Insect monitoring Austria: butterflies
The aim is to set up and establish systematic Austrian butterfly monitoring. It thus makes a significant contribution to Austrian biodiversity monitoring and EU-wide pollinator monitoring and represents an important basis for an evidence-based policy to protect biodiversity.
Butterflies are an excellent and representative indicator group for the ecologically extremely important group of insects, as they react quickly and sensitively to habitat and environmental changes. Butterflies and especially butterflies are also suitable because of their positive pictures excellent for raising awareness in the general population.
In Austria, due to the actual habitats, there are 4,095 butterfly species (210 of which are butterflies) significantly more than in all of Germany. At the same time, many species of butterflies are threatened, and even previously common species are being confronted less and less often. The main reasons for the decline are changes in land use, intensification of agriculture and the use of insecticides and herbicides.
For insect monitoring Austria: butterflies will be professional scientific surveys with surveys by volunteers (Citizen Science) combined. In this way, the advantages of two approaches are used to collect high-quality and scientifically sound data, while at the same time contributing to raising awareness of the importance of biological diversity. The Austria-wide implementation from 2023, based on intensive scientific, methodical and organizational preparatory work as part of the multi-fold moth monitoring in Tyrol (since 2018) and Vorarlberg (since 2020).
Insect monitoring Austria: butterflies is carried out by DR Johannes Rüdisser from Institute of Ecology of the University of Innsbruck and together with the Natural Science Collections of the Tyrolean State Museums and many other cooperation partners.