About 18% of all butterfly species in Central Europe inhabit gypsum, chalk or limestone grasslands. While these habitats are quite common over the Mediterranean, they become rarer, more isolated and more vulnerable in the north. The main threat to these habitats is fragmentation and loss of grazing. Gradually, they become less diverse and after a few decades turn into scrubs and forests.
In 2015, the Italian Journal of Zoology published a scientific article entitled „Railway tracks can have great value for butterflies as a new alternative habitat”, in which two Polish scientists, Dr. Konrad Karalus and Dr. Marek Bąkowski, proved that railways have a greater diversity of butterflies than forest clearings and degraded meadows.
It transpired that urban areas which were suburban 25 years ago have not only seen a decrease in the number of butterflies from 158 to 135 but also a reduction in their diversity by 3 species. Meanwhile, formerly rural areas with mono culture crops such as rapeseed, corn, and rye are now suburban, resulting in improved indicators, particularly the number of butterflies, which increased from 39 to 105. Diversity has also slightly increased by 1 species.
On May 3, 2023, we conducted the second field visit as part of the „25 years later” series. Our goal was the same small mixed forest near the flood meadow in Lodz. We have made positive observations, such as intense wild boar activity and the flowering of many species of wildflowers.
What were some of the positive observations made during the field visit in the mixed forest near the floodplain meadow within the city of Łódź as part of the „25 years later” series?
We decided to dig out notebooks from our archives and present them to you. Moreover, we plan to visit the same places, at the same time in 2023, to show how it has all changed. We called it „25 years later” because it looks more even, secondly, in the first few years, we made very accurate field notes containing species, places, dates, temperature and quantity, which means there is less risk of confusion.
