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Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem

Forests in Europe are exposed to increasingly frequent and severe disturbances. The resulting changes in the structure and composition of forests can have profound consequences for the wildlife inhabiting them. Moreover, wildlife populations in Europe are often subjected to differential management r...

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Autores principales: Tourani, Mahdieh, Franke, Frederik, Heurich, Marco, Henrich, Maik, Peterka, Tomáš, Ebert, Cornelia, Oeser, Julian, Edelhoff, Hendrik, Milleret, Cyril, Dupont, Pierre, Bischof, Richard, Peters, Wibke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10027870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36941335
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31283-7
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author Tourani, Mahdieh
Franke, Frederik
Heurich, Marco
Henrich, Maik
Peterka, Tomáš
Ebert, Cornelia
Oeser, Julian
Edelhoff, Hendrik
Milleret, Cyril
Dupont, Pierre
Bischof, Richard
Peters, Wibke
author_facet Tourani, Mahdieh
Franke, Frederik
Heurich, Marco
Henrich, Maik
Peterka, Tomáš
Ebert, Cornelia
Oeser, Julian
Edelhoff, Hendrik
Milleret, Cyril
Dupont, Pierre
Bischof, Richard
Peters, Wibke
author_sort Tourani, Mahdieh
collection PubMed
description Forests in Europe are exposed to increasingly frequent and severe disturbances. The resulting changes in the structure and composition of forests can have profound consequences for the wildlife inhabiting them. Moreover, wildlife populations in Europe are often subjected to differential management regimes as they regularly extend across multiple national and administrative borders. The red deer Cervus elaphus population in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem, straddling the Czech-German border, has experienced forest disturbances, primarily caused by windfalls and bark beetle Ips typographus outbreaks during the past decades. To adapt local management strategies to the changing environmental conditions and to coordinate them across the international border, reliable estimates of red deer density and abundance are highly sought-after by policymakers, wildlife managers, and stakeholders. Covering a 1081-km(2) study area, we conducted a transnational non-invasive DNA sampling study in 2018 that yielded 1578 genotyped DNA samples from 1120 individual red deer. Using spatial capture-recapture models, we estimated total and jurisdiction-specific abundance of red deer throughout the ecosystem and quantified the role of forest disturbance and differential management strategies in shaping spatial heterogeneity in red deer density. We hypothesised that (a) forest disturbances provide favourable habitat conditions (e.g., forage and cover), and (b) contrasting red deer management regimes in different jurisdictions create a differential risk landscape, ultimately shaping density distributions. Overall, we estimated that 2851 red deer (95% Credible Interval = 2609–3119) resided in the study area during the sampling period, with a relatively even overall sex ratio (1406 females, 95% CI = 1229–1612 and 1445 males, 95% CI = 1288–1626). The average red deer density was higher in Czechia (3.5 km(−2), 95% CI = 1.2–12.3) compared to Germany (2 km(−2), 95% CI = 0.2–11). The effect of forest disturbances on red deer density was context-dependent. Forest disturbances had a positive effect on red deer density at higher elevations and a negative effect at lower elevations, which could be explained by partial migration and its drivers in this population. Density of red deer was generally higher in management units where hunting is prohibited. In addition, we found that sex ratios differed between administrative units and were more balanced in the non-intervention zones. Our results show that the effect of forest disturbances on wild ungulates is modulated by additional factors, such as elevation and ungulate management practices. Overall density patterns and sex ratios suggested strong gradients in density between administrative units. With climate change increasing the severity and frequency of forest disturbances, population-level monitoring and management are becoming increasingly important, especially for wide-ranging species as both wildlife and global change transcend administrative boundaries.
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spelling pubmed-100278702023-03-22 Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem Tourani, Mahdieh Franke, Frederik Heurich, Marco Henrich, Maik Peterka, Tomáš Ebert, Cornelia Oeser, Julian Edelhoff, Hendrik Milleret, Cyril Dupont, Pierre Bischof, Richard Peters, Wibke Sci Rep Article Forests in Europe are exposed to increasingly frequent and severe disturbances. The resulting changes in the structure and composition of forests can have profound consequences for the wildlife inhabiting them. Moreover, wildlife populations in Europe are often subjected to differential management regimes as they regularly extend across multiple national and administrative borders. The red deer Cervus elaphus population in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem, straddling the Czech-German border, has experienced forest disturbances, primarily caused by windfalls and bark beetle Ips typographus outbreaks during the past decades. To adapt local management strategies to the changing environmental conditions and to coordinate them across the international border, reliable estimates of red deer density and abundance are highly sought-after by policymakers, wildlife managers, and stakeholders. Covering a 1081-km(2) study area, we conducted a transnational non-invasive DNA sampling study in 2018 that yielded 1578 genotyped DNA samples from 1120 individual red deer. Using spatial capture-recapture models, we estimated total and jurisdiction-specific abundance of red deer throughout the ecosystem and quantified the role of forest disturbance and differential management strategies in shaping spatial heterogeneity in red deer density. We hypothesised that (a) forest disturbances provide favourable habitat conditions (e.g., forage and cover), and (b) contrasting red deer management regimes in different jurisdictions create a differential risk landscape, ultimately shaping density distributions. Overall, we estimated that 2851 red deer (95% Credible Interval = 2609–3119) resided in the study area during the sampling period, with a relatively even overall sex ratio (1406 females, 95% CI = 1229–1612 and 1445 males, 95% CI = 1288–1626). The average red deer density was higher in Czechia (3.5 km(−2), 95% CI = 1.2–12.3) compared to Germany (2 km(−2), 95% CI = 0.2–11). The effect of forest disturbances on red deer density was context-dependent. Forest disturbances had a positive effect on red deer density at higher elevations and a negative effect at lower elevations, which could be explained by partial migration and its drivers in this population. Density of red deer was generally higher in management units where hunting is prohibited. In addition, we found that sex ratios differed between administrative units and were more balanced in the non-intervention zones. Our results show that the effect of forest disturbances on wild ungulates is modulated by additional factors, such as elevation and ungulate management practices. Overall density patterns and sex ratios suggested strong gradients in density between administrative units. With climate change increasing the severity and frequency of forest disturbances, population-level monitoring and management are becoming increasingly important, especially for wide-ranging species as both wildlife and global change transcend administrative boundaries. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10027870/ /pubmed/36941335 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31283-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Tourani, Mahdieh
Franke, Frederik
Heurich, Marco
Henrich, Maik
Peterka, Tomáš
Ebert, Cornelia
Oeser, Julian
Edelhoff, Hendrik
Milleret, Cyril
Dupont, Pierre
Bischof, Richard
Peters, Wibke
Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title_full Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title_fullStr Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title_full_unstemmed Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title_short Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
title_sort spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10027870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36941335
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31283-7
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