Abstract
Butterflies and Orthoptera are common bioindicators for biodiversity and land use.In Europe they largely rely on seminatural and managed grasslands to sustain their diversity. Currently, land use changes and management intensification are posing amajor threat and evaluating the effect of common land use practices on these communities is thus of great importance. We compare communities occurring across different land use types, including differently managed grasslands, plantations, arable land and urban areas along an elevation (214 –2455 m a.s.l.).
We expect a high diversity within extensive high nature value (HNV) grassland with gradual erosion along elevation and increased management disturbance.
Consequently, we expected that local subsidies for extensiveland use would also be positive for insect conservation.