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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2023
- Title: The Role of Odocoileus virginianus and Alces alces Browsing on Undisturbed Temperate Forests
- Author: Ainhoa Bezerra-Gastesi (Pomona College)
- Abstract:
Tree seedlings are key in understanding the health of a forest. It is important to understand forest composition through seedlings to be able to make informed decisions on conservation efforts based on different natural pressures. One natural pressure that seedlings face are white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and eastern moose (Alces alces) browsing. Deer and moose browsing can completely change seedling abundance and species composition, in turn changing future forest composition. I investigated the impacts of deer and moose browsing, collectively and individually, on forest structure and composition in an experiment at the Harvard Forest. In 2011, four 20x20m fenced sites were established in unharvested regions of the Harvard Forest, two in oak-dominated regions, and two in hemlock-dominated regions. At each site, there are three treatments: one fenced treatment where neither moose nor deer can enter (full exclosure), one fenced treatment that only allows for deer to enter (partial exclosure), and one unfenced control exclosure. I tested for differences in the treatments in seedling height, density, and species and found that there was significantly more browsing occurring on the seedlings in the full exclosure than the partial or control exclosures. I also found that there were significantly more trees over 2.5cm in diameter between 2011 and 2023 in the full exclosure plots. These results suggest that when both deer and moose have access to tree browsing they can have many different impacts on regeneration by altering tree density and seedling browsing. These data further our understanding of the effects deer and moose browsing can have on the future of temperate forests since browsing can reduce recruitment of small trees into the forest and can allow for more unpreferred browsing species to grow in the forest. Further studies can be done to see how creating exclosures around browsers’ preferred species impacts their browsing habits.
- Research Category: Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions; Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies; Conservation and Management
