Abstract

While oaks contribute to the ecology and economy of temperate lowland forests, recruitment into largersize classes is generally scarce. Ungulate herbivory is a limiting factor for tree recruitment, thus naturalstructures protecting against ungulates may be important for recruitment success. We studied oakrecruitment in relation to coarse woody debris (CWD) in the Białowie_za National Park, Poland, one ofthe last remaining reference sites for undisturbed temperate lowland forests in Europe that containsthe full natural assemblage of large ungulate species and their predators. We compared two contrastingmanagement types: one that excludes all forestry activities (the strict reserve) and one where sanitarycutting and removal of bark-beetle infested Picea abies occurs to prevent further spread.We sampled 4 m wide transects (19 ha in total, of which 15.8 ha in the strict reserve) and recorded saplingheight and sapling browsing, distance from, height of and CWD encirclement, distance to and diameterof mature oaks, tree composition, distance to and diameter of nearest trees, canopy openness andcover of herbs, mosses, bare soil and litter in an equal number of plots with and without saplings. Wefound 161 oak saplings (8.5/ha). CWD was predominantly formed by P. abies. Sapling plots containedmore often CWD than plots without saplings. Also, the distance to CWD was smaller and the CWD encirclementwas higher in sapling plots, while canopy cover did not differ. Sapling height increased and saplingbrowsing decreased with increasing presence of CWD. Both CWD and recruitment beyond 50 cmwere reduced in the managed zone.Our study shows that CWD plays an essential role for the recruitment of oaks in old-growth temperateforest systems, predominantly via protection against ungulate browsing. Sanitary cutting of infestedtrees, a common management practice in temperate forests, prevents the natural accumulation of CWD and so can be counter-productive for the recruitment of appreciated species.

Keywords

Tree regeneration, Temperate forest, Herbivory, Ungulate browsing, Facilitation, Red deer

Published in

Forest Ecology and Management
2012, Volume: 284, pages: 133-141
Publisher: Elsevier

SLU Authors

• Cromsigt, Joris

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2012.07.052

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/39650