Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations
Reducing browsing damages from cervids (Cervidae) on economically valuable tree species is a challenging task in many countries. Apart from cervid abundance, landscape characteristics, such as forest composition, land use, forage availability and climatic conditions, may affect the degree of browsin...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:46a4b163b85e44648fd96e532f38f909 2023-05-15T13:12:56+02:00 Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations Sabine E. Pfeffer Sabrina Dressel Märtha Wallgren Jonas Bergquist Christer Kalén 2022-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/d14090734 https://doaj.org/article/46a4b163b85e44648fd96e532f38f909 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/9/734 https://doaj.org/toc/1424-2818 doi:10.3390/d14090734 1424-2818 https://doaj.org/article/46a4b163b85e44648fd96e532f38f909 Diversity, Vol 14, Iss 734, p 734 (2022) Alces alces Cervidae deer damage forestry management variables path analysis Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/d14090734 2022-12-31T00:36:06Z Reducing browsing damages from cervids (Cervidae) on economically valuable tree species is a challenging task in many countries. Apart from cervid abundance, landscape characteristics, such as forest composition, land use, forage availability and climatic conditions, may affect the degree of browsing through both direct and indirect effects. A better understanding of basic mechanisms in this complex system is needed to design efficient and convincing management strategies. Focusing on Sweden as a case, which has been widely studied using regression analyses only, we applied path analysis to test the validity of a model on the indirect and direct links between landscape characteristics, cervid populations, and browsing damages on Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ). Our results validated the tested model in which moose ( Alces alces ) density and pine availability directly influence browsing damages. Increasing amounts of pine forests, preferred deciduous trees, and young forest had positive direct effects on moose densities and thereby indirectly contributed to increased browsing damages. The density of smaller deer species showed no direct effect on browsing damages on pine. Path analysis corroborated our attempt to disentangle direct and indirect potential causal drivers of browsing damages and shows that the choice of statistical method may alter the understanding of mechanistic driving forces. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Diversity 14 9 734 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Alces alces Cervidae deer damage forestry management variables path analysis Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
spellingShingle |
Alces alces Cervidae deer damage forestry management variables path analysis Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Sabine E. Pfeffer Sabrina Dressel Märtha Wallgren Jonas Bergquist Christer Kalén Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
topic_facet |
Alces alces Cervidae deer damage forestry management variables path analysis Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
Reducing browsing damages from cervids (Cervidae) on economically valuable tree species is a challenging task in many countries. Apart from cervid abundance, landscape characteristics, such as forest composition, land use, forage availability and climatic conditions, may affect the degree of browsing through both direct and indirect effects. A better understanding of basic mechanisms in this complex system is needed to design efficient and convincing management strategies. Focusing on Sweden as a case, which has been widely studied using regression analyses only, we applied path analysis to test the validity of a model on the indirect and direct links between landscape characteristics, cervid populations, and browsing damages on Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ). Our results validated the tested model in which moose ( Alces alces ) density and pine availability directly influence browsing damages. Increasing amounts of pine forests, preferred deciduous trees, and young forest had positive direct effects on moose densities and thereby indirectly contributed to increased browsing damages. The density of smaller deer species showed no direct effect on browsing damages on pine. Path analysis corroborated our attempt to disentangle direct and indirect potential causal drivers of browsing damages and shows that the choice of statistical method may alter the understanding of mechanistic driving forces. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sabine E. Pfeffer Sabrina Dressel Märtha Wallgren Jonas Bergquist Christer Kalén |
author_facet |
Sabine E. Pfeffer Sabrina Dressel Märtha Wallgren Jonas Bergquist Christer Kalén |
author_sort |
Sabine E. Pfeffer |
title |
Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
title_short |
Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
title_full |
Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
title_fullStr |
Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Browsing Damage on Scots Pine: Direct and Indirect Effects of Landscape Characteristics, Moose and Deer Populations |
title_sort |
browsing damage on scots pine: direct and indirect effects of landscape characteristics, moose and deer populations |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/d14090734 https://doaj.org/article/46a4b163b85e44648fd96e532f38f909 |
genre |
Alces alces |
genre_facet |
Alces alces |
op_source |
Diversity, Vol 14, Iss 734, p 734 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/9/734 https://doaj.org/toc/1424-2818 doi:10.3390/d14090734 1424-2818 https://doaj.org/article/46a4b163b85e44648fd96e532f38f909 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/d14090734 |
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Diversity |
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14 |
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9 |
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734 |
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