insects Article Effects of Landscape Patterns and Their Changes to Species Richness, Species Composition, and the Conservation Value of Odonates (Insecta) Aleš Dolný 1,* , Stanislav Ožana 1,* , Michal Burda 2 and Filip Harabiš 3 1 Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Chittussiho 10, CZ-710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic 2 Institute for Research and Applications of Fuzzy Modeling, University of Ostrava, 30. dubna 22, CZ-701 03 Ostrava, Czech Republic;
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[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] (A.D.);
[email protected] (S.O.) Simple Summary: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between human transforma- tions of land use/land cover and adult dragonfly diversity. Based on previous studies, we assumed that with increasing rates of environmental degradation and declining levels of naturalness, the representation of species with high conservation value would significantly decrease, which, however, would not affect the regional alpha diversity. Our results have shown that species richness did not correspond to habitat naturalness, but the occurrence of endangered species was significantly positively correlated with increasing naturalness; thus, habitat degradation and/or the level of naturalness significantly affected species composition, while species richness remained unchanged. Citation: Dolný, A.; Ožana, S.; Based on our analyses, it is evident that most natural areas, and therefore the least affected areas, Burda, M.; Harabiš, F. Effects of provide suitable conditions for the largest number of endangered species.