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Abstract

In southern Sweden, maintaining high cervid densities through supplemental feeding has become a common management practice. We aim at investigating deer browsing pressure on young Norway spruce in relation to distance from supplemental feeding sites. Because available forage is considered important in understanding browsing patterns, we modeled several factors affecting food availability, and their interaction effect with distance. We confirmed earlier studies about a locally high browsing pressure on natural vegetation adjacent to supplemental feeding sites where browsing pressure declined with distance and alternative forage abundance. Novel is that browsing on spruce occurred in 27.6% of the investigated plots. The browsing pressure of those plots averaged 9%. Distance was the most important factor in relation to browsing. The interactive effect of occurring field layer (FL), and deciduous trees was also highlighted as these significantly affected the relationship between browsing pressure on spruce and distance. In the studied conditions, browsing pressure ceased at ca. 205 m, whereas in scenarios of an abundant FL, browsing levels were negligible already at 0 m from supplemental feeding sites. We suspect that most of the browsing was caused by fallow deer in our study area.

Keywords

browsing pressure; Dama dama; multipurpose management; Norway spruce; supplemental feeding

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2014, volume: 29, number: 3, pages: 234-242
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

SLU Authors

Associated SLU-program

SLU Plant Protection Network

UKÄ Subject classification

Zoology
Ecology
Forest Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2014.903993

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/64139