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Full-elevational gradient dataset on moth diversity and abundance in a temperate mountain range

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Abstract

Climate change is reshaping ecosystems worldwide, yet our ability to quantify its long-term impact across taxa is limited by a lack of reliable and comparable data. Here, we present a systematically collected long-term dataset spanning nearly a decade (2012–2021), documenting the diversity, abundance, and distribution of 439 moth species (Lepidoptera: Heterocera) from the Czech part of the Giant Mountains, a region entirely protected as Krkonoše National Park. Using standardised light traps, we sampled 982 localities across an area of 550 km², yielding a total of 64,776 specimens. Localities are accompanied by in-situ assessments of vegetation characteristics and management regimes, complemented by topographical derivatives and ecosystem information retrieved post-hoc from open spatial data. The dataset provides a valuable resource for investigating spatial and temporal patterns in moth diversity and abundance, as well as for evaluating the effects of different management practices, supporting both basic and applied research.

Data availability

The dataset is publicly available on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30290536).

Code availability

An R script containing the full spatial data processing workflow is available on GitHub repository (https://github.com/antoninhlavacek/Moth_Krkonose), with routines for data download, using httr49 and xml250 packages, processing, and site-specific extraction.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our special gratitude to Jan Materna from Krkonoše National Park for his dedicated and exceptionally persistent support and interest. We also thank Barbora Dubská, Lenka Hamšíková, Petr Havránek, Jan Hrnčíř, Zuzana Hýrková, Otto Krotvar, Vojtěch Pařízek, Jiří Skala, Markéta Staňková, Martin Štrobl, Michal Zapletal, Jaroslav Zámečník, and Barbora Zsáková for their help with fieldwork. We appreciate Michal FoFo Zapletal’s help with identifying the specimens. Data collection and investigation was funded by several projects, including: 1) Operational Programme Environment (OPE) no EIS:CZ.05.4.27/0.0/0.0/17_078/0006395, co-funded by the EU European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund (2019–2021); 2) LIFE CORCONTICA project (LIFE11 NAT/CZ/490) financially supported by the European Commission from the LIFE + program (2007–2013); 3) Additional funding provided by the Krkonoše National Park. The work of AH was supported by the Grant Agency of Charles University, project no. 168024/2024.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hutur NGO, J. Purkyně, 1616, 50002, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

    Oldřich Čížek

  2. Beleco NGO, Na Zátorce 10, 16000, Prague, Czech Republic

    Pavel Marhoul

  3. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague, 16500, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Kadlec, Tomáš Jor & Antonín Hlaváček

  4. Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Chittussiho 10, 710 00, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Oto Kaláb

  5. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, Prague 2, Prague, 12800, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Jor & Antonín Hlaváček

Authors

  1. Oldřich Čížek
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  2. Pavel Marhoul
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  3. Tomáš Kadlec
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  4. Oto Kaláb
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  5. Tomáš Jor
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  6. Antonín Hlaváček
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Contributions

O.C.: conceptualization, data curation, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, validation, writing – review & editing; P.M.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, writing – review & editing; T.K.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, writing – review & editing; O.K.: data curation, formal analysis, validation, visualization, writing – review & editing; T.J.: investigation; writing – review & editing; A.H.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, validation, visualization, writing – original draft.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to
Oldřich Čížek or Antonín Hlaváček.

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Čížek, O., Marhoul, P., Kadlec, T. et al. Full-elevational gradient dataset on moth diversity and abundance in a temperate mountain range.
Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06837-9

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