Lukas Cizek

Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences · Institute of Entomology

Veteran and ancient trees are key structures sustaining biodiversity in wooded landscapes. Their value depends on tree‐related microhabitats (TreMs) such as hollows, cracks and other structures related to wounds and wood decay. Decline and loss of veteran trees results in the loss of TreMs thus threatening the biodiversity associated with them. Vet...

During the last decades, a massive bark beetle outbreak has caused Norway spruce (Picea abies) diebacks across Central Europe, including the Czech Republic. This situation is much studied with respect to the dynamics of the pests, operations in forest planting and economic and societal impacts. In stark contrast, studies of biodiversity consequence...

Plant invasions threaten native biodiversity, but detailed information on patterns and mechanisms of diversity changes across multitrophic levels remains unknown. Alien plants can reduce richness of native plants, thereby negatively affecting arthropods and their multitrophic interactions. In particular, tall invasive trees may limit native underst...

Aim The biogeography of European forests presents many interesting case studies, as inferred from phylogeography, contemporary population genetics, and distribution modelling of saproxylic species. Here, we pose four main hypotheses: (i) the phylogeographic paradigm known for temperate species in Europe is also applicable for saproxylic taxa; (ii)...

Organisms have evolved different defense mechanisms, such as crypsis and mimicry, to avoid detection and recognition by predators. A prominent example is Batesian mimicry, where palatable species mimic unpalatable or toxic ones, such as Clytini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) that mimic wasps. However, scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Batesi...

Plant succession is a fundamental process of vegetation recovery on disturbed sites. Elucidating its mechanisms remains a challenge as succession is influenced by stochastic and deterministic processes related to abiotic and biotic filters. Here, we use a multifaceted diversity approach to reveal mechanisms of successional changes in European oak-h...

Eurythyrea quercus (Herbst, 1780) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a species associated with old oaks and open woodlands. It can be found throughout Europe except for its northwest, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. Due to its habitat requirements, the species is rare and its distribution is highly fragmented. In the Czech Republic, it is found in So...

Invasions of alien plants pose a serious threat to native biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Forests are considered more resistant to invasion due to limited light availability in understories. However, disturbance and abiotic stress may open tree canopies and promote invasion. Their combined effects together with the resistance of resident spec...

Recent progress in the taxonomy of flat bark beetles (Cucujidae), specifically, in the genus Cucujus, has revealed great diversity in subtropical Asia, but the seemingly well-known temperate and boreal taxa need further attention because of their conservation status. Here, we used an integrative approach using morphology, DNA, and species distribut...

Aim Understanding the processes that structure biological communities along environmental gradients remains one of the main aims of ecological research. A leading question is how differences in species composition between sites, that is, β‐diversity, change in habitats ordered along environmental gradients and how such changes vary with species rel...

Forest set‐aside is a commonly employed conservation strategy, but large‐scale disturbances regularly evoke discussions on its utility for biodiversity conservation in former production forests. In this study, we reconstructed the return of a primeval forest specialist, the beetle Peltis grossa (Linnaeus, 1758) of the family Trogossitidae, to two n...

Here we report the results of a survey of saproxylic beetles at fifteen nature reserves located in the Protected Landscape Area Blanský les (NR Dívčí kámen, NR Chrášťanský vrch, NR Jaronínská bučina, NR Kleť, NR Malá skála, NR Ptačí stěna, NR Vysoká Běta), in the Protected Landscape Area Třeboňsko (NNM Písečný přesyp u Vlkova, NR Horní Lužnice, NR...

Use of ivermectin in agro-ecosystems negatively affects non-target dung beetles, which provide keystone ecosystem services for pasture functioning. While the direct effects of ivermectin on dung beetles are at the center of scientific attention, its long-lasting effects on routinely treated pastures have not yet been studied on real communities and...

Invasive, alien trees threaten native biodiversity, but detailed information about the patterns and mechanisms of diversity loss remain unknown. We explored the impact of an invasive tree on vascular plants and saproxylic beetles. We compared their species richness, community composition, and selected biological characteristics between stands of in...

European forests are facing a rapid decline in light‐demanding biota. This has prompted active interventions to re‐establish and maintain partial habitat openness in protected areas. Managers of protected areas, however, need substantially more scientific evidence to support their decisions on where, when and how to intervene. We investigated the i...

The diversity of dung beetles and the effect of antiparasitic drug administration were studied at 6 sites in southern part of Bohemian Forest during spring, summer and autumn 2018. In total 20 species of Scarabaeidae (n = 9430) and 4 species of Geotrupidae (n = 85) were collected by floating dung in water. The most abundant species were Melinopteru...

Herein, we report results of dung beetle survey conducted at 23 sites in the central and western part of the Šumava National Park. This was the second year of investigations aimed at assessing richness and distribution of dung beetles in the park and their response to antiparasitic medication in livestock. In each of the 23 pastures, all dung beetl...

Background The hermit beetle (Osmoderma barnabita) is an internationally protected specialist of tree hollows considered a relic of primeval forests. The backbone of its distribution in eastern Czechia, however, is a system of pollard willows in intensively farmed lowlands. Pollarding, a traditional agroforestry practice inducing formation of tree...

Identification of forest stands with priority for the conservation of biodiversity is of particular importance in landscapes with a long cultural and agricultural history, such as Central Europe. A group of species with a high indicator value for the naturalness of forest ecosystems are saproxylic insects. Some of these species, especially within t...

Ořezávané stromy bývaly nedílnou součástí krajiny. Jsou dokonalou ukázkou velmi intenzivního a přitom dokonale udržitelného hospodaření, které navíc staví docela na hlavu naše představy o tom, jak intenzivní hospodaření škodí přírodě. Porosty ořezávaných stromů jsou totiž přírodně neuvěřitelně bohatá stanoviště. V počtu dutin nebo nabídce obnaženéh...

Rosalia alpina adults (Linnaeus, 1758) (Insecta, Coleoptera) avoid direct sunlight. Adults of the threatened beetle species Rosalia alpina are usually associated with sun–exposed dead wood. In previous fieldwork, however, we frequently found adult beetles on shaded surfaces of trees. We thus studied whether adults preferred different lightning cond...

Adults of the threatened beetle species Rosalia alpina are usually associated with sun–exposed dead wood. In previous fieldwork, however, we frequently found adult beetles on shaded surfaces of trees. We thus studied whether adults preferred different lightning conditions depending on their behavior on 447 beech trees located in four forests in two...

NP Podyjí zoufale potřebuje návrat přírodních procesů, které zásadním způsobem utvářely jeho dnešní biotu. Prosazení pastvy a zejména ohně nebude snadné. Ale právě od toho národní parky máme. Když už se podařilo prosadit nezbytnou svobodu pro šumavské kůrovce, mělo by být zajištění vhodného režimu disturbancí v NP Podyjí vlastně „malina“. Pokud jeh...

Large veteran trees are key structures sustaining biodiversity in wooded landscapes. Many organisms associated with such trees are, however, also able to inhabit suitable trees with smaller diameters or other surrogate habitats. Understanding the mechanisms behind the importance of veteran trees and the conditions enabling veteran tree specialists...

Identification of forest stands with priority for the conservation of biodiversity is of particular importance in landscapes with a long cultural and agricultural history, such as Central Europe. A group of species with a high indicator value for the naturalness of forest ecosystems are saproxylic insects. Some of these species, especially within t...

Veteran and solitary trees are key structures supporting biodiversity in many wooded ecosystems. Their global decline threatens numerous organisms associated with them, including several insect species protected by law that serve as umbrella species. The floodplain along the lower Morava and Dyje rivers is considered a hotspot for saproxylic organi...

Není tomu tak dávno, co velká část českých lesů vypadala značně jinak než dnes. Namísto hustého, zapojeného lesa prolnutého mozaikou holých sečí mnohde rostly otevřené, různě strukturované porosty, dnes bychom snad řekli parkového typu. V jejich specifických podmínkách se dařilo mnohým druhům, které dnes patří k těm u nás nejohroženějším. Za jejich...

Knowledge about tree age is critical to forestry, nature conservation and ecological studies. Direct age determination of large diameter trees through increment cores is complicated by various obstacles, primarily because of rot and insufficient borer length. Here, we aim to (1) test the accuracy of various methods (tree-ring width, basal area incr...

Temperate open woodlands are recognized as biodiversity hotspots. They are characterised by the presence of scattered, open-grown, often old and large trees (hereafter referred to as ‘‘solitary trees”). Such trees are considered keystone ecological features for biodiversity. However, the ecological role of solitary trees and their importance for wo...

Otevřené (řídké) lesy a (polo)přirozené travní porosty patří k ochranářsky nejcennějším ekosystémům Česka, místům s největší biodiverzitou i koncentrací ohrožených a chráněných druhů. Proto je otázka jejich historie, vývoje, krajinných změn a vhodného managementu důležitou a aktuálně řešenou problematikou. Práce popisuje změnu krajinného krytu v ně...

Kdo byl v posledních několika letech na návštěvě v národním parku Podyjí a procházel se na straně rakouského parku po stezce přímo kolem řeky Dyje, mohl si všimnout, že na české straně jsou na některých místech v lese skoro až pravidelné čtvercové paseky, dokonce mohl na některé z nich zaznamenat člověka se síťkou na motýly. Někdo by se snad i podi...

Open interior sands represent a highly threatened habitat in Europe. In recent times, their associated organisms have often found secondary refuges outside their natural habitats, mainly in sand pits. We investigated the effects of different restoration approaches, i.e. spontaneous succession without additional disturbances, spontaneous succession...

Objective: The finer scale patterns of arthropod vertical stratification in forests are rarely studied and poorly understood. Further, there are no studies investigating whether and how altitude affects arthropod vertical stratification in temperate forests. We therefore investigated the fine-scale vertical stratification of diversity and guild st...

List of sampled beetle species. Information on Family, number of specimen in the mountain and lowland forest, sparoxylic status (1: obligatory; 2: facultative; 3: potentially), trophic guild (m: mycetophagous; n: necrophagous; p: phytopagous; s: saprophagous; x: xylophagous; z: zoophagous), red list status (CR: critically endangered; EN: endangered...

This paper deals with land cover changes in the Podyjí National Park area, their causes and their effect on the park’s biodiversity. Maps that served as sources to assess the long term trends showed that forest cover increased from 66.7% in 1841 to 88.5% in 2014. Geodatabases with fine classification of land cover (20 categories including four type...

Efficient conservation management must be applied in protected areas in order to slow the loss of biodiversity in Europe. Regarding forests, a conservation approach based on minimal intervention prevails in most protected woodlands, thus facilitating the expansion of closed-canopy forests at the expense of open forests. To identify effective conser...

Quantifying the spatio-temporal distribution of arthropods in tropical rainforests represents a first step towards scrutinizing the global distribution of biodiversity on Earth. To date most studies have focused on narrow taxonomic groups or lack a design that allows partitioning of the components of diversity. Here, we consider an exceptionally la...

Fourteen microsatellite loci are described for the eastern European hermit beetles, Osmoderma barnabita, a vulnerable and internationally protected species associated with mature hollow trees. Based on 45 individuals from Poland, 13 of 14 loci were polymorphic. The number of alleles per polymorphic locus ranged from 2 to 13, and the observed and ex...

New faunistic records of Rhysodes sulcatus (Fabricius, 1787) and Omoglymmius germari (Ganglbauer, 1892) in Moravia from floodplain forests are presented. These rare and critically endangered species were found always in fallen poplars felled by beavers. It is the second wellknown record of the O. germari from the Czech Republic. Published records o...

Knowledge of patterns of genetic diversity in populations of threatened species is vital for their effective conservation. Rosalia longicorn (Rosalia alpina) is an endangered and strictly protected beetle. Despite a marked decline in part of its range, the beetle has recently expanded to the lowlands of Central Europe. To facilitate a better unders...

Two specialized grazers extirpated by men, wild horse and aurochs, played an important role in shaping of the European landscape, as well as human civilization. Although these two species gave rise to the most important domestic animals, domestic horse and cattle, basic information on their appearance, ecology, evolutionary history and domesticatio...

Return of the European Bison (Bison bonasus) to the Czech Republic: Potential contribution to the national conservation/developmental measures and perspective reintroduction localities. Historical range, species resurrection after the extinction in the wild, and current distribution are reviewed in the context of current knowledge. For the very fir...

Habitat fragmentation is one of the main threats to biodiversity. Reintroductions or translocations may mitigate its effects by allowing species with limited dispersal ability to exploit otherwise inaccessible habitat patches. Despite the fact that reintroductions are among the most effective conservation measures, they are rarely used for inverteb...

Significance Dietary specialization determines an organism’s resource base as well as impacts on host or prey species. There are important basic and applied reasons to ask why some animals have narrow diets and others are more generalized, and if different regions of the Earth support more specialized interactions. We investigated site-specific hos...

Knowledge of the dispersal ability of endangered species is crucial for developing effective, evidence-based conservation policies. Due to their limited dispersal abilities and specific habitat requirements, insects are among the animals most threatened by habitat fragmentation. We studied three populations of the highly endangered species of groun...

Despite its limitations, ethanol remains the most commonly used liquid for the preservation of arthropod specimens and their DNA in the field. Arthropod ecology and taxonomy have witnessed a substantial increase in the use of various trapping and molecular methods in the past two decades. However, the methods of collecting and the preservation liqu...

This study investigated cerambycid long-horned beetles in a lowland tropical forest in Fiji and produced 18 new records of beetle-tree associations along with data on beetle phenology and development times. Beetles were reared from timber baits exposed for 1 month to ovipositing females in the Savura Forest Park, Viti Levu. Twelve native, locally c...

Nine polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and characterized for the Rosalia longicorn, an endangered icon of European saproxylic biodiversity. The detected number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 4, and the observed and expected heterozygosities varied from 0.044 to 0.622, and from 0.086 to 0.613, respectively. All loci were in Hardy...

Ten polymorphic microsatellite loci, developed using next-generation sequencing technology, are described for the Great Capricorn beetle, Cerambyx cerdo; an endangered and internationally protected European longicorn. Based on 30 individuals from South-East Czech Republic, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 8, and the observed and exp...

Spatial distribution of arthropods in woodlands has crucial implications for biodiversity conservation and forest management. However, its determinants are insufficiently known. In particular, studies on arthropod vertical distribution in temperate woodlands report contrasting patterns that are difficult to explain in the current theoretical framew...

V posledních dvaceti letech se v Evropě racionalizuje péče o krajinu. Jedním z nejrozšířenějších opatření je údržba bezlesí pastvou skotu, koní a v poslední době též zubrů. Stále méně se tak uplatňuje rozšířené, avšak extrémně nákladné a neefektivní napodobování přírodních procesů sečením. Česká republika je v tomto ohledu v evropském i světovém mě...

Trees with hollows are key features sustaining biodiversity in wooded landscapes. They host rich assemblages of often highly specialised organisms. Hollow trees, however, have become rare and localised in Europe. Many of the associated biota is thus declining or endangered. The challenge of its conservation, therefore, is to safeguard the presence...

Open woodlands are among the biologically richest habitats of the temperate zone. Although open woodlands were much more common in the past and covered large areas of Europe, their original cover and magnitude of their loss remain mostly unknown. Here, we quantify the loss of open woodlands and assess the potential for their restoration in an inter...

Assessing Creepy Crawlies Arthropods are the most diverse group of terrestrial animal species, yet estimates of the total number of arthropod species have varied widely, especially for tropical forests. Basset et al. (p. 1481 , see the cover) now provide more reliable estimates of total arthropod species richness in a tropical rainforest in Panama....

The great capricorn beetle or Cerambyx longicorn (Cerambyx cerdo, Linnaeus, 1758) is an internationally protected umbrella species representing the highly diverse and endangered fauna associated with senescent oaks. For the conservation and monitoring of populations of C. cerdo it is important to have a good knowledge of its microhabitat requiremen...

Temperate grasslands are local biodiversity hotspots. In Europe, their extent was mostly reduced to isolated habitat patches, whose biota is subject to extinction debt. Knowledge on requirements of dry-grassland inhabitants is thus vital to slow down decline of grassland biodiversity. We studied habitat requirements of eight flightless steppe beetl...

We studied a population of the hermit beetle (Osmoderma barnabita) and co-occurring saproxylic beetles in hollow willows at a small isolated site in southern Moravia (Czech Republic) in 2006 and 2009. The relationship between the presence / absence of the hermit beetle O. barnabita and the number of other saproxylic species, as well as its co-occur...

1. To facilitate effective conservation management of dry-grassland diversity we studied the habitat selection of Carabus hungaricus, the globally declining, highly endangered, dry-grassland specialist beetle listed in the EU Habitats Directive, and several co-occurring beetles at a pannonian dry-grassland fragment, the Pouzdrany steppe, SE Czech R...

The Rosalia longicorn or Alpine longhorn (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is an endangered and strictly protected icon of European saproxylic biodiversity. Despite its popularity, lack of information on its demography and mobility may compromise adoption of suitable conservation strategies. The beetle experienced marked retreat from NW part of its range;...

1. The extent to which plant–herbivore feeding interactions are specialized is key to understand the processes maintaining the diversity of both tropical forest plants and their insect herbivores. However, studies documenting the full complexity of tropical plant–herbivore food webs are lacking. 2. We describe a complex, species-rich plant–herbivor...

Helešic, J. 2009: Range expansion of an endangered beetle: Alpine Longhorn Rosalia alpina (Coleop-tera: Cerambycidae) spreads to the lowlands of Central Europe. — Entomol. Fennica 20: 200–206. Rosalia alpina is an endangered and strictly protected icon of saproxylic biodi-versity throughout its range. Despite its popularity, information on its habi...

Oaks host the richest fauna of saproxylic insect in Europe. We studied habitat preferences of two beetle families, Buprestidae and Cerambycidae, by rearing the beetles from standardised oak timber baits. Species density was higher in the understorey than in the canopy; and in sun-exposed baits if within the understorey. Insolation was the most impo...