Predator Ecology Lab
  • Home
    • News Archive
  • Principal Investigator
  • Research
    • PI Publications
  • Teaching
  • Current Lab Members
    • Lab Alumni
    • Prospective Students
    • Research Volunteers
  • Blog
  • Sponsors
  • Links

Installing deer exclosures

8/20/2015

4 Comments

 
by: Apryle Craig

This summer, I started installing deer exclosures to investigate the impact of wolves on plant communities in Northeastern Washington. 
Researchers measuring plants near a fence in wooded area
Paris measures a shrub while David records data inside a deer exclosure.
Each fenced exclosure plot is paired with a nearby unfenced plot. The only differences between these two plots is the exclusion of deer, so the unfenced plot acts as a control plot to assess what the plants would be like in the absence of herbivory. Using this paired plot design in wolf-recolonized and wolf-absent areas, I can compare vegetation characteristics including plant height, species composition, percent cover, and age class.
Researchers constructing a deer exclosure fence in wooded area
Emily and Alex build a deer exclosure to study plant communities.
Some studies have shown that the presence of predators may cause prey species to be less sedentary. When deer or other large herbivores move around more, the herbivory is dispersed and vegetation does not get browsed heavily in one spot. Alternatively, the risk of predation may have lead to concentrated herbivory if the presence of wolves causes deer to spend more time in "safe spots" such as near roads. If deer remain in one spot, the herbivory is concentrated and vegetation may become overbrowsed. In both of these two scenarios wolves could have an indirect effect on the plants by altering the behavior of their prey. A third possibility is that wolves may alter the behavior of deer, but those changes are not having any impacts on the vegetation community. 

The fences are approximately 36 square meters and 6 feet tall, with a small gap at the bottom to allow smaller animals to pass through.
Researcher measuring plants in wooded area
Ali measures the height of a snowberry bush.
Along with my team of volunteers this summer, we were able to install 21 sites across our study areas. 
4 Comments
Felton link
9/17/2017 08:00:52 pm

Nice fence for deer mates,

Reply
vadim
10/4/2017 11:46:52 am

ad1game . profit . verifycode: 9556c2eac6ad670c0de0af55a878afb7

Reply
ЗАРАБ0Т0К В ИНТЕРНЕТЕ ЭТО ПР0СТ0! link
10/15/2017 07:45:26 am

ЗАРАБ0Т0К В ИНТЕРНЕТЕ ЭТО ПР0СТ0!

Reply
Robert L. Costanza
3/8/2023 04:18:49 am

I am going to use the dimension of your exclosure in a newly planted prairie to see the impact of deer. Will t-posts be sufficient? It will be burned through.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    October 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    General News

Proudly powered by Weebly