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Modeling forage potential for red deer (Cervus elaphus): a tree-level approach

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Abstract

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) are mixed feeders that consume both herbaceous and woody plants. As a consequence, intensive browsing on trees where red deer populations are particularly dense often leads to serious conflicts between the interests of forestry and hunting stakeholders. Therefore, understanding the density of deer that forest system can bear requires the ability to measure amount of potential forage provided by non-commercial tree species within a stand that serve as forage. Our objective was to build models that estimate forage potential (i.e., maximum biomass edible and accessible for consumption by red deer per tree) based on tree size [i.e., stem base diameter (d0)]. We developed models for three tree species commonly consumed by red deer in Central Europe, aspen (Populus tremula), goat willow (Salix caprea) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia). To construct models of forage potential, we harvested 380 young (age of 2–15 years) trees on 14 sites in the Western Carpathians of Slovakia. Tree biomass was first divided into three components (stem bark, branches and foliage), each of which was subdivided into edible and non-edible portions based on branch diameter and height from the ground and then dried and weighed. We then quantified edible biomass by tree species, tree component and season (growing vs. dormant). The total amount of tree mass (forage potential) that could be consumed by red deer generally increased with tree size, but the relative contributions of different tree components varied by tree size, tree species and season. Our models predicted that the maximum forage potential per tree was ~ 500 g in aspen, 350 g in goat willow and 300 g in rowan in summer, and nearly 500 g in aspen, 300 g in goat willow and 250 g in rowan in winter. Together with theoretical knowledge and practical experience, our forage potential models can be used to help forest and wildlife managers both to better measure edible tree biomass for red deer populations and how edible tree biomass might be used to minimize the risk of deer damaging commercially valuable trees.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the project APVV-18-0086 from the Slovak Research and Development Agency, also by grant “EVA4.0,” No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000803 financed by OP RDE as well as by the project “Research and innovation for supporting competitiveness of the Slovak forestry sector” (SLOV-LES) financed by the Ministry of Land Management and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Forest Centre, Forest Research Institute, T.G. Masaryka 22, 960 01, Zvolen, Slovak Republic

    Bohdan Konôpka, Jozef Pajtík & Vladimír Šebeň

  2. Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Science Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00, Praha-Suchdol, Czech Republic

    Bohdan Konôpka

  3. Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 24, 960 53, Zvolen, Slovak Republic

    Michal Bošeľa

  4. School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, 99164-2812, USA

    Lisa A. Shipley

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  1. Bohdan Konôpka
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Correspondence to Bohdan Konôpka.

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Communicated by Christian Ammer.

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Konôpka, B., Pajtík, J., Bošeľa, M. et al. Modeling forage potential for red deer (Cervus elaphus): a tree-level approach. Eur J Forest Res 139, 419–430 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-019-01250-x

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