Scientific publications

Wetlands and swampy forests occupy vast areas in the European North of Russia. Along with logging, land drainage is one of the most significant human interventions affecting wildlife habitat. Evaluation of the natural food supply for moose and damage by moose to forest resources was carried out in Pryazha Region in Karelia (the middle taiga subzone) 30 years after land reclamation taken place in the second half of the 1970s and subsequent natural and artificial reforestation. There have been totally recorded 15652 undergrowth coniferous and deciduous plants of three height classes along transects (14.01 hectares) laid down on arterial drain piles and in the areas between drains intensively and extensively affected by the drainage in wild rosemary pine forest and sedge-sphagnum birch forest as well as in drained raised bogs. The damage by moose to the undergrowth of pine, the main forest species, in wild rosemary pine forest undergoing natural reforestation differs greatly in different reclamation zones. On drain piles damaged plants make up to 50.3 %, in the areas of intensive drainage - 25.4 %, in the areas of extensive drainage – 13.3 %. Similar pattern was also observed for the regrowth of birch and willow. The only difference is that pine trees with broken trunks dominated in the undergrowth over those with damaged shoots (22.6 and 11.7 %, respectively), while for the birch and willow reverse phenomenon was observed (4.0 and 16.6 %; 6.8 and 25.7 %, respectively). In the reclaimed sedge-sphagnum birch forest the share of non-damaged trees was slightly higher compared to wild rosemary pine forest (84.2 and 72.5 %, respectively), the share of plants with damaged tops was significantly lower (1.5 and 15.0 %) and the share of trees with damaged lateral shoots was almost the same (14.3 and 12.5 %, respectively). Records in pine stands show that the greatest damage moose causes to swampy pine forest. Damaged trees there made 28.2 %. Of these, 19.0 % of the plants have died and 9.2 % survived, but they became multi-top or had malformations that devalue the tree as an object of timber industry. In pine stands in the small swampy forest damage by moose was somewhat less (22.8, 16.0 and 6.9 %, respectively), while on the open raised bog a sharp decrease in the number of damaged trees was observed: total number of damaged young trees was 5.3 %, of which 1.8 % of trees have died and 3.5 % of trees became multi-top. In all three reclaimed moose habitats a common feature of damage by moose was revealed – a consistent increase in the number of broken trees with the tree height increase from 0.5 m and less to 1.6 m and more. Succession in a biocoenosis after reclamation largely depends on whether the drainage system is degrading or recovering. It determines different use of these lands by moose and its influence on vegetation.