Seasonal Reindeer Grazing Effects on Mountain Birch Forests : A 3D Perspective using Drones

• Main Author: Abderhalden, Bigna Lu
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UmeÃ¥ universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap 2024
• Subjects: drone; photogrammetric point cloud; reindeer; grazing; mountain birch forest; Ecology; Ekologi; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-226216

Reindeer are important drivers of ecosystem processes in arctic and subarctic ecosystems, changing nutrient conditions and influencing vegetation by grazing and trampling. Mountain birch forests are one of the ecosystems impacted by reindeer grazing, but the effect on the 3D structure of these forests is not well understood. Drones are revolutionising ecological studies, allowing to create high-resolution 3D point clouds at low costs. I investigated the effect of year-round and autumn reindeer grazing on mountain birch forest vegetation in historically separated grazing areas at the Finnish-Norwegian border, using a combination of field data and drone data. The two sampling techniques were further compared to evaluate the possibility to use photogrammetric point clouds to characterise mountain birch forests. I found lower productivity in the year-round grazing regime, coinciding with generally higher vegetation density. Vertically, higher densities were found above browsing height, while the understory showed lower densities compared to autumn grazed areas. These results suggest that mountain birches allocate more biomass to the canopy area, which can be direct or indirect grazing effects. Nevertheless, overall productivity is lowered by grazing indicating changes in vegetation biomass and composition. The point clouds generally matched field data, but the understory vegetation tended to be underrepresented, arising the question if found effects are ecological or technical. As this could not be disentangled, cautious interpretation of my results is required. I conclude that using photogrammetric point clouds is a promising technique for ecological studies, but needs further development to improve accuracy and reliability of results.