ZLV Online

Abstract

The floodplain forest ecosystems are very important for biodiversity of European landscape. The habitat of the forests has been modified by human activities. One of the factors induced by human is absence of large predators and related high population density of large herbivores, typically various deer species. We have studied the ungulate (roe deer, fallow deer) browsing impact on shrub layer density and species composition of nesting birds in the floodplain forest of Litovelské Pomoraví Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic). The birds were counted during nesting seasons (from the end of March till the beginning of July) in 2017 and 2018. The assessment of browsing was carried out in May 2018. We used transect methods for ungulate impact assessment and territory mapping method for birds community assessment. Our results suggested high ungulate browsing pressure and a very strong reduction of the woody plants smaller than 2.1 m. The densities of nesting birds were atypically low for the floodplain forest. The bust nesters were completely absent, the ground nesters has low population density. The observed intense ungulate browsing can be considered to be an important limiting factor to bird diversity, especially to bush nesters density in the floodplain forest. The reduction of ungulate population density is the key measure not only for maintenance of the floodplain forest dynamics, but also for conservation of birds’ community and for biodiversity conservation. For more information see Summary at the end of the article.