Herbivory and climate as drivers of woody plant growth: Do deer decrease the impacts of warming?

Vegetation at ecotone transitions between open and forested areas is often heavily affected by two key processes: climate change and management of large herbivore densities. These both drive woody plant state-shifts, determining the location and the nature of the limit between open and tree or shrub-dominated landscapes. In order to adapt management to prevailing and future climate, we need to understand how browsing and climatic factors together affect the growth of plants at biome borders. To disentangle herbivory and climate effects, we combined long-term tree growth monitoring and dendroecology to investigate woody plant growth under different temperatures and red deer (Cervus elaphus) herbivory pressures at forest-moorland ecotones in the Scottish highlands. Reforestation and deer densities are core and conflicting management concerns in the area, and there is an urgent need for additional knowledge. We found that deer herbivory and climate had significant and interactive effects o...开阔地带与森林区域之间的生态交错带（ecotone）内的植被，通常受两大关键过程的强烈影响：气候变化与大型草食动物种群密度管理。这两个过程均会驱动木本植物的状态转换，进而决定开阔地带与乔木或灌木主导景观之间的边界位置与属性。为了使管理措施适配当前及未来的气候状况，我们需要阐明啃食作用与气候因子如何共同影响生物群系边界处的植物生长。为厘清草食动物取食与气候的各自效应，我们结合长期树木生长监测与树木生态学（dendroecology）方法，针对苏格兰高地的森林-沼地生态交错带，探究了不同温度与马鹿（Cervus elaphus）取食压力下的木本植物生长情况。该区域的森林恢复与鹿群密度管控是两项核心且相互矛盾的管理议题，亟需补充相关研究认知。我们的研究发现，马鹿取食与气候对木本植物生长具有显著且交互性的影响……