In Slovenia the False ringlet Coenonympha oedippus uniquely occurs both on wet (Ljubljana Marsh and surroundings) and dry grasslands (Slovenian Istria, Karst, Gorica Hills). Natural hazards that ...threaten its habitats include fires and floods; the frequency of their occurrence in the former and existing habitats of C. oedippus was determined using the χ2-test. We showed that habitats on wet grasslands are less threatened by fire than those on dry grasslands. Among the latter, habitats in the Karst and Slovenian Istria are the most threatened. Habitats of C. oedippus are threatened by flooding only in Slovenian Istria and Ljubljana Marsh. Considering the extent of fire and flood risk and fragmentation of C. oedippus habitats in Slovenia, we assume that such natural hazards may lead to local extinction of the species.
Maintenance of traditional cultural landscapes largely depends on traditional agricultural practices, which are nowadays in decline as a result of increasingly intensive and mechanised land use. ...Losing traditional practices may result in impoverishing of picturesque mosaic landscape and biodiversity. This research focuses on land-use changes in two time periods (2002–2008; 2013–2016) and effects of changes reflecting on populations of critically endangered butterfly. False Ringlet,
(Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), is a habitat specialist, which in Slovenia inhabits two geographically distinct contrasting habitats – dry meadows in south-western and wetlands in central Slovenia. We compared nine environmental parameters to assess environmental differences, which shape species habitat; seven parameters significantly differ among the four geographical regions and five among the two habitat types. Four parameters significantly differ (i.e. at least in two regions) when tested for homogeneity, while in dry habitat type all (except slope) were significant and none in wet habitat. Changes in land use in two studied periods lit up two processes: transformation of meadows into agricultural land and overgrowing of the meadows, both processes affecting species severely. We believe that maintaining of traditional landscapes in future could serve as a good conservation practice for this endangered species.
PDF