Decreasing deer browsing pressure influenced understory vegetation dynamics over 30 years

Autor: Philippe Ballon, Christophe Baltzinger, Sonia Saïd, Vincent Boulanger, Jean-Luc Dupouey, Jean-François Picard
Přispěvatelé: Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières [devient SILVA en 2018] (EEF), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Lorraine (UL), Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), French Ministry in charge of the Environment, French National Hunting and Wildlife Service 'Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage' (France), French National Research Agency (ANR-12-LABXARBRE-01)
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Annals of Forest Science
Annals of Forest Science, Springer Nature (since 2011)/EDP Science (until 2010), 2015, 72 (3), pp.367-378. ⟨10.1007/s13595-014-0431-z⟩
Annals of Forest Science, Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences, 2015, 72 (3), pp.367-378. ⟨10.1007/s13595-014-0431-z⟩
Annals of Forest Science 3 (72), 367–378. (2015)
ISSN: 1286-4560
1297-966X
DOI: 10.1007/s13595-014-0431-z⟩
Popis: Published online: 18 November 2014; Key message Thanks to the concomitant recordings of vegetation and deer browsing sampled first in 1976, then resurveyed in 2006, we show that forest plant communities shifted in response to deer population dynamics, stand management and eutrophication.Context and aims High deer populations alter forest under-story dynamics worldwide. However, no study ever attempted to rank the importance of deer herbivory relatively to other environmental drivers. In the Arc-en-Barrois National Forest (France), we investigated whether (i) deer browsing is a critical driver of vegetation composition and dynamics, (ii) the vegetation communities recover after a decrease in deer populations.Methods In 2006, we resurveyed 321 plots from a network of 1027 plots where vegetation composition and browsing pressure was first assessed in 1976. We used coinertia analysis to identify the gradients in vegetation composition in 1976, when abiotic variables were also recorded. We assessed shifts in plant community composition using mean Ellenberg indicator values, analysed plot scores shifts along the axes of the coinertia analysis and correlated these shifts with changes in browsing pressure.Results Two major gradients determined vegetation composition in 1976: edaphic variables (nitrogen availability and soil moisture) and browsing pressure. Over the next 30 years, we noticed a strong increase in nitrophilous plant species frequency and community composition shifted towards lightly browsed characteristics, accompanying a decrease in browsing pressure. Shifts in community composition were significantly correlated with the intensity of changes in browsing pressure, showing that deer population dynamics were a determinant driver of changes in plant assemblages.Conclusion Our results provide evidence for a structuring effect of deer browsing on vegetation composition, once forest site variations (soilmoisture and nitrogen) were accounted for. We observed an incomplete recovery of the communities 25 years after the reduction of deer densities, suggesting a delayed response to deer population reduction. Long-term monitoring of forest biodiversity should therefore include browsing pressure assessment to control for potential effects of wild ungulates
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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