Protection of young Scots pine plantations against browsing by ungulates in the Kyiv Polissia

Abstract

Introduction

In the forests of the Kyiv Polissia, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) predominates. This species is the most important winter forage for ungulates. Intensive browsing of pines by ungulates leads to significant economic losses due to reduced wood quality and tree mortality. Analysis of the impact of ungulates on plant composition, tree regeneration, and forest resilience is crucially important for determining management strategies, especially in the face of increasing animal populations. There is a necessity to implement silvicultural practices adapted to the presence of ungulates to reduce the damage caused by them.

The research aims were to determine the effectiveness of the use of the Cervacol Extra repellent to protect Scots pine plants against browsing by ungulates in Kyiv Polissia.

Materials and Methods

The effectiveness of the Cervacol Extra repellent for protecting pine plants from ungulate browsing has been studied in 2020–2021. The research was conducted in the Staropetrivske Forestry in Kyiv Forest Research Station in the Kyiv region. Data on the population of ungulates in the forest fund of the Kyiv Forest Research Station were taken from the materials of the hunting service as of autumn 2020. On the research territory, there are dense populations of ungulates: roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.) – 25.6 heads per 1,000 hectares, moose (Alces alces L.) – 0.9 heads per 1,000 hectares, fallow deer (Cervus (Dama) dama L.) – 0.9 heads per 1,000 hectares, and red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) – 3.1 heads per 1,000 hectares. The annual increase in the population averages 15%.

The research was carried out in two plots of 30 ? 20 m. For each plant of the test treatment and control the following criteria were assessed: (i) damage to the leading shoot, (ii) damage to the leading shoot and lateral shoots, (iii) no damage. The proportion of damaged shoots of each plant – up to 50% and more than 50% – and the number of plants that lost the ability to regenerate, were determined. The proportion of damaged pines with varying degrees of damage was calculated from their total number on each experimental plot for two variants (1 - with treatment, 2 - without treatment). To improve the properties of the data and to equalize their distribution, the arcsine square transformation was applied to the proportions of the number of damaged pine plants from their total number on the plot according to each evaluation criterion. One-way ANOVA was used to determine a significant difference between the experimental treatments. For all statistical analyses, a significance level of ? = 0.05 was used.

Results

Treating pine plants with the Cervacol Extra repellent in late autumn positively affected their protection from ungulate browsing in winter. The numbers of plants with various degrees of shoot damage and plants that lost the ability to regenerate demonstrate significant differences between the groups (p < 0.05). This confirms the hypothesis of the high effectiveness of Cervacol Extra repellent for protecting pine plants from ungulate browsing.

Conclusions

Wild ungulates, in particular Capreolus capreolus, Alces alces, Cervus (Dama) dama, and Cervus elaphus, cause significant damage to young Scots pine trees in Kyiv Polissia. Treatment of pine plants with Cervacol Extra repellent in late autumn has a positive effect on their protection from ungulate damage. In this way, the percentage of damaged plants due to ungulate browsing can be reduced to 6%.

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