1/23/15 Research

     To begin my research I decided to look at the impact of whitetail deer in forest understory communities. I found a paper published by the botany department at the University of Wisconsin. The first finding that they discussed was the relationship of deer populations to the number of different types of young trees in an area. What the group found was that if there was a very low or very high density of deer there were fewer of these seedlings, but an intermediate number of deer in an area had a much higher amount of seedlings in that area. The group then looked at the deer's browsing impact on herbs. What they found was that as browsing intensity increased, the herb populations decreased while ferns, hedges, and grasses populations continued to grow. Next the paper looked at the indirect affects of deer browsing. For example deer browsing affects other species that also use the same plants for food. Insects were often times impacted the most because of the need for one or few species of vascular plants. Finally it became apparent that the deer browsing could ultimately impact the entire habitat, changing the ecology of an area overtime. This research shows how a species like a deer can have a major impact on an entire ecosystem. The affects of the white tail deer can shape the land, change the plant diversity and alter other animal populations over time. 

http://www.botany.wisc.edu/waller/PDFs/Rooney.2003.DirectandIndirectEffects.pdf