Nicole P Boucher, Morgan Anderson, Chris Procter, Shelley Marshall, Gerald Kuzyk, Shaun Freeman, Brian M Starzomski, Jason T Fisher
{"title":"Silviculture shapes the spatial distribution of wildlife in managed landscapes.","authors":"Nicole P Boucher, Morgan Anderson, Chris Procter, Shelley Marshall, Gerald Kuzyk, Shaun Freeman, Brian M Starzomski, Jason T Fisher","doi":"10.1007/s10980-025-02095-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Context: </strong>Silviculture-managing tree establishment for landscape objectives-influences ecological outcomes of forests. While forest harvest impacts on wildlife are well-documented, silvicultural treatment effects remain unclear.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We investigated how forest harvest and silviculture shape predator and ungulate distributions and interactions, providing ecological insights for forest management.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We deployed two camera arrays in extensively harvested North American landscapes to evaluate relationships between forest harvest, silviculture, and predator and ungulate occurrences.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Forest harvest, silviculture, and predator/prey activity shape wildlife occurrences. Wolf (<i>Canis lupus</i>), influenced by moose (<i>Alces alces</i>), decreased with regenerating (9-24 years) clearcuts, new (0-8 years) clearcuts with reserves, and fertilized cutblocks. Wolves increased with regenerating/older (25-40 years) clearcuts with reserves. Coyote (<i>C. latrans</i>) increased in manually or chemically brushed cutblocks at high or low deer occurrence, respectively. Black bear (<i>U. americanus</i>), influenced by prey, increased with regenerating prepared cutblocks and fewer new prepared cutblocks. Prey elevated lynx (<i>Lynx canadensis</i>) occurrence with regenerating prepared or older unprepared cutblocks. Depending on predators, mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) decreased with regenerating and older prepared cutblocks; white-tailed deer (<i>O. virginianus</i>) decreased with selection- and new even-aged cutblocks. Harvest age and wolves best explained moose, although silviculture mattered seasonally.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Silviculture shapes wildlife distributions and interactions. Integrating these effects into research and forest management is essential for meeting ecological objectives.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02095-z.</p>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"40 5","pages":"93"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12048426/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Landscape Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-025-02095-z","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/5/2 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Context: Silviculture-managing tree establishment for landscape objectives-influences ecological outcomes of forests. While forest harvest impacts on wildlife are well-documented, silvicultural treatment effects remain unclear.
Objectives: We investigated how forest harvest and silviculture shape predator and ungulate distributions and interactions, providing ecological insights for forest management.
Methods: We deployed two camera arrays in extensively harvested North American landscapes to evaluate relationships between forest harvest, silviculture, and predator and ungulate occurrences.
Results: Forest harvest, silviculture, and predator/prey activity shape wildlife occurrences. Wolf (Canis lupus), influenced by moose (Alces alces), decreased with regenerating (9-24 years) clearcuts, new (0-8 years) clearcuts with reserves, and fertilized cutblocks. Wolves increased with regenerating/older (25-40 years) clearcuts with reserves. Coyote (C. latrans) increased in manually or chemically brushed cutblocks at high or low deer occurrence, respectively. Black bear (U. americanus), influenced by prey, increased with regenerating prepared cutblocks and fewer new prepared cutblocks. Prey elevated lynx (Lynx canadensis) occurrence with regenerating prepared or older unprepared cutblocks. Depending on predators, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) decreased with regenerating and older prepared cutblocks; white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) decreased with selection- and new even-aged cutblocks. Harvest age and wolves best explained moose, although silviculture mattered seasonally.
Conclusions: Silviculture shapes wildlife distributions and interactions. Integrating these effects into research and forest management is essential for meeting ecological objectives.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-025-02095-z.
期刊介绍：
Landscape Ecology is the flagship journal of a well-established and rapidly developing interdisciplinary science that focuses explicitly on the ecological understanding of spatial heterogeneity. Landscape Ecology draws together expertise from both biophysical and socioeconomic sciences to explore basic and applied research questions concerning the ecology, conservation, management, design/planning, and sustainability of landscapes as coupled human-environment systems. Landscape ecology studies are characterized by spatially explicit methods in which spatial attributes and arrangements of landscape elements are directly analyzed and related to ecological processes.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
