Browsing by Author "Flyktman, Aleksi"

Moose is a significant cause of timber quality reducing damages in Fennoscandian forests. It is a large generalist herbivore, capable of consuming several tens of kilograms of plant material per day. Their preference for browsing young scots pine (Pinus sylvestris, L.) during winter causes economical losses for forest owners, as regeneration is most often done by planting seedlings. Therefore, mitigating moose damages is important for reducing conflicts between hunters and landowners, who have differing views on the suitable size of the moose population. The goal of this study is to determine if landscape level forest structure plays a significant role in the home range area of moose, which can be seen as an indicator of habitat preference considering the optimal foraging theory. Forest structure can be altered by silvicultural methods, which offers forest managers a tool for reducing areas vulnerable to moose browsing. Previous studies have shown that moose densities are larger within landscapes containing large, cohesive forested areas and little isolated patches. Intensive silviculture has increased the moose population due to younger forest structure which provides abundant nutrition. Moose also copes well with habitat fragmentation. This has not been studied much on the home range scale. I constructed linear mixed models (LMM) to assess the effect of various landscape metrics on moose home range size. The metrics measured the patch size, fragmentation, and diversity of the landscape within a geolocated moose home range. The results showed that moose home range area grows in response to increasing diversity, and patch interspersion within the landscape. Increasing patch core area also increased home range size. The area reduces in response to mean patch area and patch density. Increasing the diversity of land cover classes and patch core area size of seedling stands could reduce an areas potential as moose habitat.