Conservation Potential of Abandoned Military Areas Matches That of Established Reserves: Plants and Butterflies in the Czech Republic

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 1; p. e53124
• Main Authors: Cizek, Oldrich, Vrba, Pavel, Benes, Jiri, Hrazsky, Zaboj, Koptik, Jiri, Kucera, Tomas, Marhoul, Pavel, Zamecnik, Jaroslav, Konvicka, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 09.01.2013; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abandonment; Analysis; Animals; Armor; Arthropoda; Arthropods; Biodiversity; Biology; Butterflies; Butterflies & moths; Butterflies - classification; Butterflies - growth & development; Climate effects; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Czech Republic; Disturbance; Ecological conditions; Ecological effects; Ecological succession; Endangered plants; Endangered Species; Engineering; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Flowers & plants; Geography; Land use; Military; Military aspects; Military Facilities; Military training; Mimicry; Mosaics; Nature reserves; Ordination; Plant species; Plants; Plants (botany); Population Dynamics; Protection and preservation; Regression Analysis; Sanctuaries; Science; Species composition; Species richness; Species Specificity; Sustainability management; Training; Trees - classification; Trees - growth & development; Wildlife conservation; Czech Republic; Europe

Military training generates frequent and irregular disturbance followed by succession, resulting in fine-scaled mosaics of ecological conditions in military training areas (MTAs). The awareness that MTAs may represent important biodiversity sanctuaries is increasing recently. Concurrently, changes i...