Authors: Angeleri, Romain; Kormann, Urs;Roth, Nicolas;Ettwein, Antonia;Lanz, Michael;Pasinelli, Gilberto;Arlettaz, Raphaël;Lachat, Thibault;

The umbrella species concept postulates that conservation schemes targeting a key species, although often locally restricted, will simultaneously benefit additional organisms of conservation concern. The White-backed Woodpecker is an old-growth deciduous forest specialist and has been proposed as an umbrella species for saproxylic beetles in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Yet, whether this link holds in Central Europe remains unclear. By combining White-backed Woodpecker telemetry data with flight interception traps for insects, we compared saproxylic beetle communities at sites with no, low and high activity of the target bird species during its breeding season. We found that species richness of threatened saproxylic beetles paralleled the activity density of the woodpecker, with the highest richness found in high activity sites. Further, a multivariate analysis of community revealed that sites occupied by White-backed Woodpeckers harbored a consistent subset of the threatened saproxylic beetle community. This finding was corroborated by an indicator species analysis, showing that several threatened saproxylic beetles were associated to the woodpecker habitat. Overall, our results imply that the White-backed Woodpecker is a suitable umbrella species for the conservation of saproxylic beetles in beech dominated forests of Central Europe, supporting geographic transferability of the umbrella species concept in this study system.