Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Peter Meyer, Maria Aljes, Heike Culmsee, Eike Feldmann, Jonas Glatthorn, Christoph Leuschner, Heike Schneider
Summary: Quantifying the degree of old-growthness of forests is important for assessing their conservation value and guiding management decisions. This study developed an indicator, the Old-Growth Indicator (OGI), to quantify the old-growthness of forest structure in Central Europe and found that it provides a comprehensive and reproducible measure of forest maturity, allowing for differentiated evaluations. The OGI values ranged from 0.71 to 0.74 for primeval forests, 0.13 to 0.42 for ND stands, 0.07 to 0.30 for OP, and 0.03 to 0.26 for YP stands.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Laura Schulte, Daniele De Angelis, Natarsha Babic, Slaven Reljic
Summary: The study in Paklenica National Park revealed that European brown bears exhibit solitary behavior in small seasonal home ranges during autumn, spending time near feeding sites and approaching human settlements. Further research is needed to understand the impact of gravidity on home range and to adapt management strategies for human-bear encounters in the park.
Review
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Ana Carolina Abrantes, Madalena Vieira-Pinto
Summary: This systematic review examined the spatiotemporal tendencies and sanitary profiles of surveys on zoonotic diseases of wild boars and red deer in Europe from 2006 to 2020. The study found that the number of publications on zoonotic diseases in these game species increased over the 15-year period. The focus was mainly on zoonoses such as Hepatitis E virus, Toxoplasmosis, Trichinellosis, Salmonellosis and Tuberculosis.
Article
Biology
Jingjing Xu, Evelyn H. Merrill, Mark A. Lewis
Summary: This study presents a spatio-temporal, differential equation model for understanding the spreading of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in cervid species. The model incorporates important factors such as home range overlap and male dispersal, and assesses the impact of various factors on the spreading speed through sensitivity analysis. The study also evaluates the effect of landscape heterogeneity on the spreading of CWD.
JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Marcin Churski, Robert Spitzer, Eric Coissac, Pierre Taberlet, Jone Lescinskaite, Hermine A. L. van Ginkel, Dries P. J. Kuijper, Joris P. G. M. Cromsigt
Summary: The study showed that forest management influences the diet composition of both ungulate species. In areas with high wolf-use, red deer experienced significant changes in diet composition compared to bison.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Anna Widen, Anders Jarnemo, Johan Mansson, Johan Lilja, Julien Morel, Annika M. Felton
Summary: The distribution and population density of red deer are increasing in Europe, leading to severe damage in commercial forestry and agriculture. Bark stripping, especially on Norway spruce, is a major problem thought to occur during winter when other forage is scarce. This study investigated the relationship between intake of rapeseed and bark stripping on Norway spruce by red deer during early spring.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Ben Spracklen, Dominick V. Spracklen
Summary: The study used LiDAR data from NASA's GEDI project to analyze the structure of old-growth forests in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, finding significant differences in structural metrics between old-growth forests and non-old-growth forests, with OGF being more open, having a more complex vertical structure, and thicker ground-layer vegetation.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Maxence Martin, Osvaldo Valeria
Summary: This research aims to determine the ability of Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) technology to identify age-related structural diversity in old-growth boreal forests. The study found that ALS technology can accurately distinguish between early and late old-growth forests, and revealed the presence of large tracts of late old-growth forests within old-growth forests of unknown age.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
K. A. Pelz, G. Hayward, A. N. Gray, E. M. Berryman, C. W. Woodall, A. Nathanson, N. A. Morgan
Summary: Old-growth forests are globally valued for their ecological attributes, cultural significance, and rarity. This study developed an approach using USDA Forest Service National Forest System (NFS) lands data to estimate the extent of old-growth forests in the United States. The study estimated that there are approximately 10 million hectares of old-growth forests across NFS forests, with the majority located in the western US states.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Maarten Jaap Erik Broekman, Selwyn Hoeks, Rosa Freriks, Merel M. Langendoen, Katharina M. Runge, Ecaterina Savenco, Ruben ter Harmsel, Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Marlee A. Tucker
Summary: Home range is an important measure for understanding animal space use. However, previous macroecological studies have not fully considered the environmental context and intraspecific variation. This study introduces HomeRange, a global database with 75,611 home-range values of 960 mammal species, including terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial species. The database provides detailed information on species traits and methodological aspects.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Andrew N. Gray, Kristen Pelz, Gregory D. Hayward, Tom Schuler, Wade Salverson, Marin Palmer, Christian Schumacher, Christopher W. Woodall
Summary: Mature and old-growth forests are valued for their ecological and cultural significance. Land use change and industrialization have led to global declines in the area of older forests. This study aims to identify concepts and indicators to define mature and old-growth forests in the United States in order to quantify their abundance and distribution.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Anna Dziekonska, Marek Lecewicz, Agnieszka Partyka, Wojciech Nizanski
Summary: Flow cytometry (FC) is a recommended technique for assessing sperm quality, while fluorescence microscopy (FM) is often used as an alternative when FC is not accessible. In this study, FC and FM were used to evaluate the functionality of various organelles in European red deer epididymal spermatozoa stored in liquid nitrogen. The results showed that refrigerated storage of the epididymides for 12 hours had no significant effect on sperm quality before cryopreservation, but significantly influenced the percentage of early necrotic sperm after thawing. Despite differences in results, both FM and FC revealed significant correlations between examined variables, except for mitochondrial activity. The study concluded that European red deer spermatozoa stored in the epididymides at 2-4 degrees C for 12 hours can be successfully cryopreserved, with FM being better suited for evaluating mitochondrial activity and FC being more useful for assessing DNA fragmentation.
Editorial Material
Ecology
Erin R. Siracusa
Summary: Longitudinal data from a wild ungulate population over 43 years suggests that changes in social connectedness as individuals age may be influenced by changes in spatial behavior.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Forestry
David Singer, Hermann Hondong, Markus Dietz
Summary: Old-growth forests are valuable habitats for bat and woodpecker species, yet these habitat features are often reduced in managed forests. Bechstein's Bat, a species of high European conservation priority, shows a preference for woodpecker cavities for roosting. The study found that both woodpeckers and Bechstein's Bat prefer managed forests with old, deciduous stands with high tree densities and deadwood structures.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Bikem Ekberzade, Omer Yetemen, Omer Lutfi Sen, H. Nuzhet Dalfes
Summary: The aim of this study is to estimate the potential distribution of Turkey's forests and their composition by filling a gap in previous research on European forest taxa distribution. The researchers used high resolution climate data and a vegetation model to simulate the distribution, and adjusted the parameters based on observed data to improve the accuracy of the simulations.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2022)
