Northern crested newt prefers non-reclaimed post-mining pools. © V. Kolář
As a by-product of our intensive research of freshwater invertebrates at lignite spoil heaps, we have also sampled enough newts to make an analysis of their needs during restoration possible. Just recently, results of this side project have been published in Ecological Engineering. As expected, both newt species colonising secondary habitats at the northern Bohemian spoil heaps avoid reclaimed artificial pools. Similarly to our numerous studies of terrestrial biodiversity, spontaneous processes, rather than costly technical reclamation, seem to be more efficient in habitat restoration. On the other hand, our previous studies of dragonflies have revealed completely different patterns. At the moment, Vojta Kolář and Filip are analysing the large dataset of water insects sampled during the past two years. We are looking forward to the results.
Full citation: Kolář V., Tichanek F., Tropek R. (2017) Effect of different restoration approaches on two species of newts (Amphibia: Caudata) in Central European lignite spoil heaps. Ecological Engineering 99, 310–315.