SID5 Final Report CR0470[1]

General enquiries on this form should be made to: Defra, Procurements and Contracts Division (Science R&D Team) Telephone No. 0207 238 5734 E-mail: [email protected] SID 5 Research Project Final Report z Note In line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Defra aims to place the results Project identification of its completed research projects in the public domain wherever possible. The CR 0470 SID 5 (Research Project Final Report) is 1. Defra Project code designed to capture the information on the results and outputs of Defra-funded 2. Project title research in a format that is easily Understanding the role of woodland management in the publishable through the Defra website. A conservation of UK BAP moths SID 5 must be completed for all projects. • This form is in Word format and the boxes may be expanded or reduced, as 3. Contractor appropriate. Wildlife Conservation Research Unit organisation(s) (WildCRU, Department of Zoology, z ACCESS TO INFORMATION University of Oxford) The information collected on this form will be stored electronically and may be sent to any part of Defra, or to individual £ 97,460 researchers or organisations outside 4. Total Defra project costs Defra for the purposes of reviewing the (agreed fixed price) project. Defra may also disclose the information to any outside organisation 5. Project: start date ................ 01/06/2010 acting as an agent authorised by Defra to process final research reports on its 31/03/2011 behalf. Defra intends to publish this form end date ................. on its website, unless there are strong reasons not to, which fully comply with exemptions under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Defra may be required to release information, including personal data and commercial information, on request under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, Defra will not permit any unwarranted breach of confidentiality or act in contravention of its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998. Defra or its appointed agents may use the name, address or other details on your form to contact you in connection with occasional customer research aimed at improving the processes through which Defra works with its contractors. SID 5 (Rev. 07/10) Page 1 of 30 6. It is Defra’s intention to publish this form. Please confirm your agreement to do so. ........................................................................................................ YES (a) When preparing SID 5s contractors should bear in mind that Defra intends that they be made public. They should be written in a clear and concise manner and represent a full account of the research project which someone not closely associated with the project can follow. Defra recognises that in a small minority of cases there may be information, such as intellectual property or commercially confidential data, used in or generated by the research project, which should not be disclosed. In these cases, such information should be detailed in a separate annex (not to be published) so that the SID 5 can be placed in the public domain. Where it is impossible to complete the Final Report without including references to any sensitive or confidential data, the information should be included and section (b) completed. NB: only in exceptional circumstances will Defra expect contractors to give a "No" answer. In all cases, reasons for withholding information must be fully in line with exemptions under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. (b) If you have answered NO, please explain why the Final report should not be released into public domain SID 5 (Rev. 07/10) Page 2 of 30 Executive Summary 7. The executive summary must not exceed 2 sides in total of A4 and should be understandable to the intelligent non-scientist. It should cover the main objectives, methods and findings of the research, together with any other significant events and options for new work. It has become clear that it is not only rare, localised, and specialist species that require conservation action, but common, widespread, and generalist species too. Over recent decades, severe declines have been recorded in a range of taxa for what were once very common species. Evidence suggests that these widespread but declining species need different conservation approaches to those required for rare species. In general, rare species have highly specific resource requirements, which demand targeted conservation management strategies. Because of their generalist character and often broader resource requirements, widespread species need a different approach to address their needs and reverse their population declines. What this approach should consist of is not clear for many taxa. This dichotomy clearly shows up in the species-rich group of moths. In the UK, 81 specialist species are listed as Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Priority species and, in 2007, 71 widespread species showing evidence of rapid and severe declines (i.e. Rothamsted Research national abundance trends over 35 years: >69% decline) were added. This group of widespread but rapidly declining species were identified by species experts as requiring further research. Most of the species within the latter group are to a greater or lesser extent associated with woodland complexes, which include both closed and open areas. As forestry management has changed drastically during the last century, our research investigated the effects of some of these changes on this suite of species. The main objectives of our study focused on increasing the understanding of the effects of currently typical woodland conservation management practices which aim to open up dense, closed woodland structures, in particular coppicing and woodland ride widening, on this study group of widespread but rapidly declining species. The exact cause(s) of their decline is still unknown, and research is urgently needed to inform conservation action at both local management and wider policy levels. We placed light-traps at 36 fixed sites within the Tytherley woodland landscape (Hampshire/Wiltshire border), which represents a unique study area into management requirements for these species since the level of conservation management within this landscape has recently been increased and diversified as part of Butterfly Conservation’s South East Woodlands Project. Six ‘management’ treatments (young/medium/old coppice; wide/standard ride; non-coppiced deciduous ‘standard woodland’) were each represented by six sites, and these were all sampled nine times between July and mid-October 2010. We avoided bias by sampling all management groups every trap night, in equal numbers, and only under suitable weather conditions. The total list amounted to 11,670 individuals from 265 species of larger moth. Thirty-eight of these were part of the study group (891 individuals). Seven woodland species that might have been expected to occur did not and their dramatic national declines (87-97% over 35 years) may well explain their absence. We trapped 249 individuals of fifteen nationally scarce / Red Data Book (RDB) species: Festoon Apoda limacodes, Triangle Heterogenea asella, Mocha Cyclophora annularia, Devon Carpet Lampropteryx otregiata, Great Oak Beauty Hypomecis roboraria, Small Black Arches Meganola strigula, Kent Black Arches Meganola albula, Double Line Mythimna turca, Mere Wainscot Chortodes fluxa, Waved Black Parascotia fuliginaria, White-line Snout Schrankia taenialis, Lunar Yellow Underwing Noctua orbona, Light Crimson Underwing Catocala promissa, and Dark Crimson Underwing Catocala sponsa. The last three of these are also BAP Priority species. A remarkable find was Clifden Nonpareil Catocala fraxini. Seven individuals, both male and female, were trapped on four nights, always near suitable habitat (i.e. mature Aspen trees), pointing strongly towards a local population of this species and confirming its recent re- establishment after it became extinct in Britain in the 1960s. A key finding was that overall abundance was lowest in coppice (characterised by bare ground / exposed conditions) and wide rides (exposed conditions), whereas most moths were found in the sheltered standard rides and standard woodland. Overall species richness was lowest in coppice and highest at standard/wide rides and standard woodland. It has been shown that factors such as bare ground and exposedness impact on ambient temperature and levels of convective cooling for day-flying Lepidoptera. It is hence likely they are also having an impact on activity/occurrence of night-flying Lepidoptera. This overall picture hence contrasts with the one for heliothermic day-flying Lepidoptera (i.e. butterflies and day-flying moths), where open woodland conditions generally mean higher abundance and species richness, due to higher day temperatures, higher solar irradiance, and other key adult and larval resources. A closer look, however, reveals that while this overall picture for larger moths applies to most species, SID 5 (Rev. 07/10) Page 3 of 30 irrespective of their scarcity or national trend, the study group showed the smallest difference in abundance between sheltered and more open sites. Wide woodland rides in particular had relatively high abundance of these rapidly declining species. Also, when dividing the species into groups depending on their level of woodland affinity, we found that the species group without any direct affinity to woodland

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