Forest management and its impact on present and potential future Chinese insect biodiversity—A butterfly case study from Gansu Province

The butterfly fauna of west parts of the Central Chinese Qinling Mountains was studied in the Xiaolongshan Forests (which are situated in Gansu Province) and the impact of forest management characterised. Field assessment is based on transects, supplemented by field investigations, and yielded 218 butterfly species. 95 of these species (=44%) belong to the Palaearctic Region, 46 (=21%) to the Oriental Region, and 77 (=35%) are widespread.Five different forest management regimes have been studied, from close-to-nature forests to mixed forest to shrub. The number of species differed from 86 to 15 species, which gives a first indication of the impacts of forestry, but also for the opportunities these regimes might provide for the conservation of butterflies as core elements of biodiversity.