Local trophic cascading impact of wolves on tree regeneration in summer and winter areas of ungulates
Andrea Doris Kupferschmid, WSL - Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf (CH)
Wolves can change the abundance and the spatio-temporal use of habitats of ungulates and thus have an impact on the browsing of tree regeneration. Such trophic interactions are complex and multi-layered, because forest ecosystems in central Europe are strongly influenced by forestry, hunting practices and wildlife protection areas. In the CALANDA region of Switzerland, ungulate browsing was monitored in tree regeneration inventories before, during and after wolf settlement. I will present results from plots in sites with seasonally differing amounts of wolves and red deer including core zones.