The Role of Moose as a Disturbance Factor in Managed Boreal Forests
By L. Edenius, M. Bergman, G. Ericsson, K. Danell. 2002
132 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We review the interactions between moose (Alces alces) and native tree species in Fennoscandia. The Fennoscandian boreal forests have been intensively managed for wood production over decades. Moose population density is also relatively high in these northern forests. Forest management affects habitat characteristics and food resources from regeneration to fi nal harvest, with the most signifi cant effects occurring early in the stand development. The plant-animal interactions found in such a situation may be different from what has been observed in natural boreal forests with low densities of moose (e.g. in North America). The strong focus on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in forest regeneration in conjunction with a homogenisation of the landscape structure by clearcutting has favoured moose. Forest development is controlled by man from regeneration to fi nal harvest, and in relation to human-induced disturbances the disturbance by moose is relatively small, but occurs on different spatial levels. At the landscape level, the most prominent effects of moose seem to be suppression and/or redistribution of preferred browse species. At the forest stand level moose primarily induce spatial heterogeneity by browsing patchily and exploiting existing gaps. At the tree level, moose damage trees and lower timber quality, but also create substrate types (e.g. dead and dying wood) valuable for many organisms. Co-management of moose and forest requires good monitoring programmes for both plants and animals, as well as extensive ecological knowledge on the relations between moose and their food plants on different spatial levels.
Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Insect Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e3f741f68ddfd06e8aa5c9b00a180be2dd3df300
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In Global and Planetary Change
Citations in the corpus
- Importance of alternative food resources for browsing by roe deer on deciduous trees: The role of food availability and species quality (2006, background): “, 2003), and selective feeding may alter species composition of the understory and the tree layer (Stromayer and Warren, 1997; Edenius et al., 2002).”
- Interactions between growth, demography and biotic interactions in determining species range limits in a warming world: the case of Pinus sylvestris (2012, background): “This pattern of retarded growth seems to be common both at the northern and southern tree-line limits of the species (Danell et al., 1991; Gómez et al., 2001; Edenius et al., 2002; Persson et al., 2005; Herrero et al., 2012).”
- Coping with human disturbance: spatial and temporal tactics of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) (2010, background): “In addition, moose (Alces alces (L., 1758)), whose calves are predated by bears (Swenson et al. 2007), forage preferably in regenerating forest stands and clearcuts (Edenius et al. 2002; Nikula et al. 2004; Cassing et al. 2006).”
- The response of mammals to forest fire and timber harvest in the North American boreal forest (2005, background): “Retarded regeneration also exists in moose-browsed pine cutblocks in Scandinavia (Lavsund, 1987; Edenius et al., 2002).”