Consequences of deer control for Kaweka mountain beech forest dynamics
Published:
September 2006
Mountain beech seedlings were tagged in 99 plots in Kaweka Forest Park (monitored between 1997 and 2004) to model seedling growth, recruitment and survival under three deer control treatments.
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Consequences of deer control for Kaweka mountain beech forest dynamics (PDF, 848K)Summary
Landcare Research was contracted by the Department of Conservation to (1) design a sampling programme to estimate the percentage of mountain beech area of Kaweka Forest Park that does not have sufficient mountain beech seedlings to establish a replacement canopy, (2) develop protocols to implement the sampling programme, and (3) design a template for data entry. This work was completed in November 2005.
In this report an analysis is provided of the mountain beech data to guide managers on future deer control. The ecological gains are assessed from the recruitment rates possible from three levels of deer control, and report on the consequences of a time delay in adequate regeneration. This work was completed between July 2005 and June 2006.