Relationships between browsing damage and woody species dominance

Abstract

The paper analyzes data on browsing damage to food-attractive woody species, viz.<I> Acer campestre, Acer pseudoplatanus, Acer platanoides, Fraxinus excelsior, Sorbus aucuparia</I> and most often eudominant <I>Fagus sylvatica</I>. The field survey was carried out in 2005–2007. Analyzed data come from 34 transects at 15 localities in the CR with different abundance of ungulates (<I>Capreolus capreolus</I>, in some areas also <I>Cervus elaphus</I> or <I>Dama dama</I>). Trees occurring in natural regeneration under a stand were monitored up to a height of 150 cm and the presence of new browsing damage was monitored. Differences between the percent of damaged individuals of the given species of a food-attractive woody species and the percent of damaged individuals of all woody species in the transect as well as the proportion of these parameters significantly correlate with the dominance of the given species being suitable parameters for the analysis of a relationship between the intensity of damage and dominance. At the same time, the higher the proportion of <I>Fagus sylvatica</I>, the higher the relative intensity of damage to monitored food-attractive species.