The relationship between moose browsing, habitat structure and predation pressure on insect herbivores

Grazing and browsing by large ungulates can have a strong effect on habitat composition and structure. Associated effects can be reduction in the abundance of palatable tree species and alter understory properties, thereby affecting habitat complexity. Changes in habitat structure and complexity can in turn affect arthropod predation pressure, as arthropod predators are strongly influenced by habitat characteristics. This may be increasingly important in production forests, as such systems are often more vulnerable to disturbances such as pest insects. However, studies exploring this indirect link between ungulates and predation rate are sparse. We explore this link through the comparison of fenced plots excluding ungulates (for four years) with associated control plots replicated in 16 forest stands covering a large geographical area. We measured vegetation characteristics to assess the effect of exclusion on habitat structure. We used plasticine models to compare predation rates in fenced and control plots on pine trees. In addition, we sampled herbivorous insects to explore the potential relationship between predation and herbivore abundance. We could only demonstrate a weak effect of browser exclusion on habitat structure, suggesting that the time of exclusion was too short to cause a vegetation response. In terms of arthropod predation, we found that predation was positively affected by understory cover, but not related to herbivore abundance. Understory properties such as species composition and biomass has been demonstrated to be affected by ungulates in other studies. Therefore, we propose that ungulate browsing -despite weak effects of browsing exclusion in our study -can affect arthropod predation via changes in the understory, which could potentially affect pest populations. Our study is one of the first attempts to connect effects of mammalian browsing to changes in predation rates on herbivorous insects.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH on behalf of Gesellschaft fur Okologie. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Northward range expansion of rooting ungulates decreases detritivore and predatory mite abundances in boreal forests.

In the last few decades wild boar populations have expanded northwards, colonizing boreal forests. The soil disturbances caused by wild boar rooting may have an impact on soil organisms that play a key role in organic matter turnover. However, the impact of wild boar colonization on boreal forest ecosystems and soil organisms remains largely unknown. We investigated the effect of natural and simulated rooting on decomposer and predatory soil mites (total, adult and juvenile abundances; and adult-juvenile proportion). Our simulated rooting experiment aimed to disentangle the effects of (i) bioturbation due to soil mixing and (ii) removing organic material (wild boar food resources) on soil mites. Our results showed a decline in the abundance of adult soil mites in response to both natural and artificial rooting, while juvenile abundance and the relative proportion of adults and juveniles were not affected. The expansion of wild boar northwards and into new habitats has negative effects on soil decomposer abundances in boreal forests which may cascade through the soil food web ultimately affecting ecosystem processes. Our study also suggests that a combined use of natural and controlled experimental approaches is the way forward to reveal any subtle interaction between aboveground and belowground organisms and the ecosystem functions they drive

Psychometric properties of instruments to measure the quality of end-of-life care and dying for long-term care residents with dementia

Purpose: Quality of care for long-term care (LTC) residents with dementia at the end-of-life is often evaluated using standardized instruments that were not developed for or thoroughly tested in this population. Given the importance of using appropriate instruments to evaluate the quality of care (QOC) and quality of dying (QOD) in LTC, we compared the validity and reliability of ten available instruments commonly used for these purposes. Methods: We performed prospective observations and retrospective interviews and surveys of family (n = 70) and professionals (n = 103) of LTC decedents with dementia in the Netherlands. Results: Instruments within the constructs QOC and QOD were highly correlated, and showed moderate to high correlation with overall assessments of QOC and QOD. Prospective and retrospective ratings using the same instruments differed little. Concordance between family and professional scores was low. Cronbach's alpha was mostly adequate. The EOLD-CAD showed good fit with pre-assumed factor structures. The EOLD-SWC and FPCS appear most valid and reliable for measuring QOC, and the EOLD-CAD and MSSE for measuring QOD. The POS performed worst in this population. Conclusions: Our comparative study of psychometric properties of instruments allows for informed selection of QOC and QOD measures for LTC residents with dementia. © The Author(s) 2011

Host-parasitoid interactions in the context of climate change and habitat fragmentation

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

exclusion experiment data

The data for the covered and uncovered trees is collected in the same way as the long term data.The dataset comprises the number of survived holly leaf miners adults. The number of each parasitoid species that has hatched. The total hatched mined and the total hatched parasitoids and the total mined leaves and total leaves counted. The experimental treatment, year of data collected and patch ID and patch characteristics are included in the datase

Data from: The effect of multiple natural enemies on a shared herbivore prey

1. Natural enemy diversity is thought to be important for effective suppression of herbivores in production systems. Studies investigating the importance of the diversity and composition of the natural enemy complex often use within year empirical studies or experimental exclusion set-ups. 2. However, within year population suppression might not translate in long term population regulation. Therefore, I used a combination of long-term data collection and an exclusion experiment to investigate mechanisms behind year-to-year population changes and potential effects of disturbance of the natural enemy complex. 3. Using the holly leaf miner study system in Wytham woods, I find that the dominant predator in the system does not necessarily contribute the most to the reduction in year-to-year changes in mine density or within-patch fluctuations. Using the exclusion experiment, it becomes clear that parasitism later in the prey life cycle, can to a certain level compensate for disruption of mortality in the earlier life stage of the prey. 4. Thus, for host suppression in perennial systems the mortality pressure over the whole the life-cycle is important and disturbance during one part of the life cycle might not necessarily be buffered by mortality in other parts of the life cycle, especially if the natural enemy complex consists of multiple predator guilds

Attitudes towards biodiversity conservation and carbon substitution in forestry : a study of stakeholders in Sweden

Global change has fueled debates on forest use and management, including the need to adapt management to mitigate future risks in forestry. Additionally, forests are important for biodiversity conservation and could be used in climate change mitigation. The opinions of stakeholders towards acceptable forest use deserve consideration. This study examined relations between environmental problem awareness, forest beliefs and environmental management attitudes (biodiversity conservation and carbon substitution) among stakeholders in Sweden, and explored the effect of a local biodiversity versus global climate change frame on attitudes. Stakeholders were recruited from ownership and environmental/recreational interest groups (owner and nature group, respectively) (membership sample) and among students (student sample). Whereas the owner group was more positive towards carbon substitution in forestry, the nature group was more positive towards biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. In the membership sample, awareness of biodiversity loss and eco-social forest beliefs influenced attitudes towards biodiversity conservation. In contrast, positive attitudes towards carbon substitution stemmed from lower awareness of biodiversity loss, less emphasis on openness towards new methods in forestry and greater emphasis on production in forestry. While framing did not influence attitudes, the cognitive hierarchy was useful in providing a nuanced understanding of stakeholders, valuable for policy and practice

Long term data collection; Holly network Wytham Woods

The data is collected using standardized methods for 9 years as described in the publication. The data comprises the number of mined leaves and total number of leaves counted, holly leaf miner survival data, pupal and larval parasitism rates, bird predation and miscellaneous mortality. The data also comprises the patch characteristics as used in the analyses, connectivity, patch size and patch ID, year and the numbers of years the data was collected for each patch

General Public Acceptance of Forest Risk Management Strategies in Sweden : Comparing Three Approaches to Acceptability

Global change calls for more active approaches to forest risk management. To avoid unforeseen backlashes, it is necessary to examine the general public's acceptance of the risk management strategies. By drawing on different theoretical approaches (threat and prevention, performance evaluations, and forest cognitions), the present study examines predictors of acceptability in the general public in three counties in Sweden (N = 1,026). As expected, appraisals of threat mediated the effect of threat awareness on belief in risk prevention, and when examining performance evaluations, trust in responsible actors influenced acceptability via procedural satisfaction. However, the threat and prevention approach and the performance evaluation approach only explained low levels of the variance in acceptability of the examined strategies. Nevertheless, stronger ecological forest values, and favoring broadleaved forests, were found to be important to the acceptability of proactively implementing a more diverse forest to meet the expected challenges associated with global climate change.Social perspectives on forest risk