WiWaldI

Joint project

Wild-Wald-Innovation: Effects of deer and hunting on the development, climate resilience and ecosystem services of our forests

Subproject 3

Monitoring of deer effects and insect food webs

Project period

07/2022 - 06/2027

Project partner

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Naturgemäße Waldwirtschaft e. V.
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Technische Universität München

The project is coordinated by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Naturgemäße Waldwirtschaft Deutschland e. V.

Project description

Data on the effects of deer on the vegetation and biodiversity in commercially managed forests were generated within the BIOWILD project on 248 pairs of browsing index enclosures nationwide for a period of six years. These data and the sites are now going to be integrated into the WiWaldI project and further examined.

Deer can significantly affect the natural composition of plant communities and thus of insect habitats. The TU Dresden working group is going to analyse study sites on typical sites of various forest communities where these effects are present and identify their influence on food webs. Ideally the results will allow for conclusions on the positive effects of existing and potentially existing insect species and on the impacts of insects on forest ecosystems.