A decadal study reveals that restoration guided by an umbrella species does not reach target levels

Maintaining structural and functional elements of ecosystems are essential in order to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem function. As a means of guiding conservation work, the umbrella species concept was developed. In Sweden, one putative umbrella species, the white-backed woodpecker, has guided conservation and restoration of deciduous forests for two decades.
Here, we evaluate the decadal effects of restoration aimed at the white-backed woodpecker on biodiversity of saproxylic beetles. We compare stands that were restored twelve to twenty-one years ago to non-restored stands and historical white-backed woodpecker habitats acting as restoration target stands.
Restored stands contained higher deciduous deadwood volumes than non-restored stands but lower volumes than restoration target stands. The deadwood in restored stands was concentrated in later decay stages whereas target stand deadwood was more evenly distributed across decay stages.
Restored stands had similar species richness..., Three IBL2, flight-intercept traps were strung between trees at breast height in a North, Southeast, Southwest pattern based on the centre of each stand, approximately 30-70 m from the stand centre. IBL2 traps are large (base 1 m, height 1m, intercept area 0.3 m3); semi-transparent flight-intercept traps shaped like downward facing triangles (Bell et al., 2015). All flying invertebrates were contained in bottles, filled to one-third with 70% propylene glycol and some detergent, at the bottom of the traps. The traps were equipped with water-diverging modules that prevent rainwater from entering and flooding the bottles. The traps were set out in the first week of June 2021 and collected in mid-October 2021. An expert taxonomist identified all saproxylic beetles to species level. We then categorised beetles based on their affiliation to deadwood, decay stage, tree species, their conservation status and if they were recorded as prey species for the white-backed woodpecker. This resulted in..., , # A decadal study reveals that restoration guided by an umbrella species does not reach target levels

Species richness and abundance per trap as well as forest structure variables for each plot. Methods described in methods section

Column explanations:

| Plotid | Unique ID for the Plot |
| :-------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Trap | Trap number within the plot |
| Plot | Plot number within the treatment type |
| Treatment | Treatment type. C = Non-restored. R = Restored sites. W = Target stands. |
| trapid | Unique ID for the Trap |
| ab | Number of individuals per trap |
| spr | Number of species per trap |
| trt | Treatment type ag...