Abstract Seminatural grasslands are among the most valuable habitats for arthropod conservation in Central Europe. The abandonment of traditional farming has caused these areas to become overgrown and homogeneous, thereby resulting in loss of arthropod biodiversity. This traditional farming therefore needs to be complemented by active conservation management methods. An important question is whether small-scale conservation management may support arthropod diversity and habitat specialists inhabiting abandoned seminatural grasslands. We investigated the effects of mowing, prescribed burning, mechanical turf disturbance, and absence of active management on species richness, functional diversity and composition, conservation value, abundance of Red List species, and assemblage composition of spiders. The management methods were applied on small-scale (4 × 5 m) patches in protected xeric grassland. Spiders were sampled using pitfall traps and sweeping during 2017 and 2018. A total of 11,634 specimens from 154 species were recorded, including many rare and threatened species. The temporal responses of spider assemblages to active conservation management depended on the particular group of spiders. Changes in assemblage composition and resulting shifts in the community weighted mean values were distinct in the second year of the experiment. Management had no significant effect on the species richness of ground-dwelling spiders. Mechanical turf disturbance shifted the assemblage composition of ground-dwelling spiders towards habitat generalist species. Vegetation-dwelling spiders had the highest species richness in unmanaged patches. Their functional diversity was lower in disturbed patches. Burnt patches supported species of conservation concern for both spider groups. Prescribed burning had positive results for most of the studied indicators. Nevertheless, mechanical turf disturbance had a rather negative effect on the spider assemblages. Our results indicate that even small, patch-like interventions with minimal costs can considerably support the valuable spider assemblages of xeric grassland in the intensified landscape of Central Europe.

中文翻译：

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小规模保护管理方法对干旱草地蜘蛛群落的影响

摘要 半自然草原是中欧最有价值的节肢动物保护栖息地之一。传统农业的放弃导致这些地区变得杂草丛生和同质化，从而导致节肢动物生物多样性的丧失。因此，这种传统农业需要通过积极的保护管理方法加以补充。一个重要的问题是小规模保护管理是否可以支持节肢动物多样性和栖息在废弃半自然草原上的栖息地专家。我们调查了割草、规定的燃烧、机械草坪干扰和缺乏主动管理对物种丰富度、功能多样性和组成、保护价值、红色名录物种的丰度以及蜘蛛的组合组成的影响。管理方法应用于受保护的干旱草原中的小规模（4×5 m）斑块。在 2017 年和 2018 年期间，使用陷阱陷阱和清扫对蜘蛛进行了采样。共记录了 154 个物种的 11,634 个标本，其中包括许多稀有和受威胁的物种。蜘蛛组合对积极保护管理的时间响应取决于特定的蜘蛛群体。在实验的第二年，组合组成的变化和由此产生的群落加权平均值的变化是明显的。管理对地栖蜘蛛的物种丰富度没有显着影响。机械草皮​​干扰将地栖蜘蛛的组合组成转移到栖息地通才物种。栖息在植被中的蜘蛛在未管理的斑块中拥有最高的物种丰富度。它们的功能多样性在受干扰的斑块中较低。烧焦的斑块支持对两个蜘蛛群的保护关注。规定的燃烧对大多数研究指标都有积极的结果。然而，机械草皮干扰对蜘蛛组合产生了相当负面的影响。我们的结果表明，即使是成本最低的小块状干预措施，也可以大大支持中欧强化景观中干旱草原的宝贵蜘蛛组合。