Herbivory on planted oak seedlings across a habitat edge created by timber harvest

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Kenneth F. Kellner ; Robert K. Swihart
• 关键词：Oak ; Quercus ; Herbivory ; Insects ; White ; tailed deer ; Eastern cottontail rabbit
• 刊名：Plant Ecology
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：218
• 期：2
• 页码：213-223
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Ecology; Plant Ecology; Community & Population Ecology; Terrestial Ecology; Applied Ecology; Biodiversity;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-5052
• 卷排序：218

文摘

Edge habitats create environmental gradients that affect plant community composition and herbivore behavior. Silvicultural disturbance creates edge habitat with direct (via changes in light) and indirect (via changes in herbivore behavior) consequences for the growth and survival of tree seedlings, and thus, the composition of the future forest stands. Herbivores, particularly ungulates, can be a major limiting factor in oak regeneration, and silvicultural disturbance may alter the abundance or behavior of herbivores following harvest. We measured the severity of herbivory on experimentally planted white (Quercus alba) and black oak (Quercus velutina) seedlings by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), as well as foliar damage from insects, across gradients created by clearcuts in a deciduous forest in Indiana, USA. Overall browse pressure on oaks was low in our study. Nonetheless, spatial variation in herbivory depended on herbivore taxa; herbivory by rabbits was highest inside harvest openings, whereas foliar damage by insects peaked in the forest. Intensity of deer herbivory was constant across the edge. In addition, we observed indirect interactions among herbivore species mediated by a seedling’s browsing history. Herbivore damage by deer was positively related to past browsing by rabbits, and foliar damage from insects was positively related to past browsing by both deer and rabbits. Increasing woody plant competition reduced herbivory on seedlings by both deer and rabbits. Given the lack of spatial variability in deer herbivory and low overall herbivory by rabbits, we suspect that interactions between timber harvesting and herbivory did not have a strong impact on oak seedlings at our study sites.