial scales, but we also provide examples where this expectation was not met. Therefore, habitat quality assessment should rely on different and complementary indices. Incongruences of multiple indices might be useful in identifying potentially idiosyncratic biotas.
Support: TÁMOP 4.2.2./B-10/1-2010-0011 „Development of a complex educational assistance/support system for talented students and prospective researchers at the Szent István University” project.
