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Browsing regime and growth response of Abies alba saplings planted along light gradients

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Abstract

Silver fir is a highly desirable species in European mountain forests from a management and conservation point of view, but it is also highly palatable for ungulates. We planted Abies alba saplings along natural light gradients to explore under natural browsing: (1) the light conditions under which saplings grow best in the absence of browsing; (2) when and by which ungulate species which saplings are browsed; and (3) under which conditions saplings react most vigorously to browsing. The experiment was carried out in a Swiss forest using four fenced plots each containing about 30 saplings planted in 2001, which were between 17 and 100 cm tall in 2009. For half of the saplings, browsing was allowed and filmed from April 2009 to January 2010. Saplings grew better with more light (13 % rather than 10 % canopy openness). Browsing was not a single event per sapling but a continuous process during the winter months. Almost all saplings exposed to browsing suffered heavy browsing by chamois and red deer, but no roe deer browsing was observed. The remainder of the browsed shoots were longer and contained more buds under 13 % canopy openness. The browsing-induced height differences between browsed and unbrowsed trees increased over time under all light conditions, and almost no diameter growth was measured in the years after browsing. In cases with severe browsing, management aimed at letting in more light does not lead to a substantially better tolerance of browsing. We thus recommend integrating the “feeding strength” in the assessment of browsing.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Adolf Tschudi and Hanspeter Mariacher and all the other forestry workers from the municipality of Glarus Süd (formerly Schwanden) for their help with the fence construction and repair and planting of A. alba saplings, as well as many inspiring discussions. We are grateful to Stephan Zimmermann and Marco Walser from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, for their help with the soil profile and with the soil and needle analysis. We thank Silvia Dingwall for language revision. The work of the first author was funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment under the project “Langfristige Walddynamik unter Ungulaten-Einfluss”, Contract No. 00.0138.PZ/H362-1153.

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  1. Forest Ecology, ITES, D-USYS, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Andrea D. Kupferschmid & Harald Bugmann

  2. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstr. 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Andrea D. Kupferschmid & Ulrich Wasem

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  1. Andrea D. Kupferschmid
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Correspondence to Andrea D. Kupferschmid.

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Communicated by G. Brazaitis.

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Kupferschmid, A.D., Wasem, U. & Bugmann, H. Browsing regime and growth response of Abies alba saplings planted along light gradients. Eur J Forest Res 134, 75–87 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-014-0834-2

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