The Marchegg reserve is located in the floodplain of river March in eastern Austria. Vegetation consists of forests with oak, ash, maple, poplar, elm, lime interspersed with meadows and water bodies. The reserve includes a chateau park and formerly grazed open woodlands with large oaks close to the Marchegg town, and parts formerly managed as coppice with standards. Grazing and coppicing have recently been restored.

To assess the effect of coppicing on the biota of lowlands floodplain forests we sampled four stages of the coppice cycle that differ in age, vegetation structure, and canopy closure. In these habitats, we searched for saproxylic beetles, butterflies, and moths. Sampling was carried out between 2012 and 2016. We found that early stages of coppices are important for butterflies, on the other hand, later stages of coppices are more important for moths.

The effect of coppicing on insect biodiversity. Small-scale mosaics of successional stages drive community turnover. Weiss et al. 2021, Forest Ecology and Management.