Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses?
Like large carnivores, hunters both kill and scare ungulates, and thus might indirectly affect plant performance through trophic cascades. In this study, we hypothesized that intensive hunting and enduring fear of humans have caused moose and other forest ungulates to partly avoid areas near human i...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2995498 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 |
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2995498 2023-05-15T13:13:30+02:00 Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? Mehlhoop, Anne Catriona Van Moorter, Bram Rolandsen, Christer Moe Hagen, Dagmar Granhus, Aksel Eriksen, Rune Ringsby, Thor Harald Solberg, Erling Johan 2022 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2995498 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 eng eng Wiley Open Access Norges forskningsråd: 272413 urn:issn:2045-7758 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2995498 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 cristin:2022968 Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no CC-BY Ecology and Evolution VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 Peer reviewed Journal article 2022 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 2022-05-25T22:39:41Z Like large carnivores, hunters both kill and scare ungulates, and thus might indirectly affect plant performance through trophic cascades. In this study, we hypothesized that intensive hunting and enduring fear of humans have caused moose and other forest ungulates to partly avoid areas near human infrastructure (perceived hunting risk), with positive cascading effects on recruitment of trees. Using data from the Norwegian forest inventory, we found decreasing browsing pressure and increasing tree recruitment in areas close to roads and houses, where ungulates are more likely to encounter humans. However, although browsing and recruitment were negatively related, reduced browsing was only responsible for a small proportion of the higher tree recruitment near human infrastructure. We suggest that the apparently weak cascading effect occurs because the recorded browsing pressure only partly reflects the long-term browsing intensity close to humans. Accordingly, tree recruitment was also related to the density of small trees 5–10 years earlier, which was higher close to human infrastructure. Hence, if small tree density is a product of the browsing pressure in the past, the cascading effect is probably stronger than our estimates suggest. Reduced browsing near roads and houses is most in line with risk avoidance driven by fear of humans (behaviorally mediated), and not because of excessive hunting and local reduction in ungulate density (density mediated). Alces alces, browsing, human impacts, roads, tree recruitment, trophic cascade, ungulates Applied ecology; Community ecology; Landscape ecology publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Ecology and Evolution 12 4 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 Mehlhoop, Anne Catriona Van Moorter, Bram Rolandsen, Christer Moe Hagen, Dagmar Granhus, Aksel Eriksen, Rune Ringsby, Thor Harald Solberg, Erling Johan Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
topic_facet |
VDP::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 VDP::Zoology and botany: 480 |
description |
Like large carnivores, hunters both kill and scare ungulates, and thus might indirectly affect plant performance through trophic cascades. In this study, we hypothesized that intensive hunting and enduring fear of humans have caused moose and other forest ungulates to partly avoid areas near human infrastructure (perceived hunting risk), with positive cascading effects on recruitment of trees. Using data from the Norwegian forest inventory, we found decreasing browsing pressure and increasing tree recruitment in areas close to roads and houses, where ungulates are more likely to encounter humans. However, although browsing and recruitment were negatively related, reduced browsing was only responsible for a small proportion of the higher tree recruitment near human infrastructure. We suggest that the apparently weak cascading effect occurs because the recorded browsing pressure only partly reflects the long-term browsing intensity close to humans. Accordingly, tree recruitment was also related to the density of small trees 5–10 years earlier, which was higher close to human infrastructure. Hence, if small tree density is a product of the browsing pressure in the past, the cascading effect is probably stronger than our estimates suggest. Reduced browsing near roads and houses is most in line with risk avoidance driven by fear of humans (behaviorally mediated), and not because of excessive hunting and local reduction in ungulate density (density mediated). Alces alces, browsing, human impacts, roads, tree recruitment, trophic cascade, ungulates Applied ecology; Community ecology; Landscape ecology publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mehlhoop, Anne Catriona Van Moorter, Bram Rolandsen, Christer Moe Hagen, Dagmar Granhus, Aksel Eriksen, Rune Ringsby, Thor Harald Solberg, Erling Johan |
author_facet |
Mehlhoop, Anne Catriona Van Moorter, Bram Rolandsen, Christer Moe Hagen, Dagmar Granhus, Aksel Eriksen, Rune Ringsby, Thor Harald Solberg, Erling Johan |
author_sort |
Mehlhoop, Anne Catriona |
title |
Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
title_short |
Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
title_full |
Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
title_fullStr |
Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Moose in our neighborhood: Does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
title_sort |
moose in our neighborhood: does perceived hunting risk have cascading effects on tree performance in vicinity of roads and houses? |
publisher |
Wiley Open Access |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2995498 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 |
genre |
Alces alces |
genre_facet |
Alces alces |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: 272413 urn:issn:2045-7758 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2995498 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 cristin:2022968 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8795 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
4 |
_version_ |
1766258825221898240 |