{"id":61199,"date":"2013-06-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/study-at-uri-alton-jones-campus-finds-abundant-deer-causing-decline-of-native-plants-expansion-of-invasives\/"},"modified":"2013-06-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T00:00:00","slug":"study-at-uri-alton-jones-campus-finds-abundant-deer-causing-decline-of-native-plants-expansion-of-invasives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/06\/study-at-uri-alton-jones-campus-finds-abundant-deer-causing-decline-of-native-plants-expansion-of-invasives\/","title":{"rendered":"Study at 溏心vlog免费B站 Alton Jones Campus finds abundant deer causing decline of native plants, expansion of invasives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\tWEST GREENWICH, R.I. \u2013 June 17, 2013 \u2013 Two half-acre parcels of land fenced to exclude deer at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s W. Alton Jones Campus have demonstrated the dramatic effect that an overpopulation of white-tailed deer is having on native plants and trees.<\/p>\n


\n\tInstalled in 2011 by the Rhode Island Natural History Survey as part of its Forest Health Works Project, the \u201cdeer exclosures\u201d clearly show how deer are reducing the density and diversity of native plants and exacerbating the expansion of invasive species into the forest.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cDeer look for every native plant that they can eat and they eat it,\u201d said Hope Leeson, botanist for the Natural History Survey. \u201cWe have continuous still images showing them looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack; heads down, searching for any little tidbit of a native plant they can find. Due to taste or texture, they tend not to eat invasive plants.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tLeeson said that one year after the fences were installed, there was little visible difference in the growth, abundance and diversity of native vegetation inside and outside the fences. But this year the differences are obvious. <\/p>\n


\nInside the fence, where deer couldn\u2019t gain access, seedlings of oak, sugar maple, hickory and tuliptrees were abundant while outside the fence few could be found. Jack-in-the-pulpit plants inside the fence were knee high while those outside were browsed to stubble by the deer. Inside one of the fences, native trillium planted decades ago by 溏心vlog免费B站 botanist Irene Stuckey was once again blooming. None had been seen since 2004.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cNot only has the density of vegetation increased inside the exclosures, but the overall diversity of species has increased as well,\u201d said Leeson. Several new species have been found inside the exclosures, species that were not present when an initial inventory of the site was completed in 2011. \u201cAt one site, the height difference among all species was dramatic, with sweet pepperbush two feet high inside the fence and barely visible outside.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBased on data collected by motion-sensing cameras, the Alton Jones Campus has about 30 deer per square mile. Research in northeastern forests has shown that when deer herds are reduced to about 15 per square mile, native species most susceptible to deer browse, such as trilliums, make a comeback. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cDeer promote the growth of invasive species, which decreases the biodiversity of native vegetation and sets into motion a cascade of effects on the health of the ecosystem,\u201d Leeson said. \u201cDeer aren\u2019t the only factor, and there is a lot we still don\u2019t know, but this study clearly shows there is heavy deer pressure on the plant material in the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLeeson will present a report of the results of the study later this year to Thomas Mitchell, director of the Alton Jones Campus, who said he will evaluate the results and consider potential options for reducing the deer population.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe certainly want to have a healthy white-tailed deer population, but it can’t come at the expense of the overall health of the forest. There must be a balance,\u201d said Mitchell. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI know that deer population reduction efforts are already happening in other parts of the state to reduce the damage from too many deer browsing the vegetation, most notably at the Scituate Reservoir,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m going to carefully consider the data and recommendations from the Natural History Survey and others to formulate a plan to keep the forest healthy.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nCaption: R.I. Natural History Survey botanist Hope Leeson (right) and volunteer Julie Sharpe observe the differences in vegetation inside and outside of a \u201cdeer exclosure\u201d at the 溏心vlog免费B站 W. Alton Jones Campus. (Photo courtesy of Hope Leeson.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST GREENWICH, R.I. \u2013 June 17, 2013 \u2013 Two half-acre parcels of land fenced to exclude deer at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s W. Alton Jones Campus have demonstrated the dramatic effect that an overpopulation of white-tailed deer is having on native plants and trees. Installed in 2011 by the Rhode Island Natural History […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}