Affiliation:
1. Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706, U.S.A.
Abstract
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière) is a shade-tolerant, slow-growing tree once common in forests across the Great Lakes region. It was heavily exploited in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and now experiences limited regeneration across much of its range. This failure to regenerate has been ascribed to poor seedbed conditions, insufficient canopy openings, warmer climate, and browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) or snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus Erxleben, 1777). To test whether deer or hare limit hemlock regeneration, we studied >2000 hemlock seedlings inside and adjacent to experimental deer exclosures at 59 sites randomly distributed across hemlock and hemlock-component stands in northern Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States. We monitored local deer and hare abundance, seedling growth, and seedling survival for 20 years. Two First Nations reservations showed lower deer density and greater survival and growth of unprotected seedlings than three national forests of the United States. Cohorts of hemlock seedlings protected from deer survived at a rate four times higher than those exposed to deer (59.3% vs. 15.0%) and shared a combined height 5.2 times greater. Hare densities significantly affected seedling survival only within exclosures. This extensive, long-term study identifies deer as the primary factor constraining hemlock regeneration in the region.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Ecology,Forestry,Global and Planetary Change
Reference36 articles.
1. A new look at the statistical model identification
2. Alverson, W.S., and Waller, D.M. 1997. Deer populations and the widespread failure of hemlock regeneration in northern forests. In The Science of Overabundance: Deer Ecology and Population Management. Edited by W.J. McShea, H.B. Underwood, and J.H. Rappole. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., and London, U.K. pp. 280–297.
3. Forests Too Deer: Edge Effects in Northern Wisconsin
4. White-Tail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Influence on Structure and Composition of Tsuga canadensis Forests
5. Tracking lags in historical plant species’ shifts in relation to regional climate change
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献