Impact of Red Deer Cervus elaphus Grazing on Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus and Composition of Ground Beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) Assemblage |
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Authors: | Claudia Melis Astrid Buset Per Arild Aarrestad Oddvar Hanssen Erling L Meisingset Reidar Andersen Arne Moksnes Eivin Røskaft |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Realfagbygget, N-7491, Trondheim, Norway;(2) Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tungasletta-2, N-7485 Trondheim, Norway;(3) Norwegian Centre for Ecological Agriculture, Tingvoll gard, N-6630 Tingvoll, Norway |
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Abstract: | We studied the role of red deer Cervus elaphus L. as ecosystem modifier in boreal forest (Tingvoll municipality, 62°52′ N, 8°20′ E, Norway), during early summer of 2001.
The effect of grazing by red deer on ground beetles (Carabidae) abundance and diversity was investigated across a gradient
of grazing pressures. We trapped ground beetles by pit-fall traps from three homogeneous winter grazing areas (ungrazed, medium
grazed, heavily grazed). Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus (the main winter food for red deer) was sampled and its dry weight was measured for the three locations. Gradient analyses
showed that grazing by red deer affects carabid species composition. Grazing significantly affected the amount of bilberry,
which correlated with species variation. According to our predictions, we found a higher abundance of carabids in the heavily
grazed location, but the species richness and the diversity indices were similar for the three areas. This study shows that
overall species composition is altered along a gradient as consequence of red deer winter grazing and that red deer act as
ecosystem engineer, by reducing the bilberry heather which dominates the field layer in early summer. |
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Keywords: | Boreal forest Carabidae Ecosystem engineer Grazing Norway Red deer |
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