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- Title
Cost Comparison of Vegetation Monitoring Techniques Used to Assess White-tailed Deer Herbivory.
- Authors
Urbanek, Rachael E.; Nielsen, Clayton K.; Glowacki, Gary A.; Preuss, Timothy S.
- Abstract
Many studies investigating the effects of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herbivory on herbaceous communities have utilized plots set along browse transects or exclosures. We compared the costs (i.e., labor and construction) of using browse transects and associated 1-m2 plots versus paired small exclosures (1.4 m diameter x 1.6 m height) and 1-m2 control plots to monitor the effects of deer herbivory in suburban Chicago, Illinois. During May-July 2008-2009, we sampled vegetation in 2,560 quadrats along browse transects and 600 exclosed and control quadrats on eight Lake County forest preserves. Within both vegetation sampling regimes, we quantified herbivory impacts on vegetation in each sample quadrat using plant community metrics and indicator species. Using a standardized cost per sampling unit, the cost of conducting a single browse transect (i.e., 10 1-m2 quadrats) was US $72.80 and the cost of sampling five pairs of exclosures and controls (i.e., 10 1-m2 quadrats) using the exclosure method cost $230.60; thus, for the same amount of data, the browse transect method cost 68.4% less than the exclosure method. Managers should consider using browse transects over exclosures to assess deer herbivory when deer are not restricted from specific areas or plants. The advantages of reduced cost, increased sample size, and ability to assess large areas may outweigh the use of exclosures in these situations.
- Subjects
COMPARATIVE studies; WHITE-tailed deer; HERBIVORES; PLANT communities; HERBACEOUS plants; COST analysis; STATISTICAL sampling; BIOINDICATORS; SPECIES diversity
- Publication
Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science, 2011, Vol 104, Issue 3/4, p163
- ISSN
0019-2252
- Publication type
Article