Abstract

Ungulate browsing has a major impact on the composition and structure of forests. Repeatedly conducted, large-scale regeneration inventories can monitor the extent of browsing pressure and its impacts on forest regeneration development. Based on the respective results, the necessity and extent of wildlife management activities such as hunting, fencing, etc., can be identified at a landscape scale. However, such inventories have rarely been integrated into wildlife management decision making. In this article, we evaluate a regeneration inventory method which was carried out in the Bavarian Forest National Park between 2007 and 2018. We predict the browsing impact by calculating browsing probabilities using a logistic mixed effect model. To provide wildlife managers with feedback on their activities, we developed a test which can assess significant changes in browsing probability between different inventory periods. To find the minimum observable browsing probability change, we simulated ungulate browsing based on the data of a potential browsing indicator species (Sorbus aucuparia) in the National Park. Sorbus aucuparia is evenly distributed, commonly found, selectively browsed and meets the ecosystem development objectives in our study area. We were able to verify a browsing probability change down to ±5 percentage points with a sample size of about 1,000 observations per inventory run. In view of the size of the National Park and the annual fluctuations in browsing pressure, this estimation accuracy seems sufficient. In seeking the maximal cost-efficiency, we were able to reduce this sample size in a sensitivity analysis by about two thirds without severe loss of information for wildlife management. Based on our findings, the presented inventory method combined with our evaluation tool has the potential to be a robust and efficient instrument to assess the impact of herbivores that are in the National Park and other regions.

Highlights

  • One of the most important processes in terrestrial ecosystems is the interaction between herbivores and vegetation [1]

  • We develop our statistical method in the context of the large-scale regeneration inventory applied in the Bavarian

  • Large-scale regeneration inventories have rarely been implemented in local adaptive wildlife management concepts and have seldom been the subject of research up to now

Read more

Summary

Introduction

One of the most important processes in terrestrial ecosystems is the interaction between herbivores and vegetation [1]. Selective browsing on forest regeneration of palatable species that is driven by their vitality and nutrient content can significantly reduce their share in future forest generations [3,8,25,26,27]. Even substantial changes in soil chemistry due to high ungulate populations have been reported [30,31,32]. This poses major problems for forest and wildlife managers in terms of conserving the multi-functionality of forest ecosystems (e.g., carbon sequestration or preserving high levels of biodiversity) [6,15,21,33,34,35]

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call