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dc.contributor.authorSpitzer, Robert
dc.contributor.authorCoissac, Eric
dc.contributor.authorFelton, Annika M.
dc.contributor.authorFohringer, Christian
dc.contributor.authorJuvany, Laura
dc.contributor.authorLandman, Marietjie
dc.contributor.authorSingh, Navinder J.
dc.contributor.authorTaberlet, Pierre Robert Michel
dc.contributor.authorWidemo, Fredrik
dc.contributor.authorCromsigt, Joris P. G. M.
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-26T14:55:25Z
dc.date.available2022-02-26T14:55:25Z
dc.date.issued2020-11-18
dc.description.abstractThe moose (Alces alces) is a dominant large mammalian herbivore in the world’s boreal zones. Moose exert significant browsing impacts on forest vegetation and are therefore often at the centre of wildlife-forestry conflicts. Consequently, understanding the drivers of their foraging behaviour is crucial for mitigating such conflicts. Management of moose in large parts of its range currently largely ignores the fact that moose foraging is influenced by increasing populations of sympatric deer species. In such multispecies systems, resource partitioning may be driven by foraging height and bite size. Feeding competition with smaller species might replace larger species from the field layer and drive them towards higher foraging strata offering larger bites. This bite size hypothesis has been well documented for African ungulate communities. Based on a large diet DNA metabarcoding dataset we suggest that feeding competition from three smaller deer species (red deer Cervus elaphus, fallow deer Dama dama, and roe deer Capreolus capreolus) over Vaccinium shrubs in the forest field layer might drive moose towards increasing consumption of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in Sweden. We found that in areas of high deer density, moose diets consistently contained less Vaccinium and higher proportions of pine over three spring periods. Utilization of these food items by the smaller deer species was either unaffected by deer density or, for Vaccinium showed the opposite pattern to moose, i.e., increases of proportions in the diet of roe and red deer with increasing deer density. Availability of pine and Vaccinium, measured as proportion of available bites, did not explain the observed patterns. Our results suggest that managing key food items like Vaccinium and the populations of smaller deer may play an important role in controlling browsing impacts of moose on pine.en_US
dc.identifier.citationSpitzer, Coissac, Felton, Fohringer, Juvany, Landman, Singh, Taberlet, Widemo, Cromsigt. Small shrubs with large importance? Smaller deer may increase the moose-forestry conflict through feeding competition over Vaccinium shrubs in the field layer. Forest Ecology and Management. 2021;480en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1987422
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118768
dc.identifier.issn0378-1127
dc.identifier.issn1872-7042
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/24176
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherElsevieren_US
dc.relation.journalForest Ecology and Management
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2021 The Author(s)en_US
dc.titleSmall shrubs with large importance? Smaller deer may increase the moose-forestry conflict through feeding competition over Vaccinium shrubs in the field layeren_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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