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The Long-term Consequences of Deer Browse in Temperate and Boreal Forests

Apr 11, 2017 (All day)
Location: 
112 Kottman Hall

An Honors Thesis Presentation will be given by Samuel Reed. He will present The Long-term Consequences of Deer Browse in Temperate and Boreal Forests in 112 Kottman Hall.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) overabundance has sparked dramatic changes in forests throughout North America. In Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest and Quebec’s Anticosti Island, I investigated how deer have altered canopy structural complexity, species diversity, and carbon stocks across a controlled density gradient and a chronosequence of increasing disturbance, respectively. To measure canopy complexity, I used a Portable Canopy LiDAR (PCL) system, which records the three-dimensional arrangement of leaves and stems within a canopy using an upward-facing infrared laser. We predicted that treatment effects on forest composition and structure would support the intermediate disturbance hypothesis and that stands experiencing moderate levels of deer browse during the early stages of regeneration would show increases in canopy complexity, carbon sequestration, and diversity.

Roger Williams, faculty advisor and Peter Curtis, research advisor