Authors: Bergmark, Paulina; Larsson Ekström, Albin;Hekkala, Anne-Maarit;Hjälten, Joakim;Svensson, Johan;Neumann, Wiebke;

Deadwood dependent species account for a dominant proportion of forest dwelling organisms and substantially contribute to forest ecosystem functioning. Due to environmental changes induced by modern forestry, many of these species are today threatened with extinction. To halt this negative trend, the Swedish state owned forestry company Sveaskog, has established large forest areas throughout the country, so called Ecoparks, which serve as multifunctional landscapes aiming to combine forestry and nature conservation on a landscape level. Throughout the years, many restoration measures have been carried out in the Ecoparks in order to increase the habitat quality for forest dwelling species. To study the effects of multifunctional landscapes, we monitored saproxylic beetles for three consecutive years in two Ecoparks, one in southern Sweden, one in the north, and two reference areas representing business as usual (BAU) landscapes. We found that both Ecoparks sustained greater abundance and richness of nationally red-listed beetles and contained different beetle assemblages in comparison with BAU areas. Our results highlight the potential of multifunctional forests in conserving biodiversity of saproxylic beetle species. It also shows of the importance of deadwood availability as well as the importance of landscape configuration.