Damaging of plants

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• Damaging of plants
• by mammals during winter

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• In winter plants have to cope besides cold and
  snow cover
• also with enhanced attention of mammals
• Herbivores consume part of living plants. We can
• distinguish them according part of plants which
  they prefer
• seed predators-consume seed/granivory-can consume
  large fraction
• grazers eat grass or other ground-growing plants
• browsers eat leaves or shrubs
• frugivores consume fruits

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• Another classification of herbivores
• Generalist
• Specialist
• Ecologically and evolutionary most important
  herbivores are mammals
• and insects. They affect individual, population,
  community and also
• ecosystem level.
• Plant
  defences
• physical and mechanical defences
• thorns, spines
• secretory trichomes (Urtica dioica)
• sclerenchyma,sclereids
• collenchyma
• waxy cuticula (fungi)
• silica inclusion

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• structural and chemical defences
• We can distinguish them according the quantities
  of secondary
• metabolites
• Qualitatively significant metabolite-they occurre
  in small amount, but they are very toxic for
  animals. This includes different kinds of
  alkaloids, glucosides (release hydrogen
  cyanide).The plant with qualitatively significant
  protective properties are well protective against
  the most herbivores but on the other side they
  are threatened by specialized pests, which have
  resistance against specific toxin.
• Quantitative significant metabolite-they are not
  so toxic, but in more amount they cause bad
  digestibility-bitter taste, unpalatableness even
  toxicity (phenolic compounds- lignins, tannins,
  terpenoids compounds).The synthesis of these
  metabolite is energy high consuming, but provide
  more safety protecting against damaging, because
  only few animals can break trough.
• Phenolics and terpenoids are the most important
  compounds in the
• chemical defence of the boreal woody plants

5

• The animals caused main damages
• Rodents
• Rodents - Small rodents such as mice and
  voles sometimes may become a serious pest of
  trees and shrubs by gnawing and stripping bark
  from the trunks and stems of plants during winter
  months.
• Mountain hares
• During the summer hares mostly consume hares
  and grasses, whereas during the autumn they
  switch to dwarf shrubs. During the winter period
  they consume woody shrubs, shoots, twigs of
  deciduous species. They prefer aspen (Populus
  ssp.) and willow (Salix spp.) also birch (Betula
  spp ) is commonly consumed. The hares consume
  both bark and twigs of aspen and willow, but bark
  of birch is not usually preferred.
• Rabbits
• Rabbits damage seedlings by gnawing or
  biting them off at various heights.
• Deer
• Deer feed on and damage terminal and side
  branches of small trees and shrubs.

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• There are two signs in the field that will help
  foresters determine whether the seedlings were
  damaged by deer or rabbits
• Deer browsing leave ragged ends and the shoots
  are always eaten.
• Rabbits and hares leave clean diagonal cuts
  and the shoots are often left lying.

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• Droppings will usually be present. Rabbit pellets
  are usually deposited at the base or near the
  base of damaged seedlings. Deer droppings are
  deposited at random throughout the area. Rabbit
  droppings are round, whereas deer droppings are
  oval.

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• Moose
• In Fennoscandia, the European moose (A.
  alces) population has increased remarkably during
  recent decades. Moose damage to young trees has
  become a serious problem. Due to forestry
  demands, research on moose food habits,
  especially the efforts to explain moose forage
  selectivity, is given a high priority in Nordic
  countries.

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• Animals damaging is a big problem especially in
  forestry and tree plantation. The most vulnerable
  are seedlings and that is why we have to protect
  them against animals.
• Physical barriers fencing
• tree shelter
• different type
  of mesh protection
• tube
  protection
• Repellent Repellents are used primarily to
  deter deer and elk from browsing on trees and
  shrubs. They are not poisonous
• Chemical repellents generally are classified
  in 2 categories
• Taste (gustatory) repellents repel by an
  offensive taste.  They often are used during the
  dormant season when plants do not grow beyond the
  repellent.
• Odor (olfactory) repellents often are used during
  the dormant and growing season and in enclosed
  areas.

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Physical barriers
Fence exclosure
Tube protection.
Flexible mesh protection
Vole protector
Tree shelter
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• Repellents