& Introduction Most temperate forests are managed for wood production, and some forestry practices generate typical environmental features such as roads, paths, ditches and tractor ruts, which are likely to affect forest species distribution. & Methods We studied the influence of forestry artefacts on the overall forest-understory plant diversity in an ancient oak-dominated French forest with a long history of management. Two designs (grid design and paired design) were built in order to record the occurrence frequency of artefacts and to estimate the originality of the plant assemblage that they host. & Results We recorded 897 plots on the grid design: 68.3% of the plots were more than 4 m away from any artefact, 23.3% were within 4 m of an artefact and 8.4% were located on an artefact. The artefact contribution to total floristic richness would lie between 8.0% and 22.6%, depending on whether the artefact surroundings were included or not in the artefact contribution. Road verges were the least frequent artefacts but provided the richest contribution to overall plant diversity (82%), whereas paths were the poorest (with only a 42% contribution). Thirteen species appeared to prefer artefacts over control plots: six forest species, five non-forest species and two generalist species. & Discussion We show that forestry artefacts are key components of the floristic diversity in managed forests; therefore, forest management should take them into consideration.
OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. This is an author-deposited version published in : http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/ Eprints ID : 16254To link to this article : (M. Baltzinger).Allgemein hatte zunehmende Beweidungsintensität durch Rotwild keine negativen Effekte auf die Waldvögel dieser reifen Waldbestände mit einer entwickelten Kronenschicht und führte nicht zu einer geringeren Unterwuchsbedeckung. Die meisten früheren Untersuchungen, die einen negativen Einfluss der Beweidung auf die Vögel feststellten, konzentrierten sich auf junge Waldbestände mit einem spärlichen Kronendach. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass der Einfluss der Huftiere auf die Waldvögel mit zunehmendem Bestandsalter abnehmen könnte.
The study questions the role of litter as a physical or chemical barrier to ground vegetation; to better understand this role, there is a need for ex-situ, longer-term experiments coupled with in-situ observations in the forest.
Big game populations have been rapidly increasing in temperate and boreal ecosystems worldwide, which has prompted the need to study the socio-ecological issues related to their management. In addition, the use of game-fencing has been spreading in certain rural areas, especially in French Sologne. These two parallel trends raise the issue of the new socio-spatial arrangements developing in rural areas. We set up an in-depth case-study combining stakeholder-interviews and ecological surveys (red deer trails, pellets and bed sites) to understand how game fences may affect both animal and human mobility, and why this may raise human conflicts. The study site was a 17.52 km² fenced landscape comprising a public forest bordered on the north and south by two privately owned fenced lots. Both the interviews and the ecological data indicated that the fences were crossable for red deer. We did not find any fencing effect on the location of red deer trails, though red deer pellet groups were significantly more frequent outside fenced lots. On the other hand, we recorded more bed sites within fenced lots, in accordance with the stakeholders’ statements that fenced lots had a high sheltering value for red deer. This implies that stakeholders have contrasting opportunities to encounter red deer because the fences deter non-owners from trespassing. Although any private owner has the legal right to fence his or her land under French law, our finding calls for more attention to how the fencing is designed, since its effects may impact the surrounding landscape. For instance, fences can allow a single owner to impose game management policies in the areas surrounding his or her estate.
En Sologne, des grillages limitent, barrent, orientent, définissent des intérieurs et des extérieurs au sein même de la forêt. Cette politique d'engrillagement fait débat et suscite des controverses, ce qui a conduit le conseil régional de la région Centre à soutenir un projet de recherche. Une équipe de recherche interdisciplinaire (écologues, anthropologues et géographes) a pu analyser les conséquences d'un tel quadrillage sur les comportements des ongulés et la dynamique des populations qui en résulte, mais aussi sur les relations sociales que ces pratiques engendrent et transforment. En ce sens, le processus d'engrillagement est perçu comme un dispositif de mise en relation et en mouvement des êtres humains et non humains, à la fois dans ses effets sur la population de cerfs et comme manifestation de certaines relations de pouvoir. La Rédaction Résumé-Cet article propose une approche interdisciplinaire visant à étudier la dynamique d'engrillagement en Sologne sous ses aspects humains et écologiques. Des travaux ont été menés, relatés par ailleurs dans des manuscrits soumis à des revues d'écologie, afin de décrire le comportement spatial des cerfs de Sologne, en présence de grillages. Un travail d'enquête a également été effectué, portant sur les valeurs associées à l'environnement en Sologne telles qu'elles étaient mises à jour par l'évocation des engrillagements. Nous utilisons ici une approche de type political ecology pour mettre en regard ces deux types de résultats. Nous mettons en évidence deux discours concurrents sur les formes de légitimation des propriétés cynégétiques, dont l'opposition s'articule autour du remplacement du petit gibier par le grand au cours de ces trente dernières années. Nous expliquons le rôle joué par les engrillagements dans cette mise en concurrence.
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