Avalanche troughs as important special habitats in the Gesäuse National Park

Avalanche troughs and other erosion areas house a highly specialised invertebrates with numerous high-ranking red list species. The random zoological data on these special habitats available from other research projects in the Gesäuse National Park (Almen mapping 2004: Spiders; Rosalia Projects: wood-inhabiting beetles) demonstrate a high conservation importance of these biotopes and their animal communities.In high avalanche troughs and erosion sites, the occurrence of endemic and subendemic species in Austria is expected; Details can be found in the final report of the Endmiten project. The aim of this preliminary project is to document the zoological status quo in the course of an initial examination of classical avalanche troughs and to present the conservation value of these habitats and their species communities. The results presented in this report are intended to provide decision support for the selection of the collection methods, processed animal groups, study areas and biotope types for the main project avalanche troughs 2007.