Monitoring of ungulate impact in Hungarian forested Natura 2000 sites

Abstract

Ungulates have both, advantageous and disadvantageous effects in forest ecosystems. But predominantly, there is a one-sided negative opinion about their role and impact mainly based on economic damage caused by these game species. However, we should also always consider their ecological role in forested habitats as ecosystem engineers. We, therefore, aimed to establish a nationwide monitoring of ungulate impact assessing forest-ungulate interactions based on a reliable unified methodology. This monitoring includes measurements of understory woody plant supply and tree-trunk availability to and their utilisation by ungulates; moreover the estimation of forest regeneration and intensity of area use by ungulates. First field studies take place on special areas of conservation (SAC) in Mátra Mountains belonging to the Natura 2000 network and covering about 5000 hectares. Various forest stands will be examined along transects with 100 sample points in each SAC area to ensure the representativity of sampling. The collected data will characterize the relationships between the relative ungulate density and food availability to herbivores. In this way, the forest-game interactions can be also described. A new monitoring system based on our elaborated methodology will provide regular data from many parts of the Hungarian forests. The spatial and temporal comparisons of those values help us to understand how different ungulate species contribute to the maintenance of natural processes of our forest ecosystems.