Nature conservation evaluation of alpine management in the Gesäuse National Park, part 4: Measures Monitoring Sulzkaralm 2010

As shown, among other things, from the LIFE report and alpine management plan for the NATURA 2000 area and the Gesäuse National Park, low moor areas are among the high-ranking protected sites of the National Park. These habitats are also protected products within the meaning of Annex I to the Fauna Flora Habitats Directive. In order to protect them from degradation through recourse, excessive biting and eutrophication, the fencing has already been proposed by the Ecoteam as an effective protective measure. The review of the effectiveness of these grazing management measures is the objective of the present report. The focus is on the development of animal communities from five selected sub-areas: two low bogs, a high bog, a calcareous grassland and a fat pasture. Cicadas, bedbugs and locusts are particularly well suited as indicators for the evaluation of measures. The fauna of the present subareas was first studied in 2003 and 2004 in order to obtain (semi-) quantitative data and thus the basis for a comparative analysis. After that, the two low bog areas were fenced out by grazing, and the grazing regime of the Sulzkaralm was switched to a coupling grazing system. In 2010, a new inventory of the indicator groups was carried out in order to evaluate and adapt the grazing measures set.