Influence of agricultural crops adjacent to forest on woody species browsing: Is it advantageous to have a tasty neighbour?

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Preference of biotopes and selection of food by wild herbivores are more complicated in a cultural landscape used for agriculture than in natural conditions. Agricultural management significantly affects the feeding as well as cover conditions of the environment and changes in quality and accessibility of food sources occur throughout the year. We studied the consumption of agricultural crops and impact on tree shoots by herbivores in a mosaic landscape. Large herbivores utilized the food supply on the lands outside the forest environment during winter and early spring and in summer. In summer the cereal grains were preferred by herbivores and accounted for a significant share in their diet. The intensity of shoot browsing differed between the localities and between the studied woody species but was not lower due to the presence of attractive crops near the forest. The utilization of food outside the forest may help the animals to survive the winter but the potential of this food for reducing tree browsing in the forest is low.Keywords: browsing; diet selection; impact; large herbivores Free-living herbivores are natural and important members of ecosystems and due to their good reproductive potential they are among the factors that can significantly affect the habitat development on the level of biotope, ecosystem and even landscape (Augustine, Decalesta 2003). In natural conditions, their abundance is regulated by predators and insufficiency of food, while in cultural landscape these autoregulation mechanisms are disturbed. In some cases this has led to high stocks of species that adapted themselves to the altered conditions successfully. Their high abundance then has negative effects on the economics of agriculture and forestry and it may even threaten the ecological stability of ecosystems. That is why constant attention is paid to the feeding ecology of large herbivores, their spatial activity, preference of various food sources and possibilities how to reduce their negative impacts on the environment. Generally, the more intensively the landscape is farmed, the worse the living conditions of game, and the higher the abundance of game, the greater disharmony has to be expected in the relations between vegetation and consumers.Movements and feeding ecology of large herbivores have been well documented in forest habitats; however, little information related to deer movements exists in intensively cultivated areas (Matrai et al. 2004;Brinkman et al. 2005).Furthermore, large herbivores are able to migrate over long distances, search for the best food sources and flexibly change the spectrum of their diet components (Mcshea, Schwede 1993;Thirgood 1995;Szemethy et al. 2003a;Matrai et al. 2004). Besides the quality of the food sources, preference of a biotope is affected also by their quantity, accessibility, risk of disturbing and other factors.Preference of biotopes, selection of food and also survival strategy are more complicated in a cultural landscape used for agriculture than in natural conditions a...

Reproductive tactics, birth timing and the trade-off between risk avoidance and foraging in an income breeder

“…Open habitats are often considered as providing forage of higher quality and quantity for large herbivores during the growing season (Kamler & Homolka 2016), but are often also perceived as riskier (Ciuti et al 2006; Grignoli et al 2007; Bjørneraas et al 2011). Previous studies demonstrated that the use of open habitat increases reproductive success in female roe deer (McLoughlin et al 2007; Bonnot et al 2018), although the strength of the response depends on predation pressure (Kjellander et al 2004) and personality (Monestier et al 2015; Bonnot et al 2018).…”

Evaluation of wild animals browsing preferences in forage resources

“…Management of agroforestry resources is sometimes difficult in many rural areas due to the high presence of wild animals (Fratini et al, 2016), as their excessive presence can produce negative effects on agriculture or forest products (Innocenti et al 2015;Kamler and Homolka, 2016). Damage is caused on different kinds of crops, such as annual herbaceous crops or vineyards (Calenge et al, 2004;Bleier et al, 2016) or on forests, especially taking into account the difficulty of trees regeneration or growth (Gill and Beardall, 2001;Côté et al, 2004).…”