Insect diversity through grazing: Status quo in Frankenhausen and on the Brodowin nature conservation farm (2021)

Brief Description:

Cow dung produced by cattle grazing produces a highly diverse insect fauna. The insect biomass produced by "on-site manure recycling" on rangelands is estimated to be > 100 kg per cow & year. These micro biotopes are lacking in livestock-less field forage areas with cut use and thus downstream food webs. The project collects baseline data on the species inventories of both land use variants on two organic farms with long-term dairy farming and is set in the context of "insect mortality in agricultural landscapes".

The aim of the research is to compare data on insect diversity on pasture and forage cropland at two pedoclimatically very different sites and to record the actual status of the indicator communities. The project represents the first inventory of the coprobiont and pedological insect fauna (dung beetles with bycatch to order level) for both farms. The evaluations are initially carried out according to species numbers and abundance in comparison with the respective endangerment classifications (Red List species). Methods used for screening (graded wet sieving and dry expulsion of dung beetle fauna in cow patties, flight selectors for permanent recording of flying insects, ground traps for recording ground beetles, light trapping with black light source and visual evaluation) are tested and optimized.