Securing Biodiversity in Breckland - European Commission

There were Breckland specialist species from 11 taxonomic groups. The largest number of specialistspecies were Coleoptera, but there were also large numbers of Diptera, flowering plants andmoths, and smaller numbers of Hymenoptera, Araneae and Hemiptera (Table 14). A full list ofBreckland specialist species is given in an Appendix.The level of regional endemism was very high, with 21 species being entirely restricted in the UK tothe Breckland region. 66% of these were beetles and flowering plants (Figure 13).27 species were found to only occur inland in Breckland whilst otherwise having a coastaldistribution; this number is likely to be an underestimate. Species with conservation status werethe starting point for the identification of Breckland specialists. However, species that are relativelycommon on the coast tend not to have a conservation status. Furthermore, whilst experts werevery good at identifying regional specialists, many did not necessarily consider coastal species to beimportant in a Breckland context or were less familiar with their distributions.Recommendations: Further investigation is needed to understand the distributions of coastal Brecklandspecialists and to fully quantify the number of species that have their only inland populationin Breckland. Work is needed to understand the importance of inland populations and the potential asrefuges of primarily coastal species. This may be increasingly important in context of sealevel rise and threats to coastal habitats.85