A Key for the Microhistological Determination of Plant Fragments Consumed by Carpathian Forest Cervids

Alexandra Veselovská,Peter Smolko,Rudolf Kropil

doi:10.3390/f12091229

Abstract

We present a microhistological key for identification of plant fragments consumed and partially digested by free-roaming, forest cervids based on collection of 92 plant species representing forage availability of the Western Carpathian forests. The key represents a determination tool to facilitate microhistological analyses of faecal and ruminal material. We summarized, integrated, and developed current knowledge on microstructures of plants consumed by Cervidae using specific diagnostic features of plant fragments including type, shape, orientation, and arrangement of cells and stomata, type of venation, presence, and type of trichomes and crystalline inclusions. Since most plant species of the same taxa show common patterns in morphology of the different epidermal traits, we categorized collected material into seven functional botanical groups, i.e., grasses and sedges, herbs and leaves of broadleaved trees, needles, ferns and mosses, seeds and fruits, and genera Rubus, Rosa, Vaccinium. The key is consistent with classifications used in the majority of studies on diet of wild cervids and is supported with photographs of the main diagnostics features. The key has the potential to decrease amount of time needed for processing of the reference material, and to improve consistency between users studying feeding behaviour of forest cervids in central Europe.

Highlights

Rapid increase of large herbivores across Europe [1] represents one of the most alarming issues threatening forest ecosystems [2] affecting their ecological stability [3] and producing significant economic losses in forestry management [4]
Microhistological analysis became the gold standard for understanding diet composition of wild herbivores during the past eight decades [9,10,11]
Despite being a low cost and relatively accurate method, microhistology is limited by processing time, equipment quality and training of a user [29]

Summary

Introduction

Rapid increase of large herbivores across Europe [1] represents one of the most alarming issues threatening forest ecosystems [2] affecting their ecological stability [3] and producing significant economic losses in forestry management [4]. Understanding the feeding behaviour of wild ungulates is crucial for development of adaptive national management strategies [5,6,7,8]. Microhistological analysis became the gold standard for understanding diet composition of wild herbivores during the past eight decades [9,10,11]. Several microhistological studies on wild cervids have been published throughout the Europe [22,23,24,25,37,38,39] a Academic Editor: Todd Fredericksen. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

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Discussion

Conclusion