Transient nutritional peak in browse foliage after forest clearing advocates cohort management of ungulates

Wam, Hilde Karine; Histøl, Trond; Nybakken, Line; Solberg, Erling Johan; Hjeljord, Olav

doi:10.1016/j.baae.2015.11.006

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Norway spruce (Picea abies, hereafter just spruce) is the most economically important timber species in this region, particularly on rich and welldrained soils, while pine is gradually more important in poorer and/or drier areas. Instead, moose typically feed in recent forest clear-cut sites where increased light and a flush of nutrients from decomposing cutting residues facilitate the rapid growth of preferred deciduous species with a high food value (Bjørneraas et al 2011, Wam et al 2016b. Instead, moose typically feed in recent forest clear-cut sites where increased light and a flush of nutrients from decomposing cutting residues facilitate the rapid growth of preferred deciduous species with a high food value (Bjørneraas et al 2011, Wam et al 2016b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spruce is rarely eaten by moose (M ansson et al 2007). Instead, moose typically feed in recent forest clear-cut sites where increased light and a flush of nutrients from decomposing cutting residues facilitate the rapid growth of preferred deciduous species with a high food value (Bjørneraas et al 2011, Wam et al 2016b. Browsing effects are therefore concentrated and generally stronger in young forest and on recent clear-cuts (Tremblay et al 2007, Dufresne et al 2009, Wam et al 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pervasive moose browsing in boreal forests alters successional trajectories by severely suppressing keystone species

et al. 2018

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Large herbivores can shape young forest stands and determine the successional trajectory of forested ecosystems by selectively browsing palatable species at the sapling stage. Moose (Alces alces) is the dominant vertebrate herbivore in Fennoscandian boreal forests, and high population densities have raised concerns about potential negative effects on ecosystem functioning and properties including biological diversity and timber production. We used 31 herbivore exclosures in Norway to investigate how forests developed after clear-cutting with or without moose present. We tested how tree demography, abundances of understory plant functional groups, community composition, and plant diversity (including bryophytes) across multiple scales varied with moose exclusion. After seven years, the exclosures were dominated by deciduous trees, including many large rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) individuals, a functionally important keystone species. In contrast, the open plots subject to moose impacts (browsing, trampling, defecation) were dominated by economically important coniferous trees and there was next to no rowan recruitment to taller height classes. The biomass of large herbs and ferns was much greater inside exclosures. This study emphasizes the large immediate effect of moose on early successional boreal forest stands. Landscape-level alterations caused by reduced deciduous dominance, and a reduction in large flowering herbs is likely to lead to cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. The management of boreal production forests needs to account for the combined effects of silvicultural practices and ungulate herbivory to ensure ecosystem functioning, but this management goal may be jeopardized in our study regions due to drastically reduced abundance of keystone species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pervasive moose browsing in boreal forests alters successional trajectories by severely suppressing keystone species

et al. 2018

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“…For this reason, it is in the direct interest of game and forest managers to be aware of the potential adverse consequences of using inappropriate supplementary feeds. Notably, in recent years, the reproductive performance of many moose populations in southern Scandinavia appears to be in decline (Wam et al 2016). While the precise causal factors underlying these trends remain unaccounted for, the available evidence suggests that in some areas, inappropriate supplementary feeding may contribute to the problem, via for example, negative effects on their rumen condition and increased competition from other ungulate species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…rather than Norway spruce (Mansson et al 2007), and the dominance of Norway spruce production forests reduces the availability of these primary food sources. Partly countering these losses, the predominance of even-aged forest management ensures that a flush of edible vegetation is provided, at least in unfenced stands, for the first decade after clear-cutting (Wam et al 2016). However, efforts to remove competing broadleaf tree species (predominantly birch) during stand cleaning and thinning operations reduce the potential availability of these preferred species of browse, even in young stands (Milner et al 2013).…”

Section: The Swedish Context: Forest Management and Supplementary Feementioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between ungulates, forests, and supplementary feeding: the role of nutritional balancing in determining outcomes

et al. 2016

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People provide wild ungulates with large quantities of supplementary feed to improve their health and survival and reduce forest damage. Whereas supplementary feeding can positively affect the winter survival of ungulates and short-term hunting success, some of the feeds provided may actually reduce ungulate health and increase forest damage. Here, we highlight how recent advances in ungulate nutritional ecology can help explain why supplementary feeding can lead to undesirable outcomes. Using Europe's largest cervid, the moose (Alces alces), as a model species, and Sweden, as the socio-ecological context, we explain the concept of nutritional balancing and its relevance to supplementary feeding. Nutritional balancing refers to how animals alter their food intake to achieve a specific nutritional target balance in their diet, by selecting balanced food items or by combining items with nutritional compositions that are complimentary. As the most common supplementary feeds used contain higher concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates than the ungulates' normal winter diet, the consumption of such feeds may cause animals to increase their intake of woody browse, and thereby exacerbate forest damage. We also explain how animal health may be negatively affected by large intakes of such feed if complementary browse items are not available. We therefore suggest that the use of inappropriate feed is an additional means by which supplementary feeding may result in negative outcomes for hunters, forest owners, and wild animals.

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“…, Wam et al. ). The much‐quoted protein maximization hypothesis (Mattson ) postulates that many herbivores have evolved specific adaptations to get the most out of scarce levels of nitrogen in plant material.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complexity of interacting nutritional drivers behind food selection, a review of northern cervids

Felton

Wam

Stolter³

et al. 2018

Ecosphere

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Abstract. The research literature on food selection by large herbivores is extensive. Still, we are generally lacking in our knowledge of the influence of potentially interacting chemical contents of the food. We made a qualitative review of a systematic literature search of studies that empirically link chemical contents of food to the food selection by northern cervids (genera Alces, Capreolus, Cervus, Dama, Odocoileus, Rangifer). We found that although the majority of the 98 relevant studies measuring any given food constituent (energy, protein, fiber, minerals, plant secondary metabolites) provided support for it acting as a driver of food selection (in either a negative or positive way), there was little support for the traditional hypotheses of maximization or limitation of any single constituent. Rather, because of the animals' need to acquire an appropriate intake of several constituents at the same time, our review highlights how new empirical studies need to focus on several food constituents in synchrony: (1) Study designs should capture sufficient variation in the content of food constituents in order to tease apart their many co-variations; and (2) insights about nutritional drivers may be lost if one uses only composite currencies such as crude energy, crude fiber, ash, or tannins, which may mask contrasting selection patterns of the lumped constituents. Season had an apparent influence on the selection of some food constituents, particularly various fiber fractions. In contrast, our review revealed a lack of evidence that cervids more strongly select for protein in summer than they do in winter. Our overall conclusion of the review is that interacting chemical contents of food make the nutritional value of a given food type into a varying entity. To better elucidate this variation, we need new technologies that non-invasively capture nutrient intake of free-ranging animals, across seasons.

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Transient nutritional peak in browse foliage after forest clearing advocates cohort management of ungulates

Cited by 20 publications

References 42 publications

Pervasive moose browsing in boreal forests alters successional trajectories by severely suppressing keystone species

Pervasive moose browsing in boreal forests alters successional trajectories by severely suppressing keystone species

Interactions between ungulates, forests, and supplementary feeding: the role of nutritional balancing in determining outcomes

The complexity of interacting nutritional drivers behind food selection, a review of northern cervids

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