Regeneration of Pinus sylvestris in a natural pinewood in NE Scotland following reduction in grazing by Cervus elaphus

Abstract

The occurrence of Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) seedlings and saplings (<2.0 m in height and suppressed by grazing) and ground characteristics were recorded in a 300 ha block of natural pine forest in 1993. The density of red deer ( Cervus elaphus L.) was then reduced by exclosure to approximately 3–4 deer km −2, which is below the threshold at which pine regeneration should occur. Numbers and performance of pine seedlings and saplings were further monitored 2 and 4 years after exclosure. Numbers of young pine increased over time. In the three years with observations 97–99% of pine seedlings and saplings were recorded within 20 m of a seed source. Stepwise multiple regression was used to explore the relationships of pine establishment with plot characteristics for (a) all observation plots ( n = 178) and (b) plots within 20 m of a seed source ( n = 154). The factors most closely related to the number of pine seedlings and saplings in 1997 were, for (a), seed–source distance, vegetation height, blaeberry cover, slope and deer pellet-group density in 1993, all but the last having negative effects. For (b), vegetation height, blaeberry cover and slope were again selected predictors, and again had negative effects. Possible mechanisms by which the selected main effects may influence pine regeneration are discussed, the positive relationship to deer density being considered to reflect the creation of gaps in the sward suitable for germination. However, the amounts of variation explained in the models were low, being 16% for (a) and 13% for (b), reflecting the patchy nature and diverse age of the regeneration.