{"id":7108,"date":"2026-10-16T09:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/?p=7108"},"modified":"2026-10-14T09:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:47:50","slug":"functional-responses-of-understory-vegetation-to-ungulate-exclusion-in-temperate-forest-ecosystems-a-comparative-trait-based-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/2026\/10\/16\/functional-responses-of-understory-vegetation-to-ungulate-exclusion-in-temperate-forest-ecosystems-a-comparative-trait-based-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Functional responses of understory vegetation to ungulate exclusion in temperate forest ecosystems\u2014a comparative trait-based approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type='text\/javascript' src='https:\/\/d1bxh8uas1mnw7.cloudfront.net\/assets\/embed.js'><\/script><p><span style=\"color: #0d5c06\"><span style=\"font-size: 13.3333px\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7111 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1-295x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1-295x300.png 295w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1-50x50.png 50w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1-640x651.png 640w, https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/10\/13595_2026_1364_Fig1.png 708w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><\/a>Research paper<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Key message<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">An extensive exclosure-control experiment examining functional responses of forest understory vegetation revealed that ungulate exclusion favored plant traits associated with herbivory vulnerability and competitive ability, while ungulate access promoted rather disturbance-indicating communities with more acquisitive, fast-growing characteristics. This functional ecology perspective on plant-herbivore-interactions offers novel insights for both forest management and biodiversity conservation.<\/p>\n<section class=\"c-article-recommendations\" aria-labelledby=\"inline-recommendations\" data-title=\"Inline Recommendations\" data-track-component=\"inline-recommendations\"><\/section>\n<section class=\"c-article-recommendations\" aria-labelledby=\"inline-recommendations\" data-title=\"Inline Recommendations\" data-track-component=\"inline-recommendations\"><\/section>\n<p><strong>Keywords<br \/>\n<\/strong>Wildlife exclosure experiment; Paired plot design; Plant\u2013herbivore interactions; Plant community dynamics; Browsing; Grazing; Understory species composition; Roe deer (<i>Capreolus capreolus<\/i> L.); Presence\/absence data; Community-weighted mean (CWM)<\/p>\n<div class='altmetric-embed' data-badge-type='donut' data-doi='10.1186\/s13595-026-01364-4'  style='float: right; ' ><\/div>\n<p><strong>Publication<br \/>\n<\/strong>Seliger, A., Z\u00e4h, J., Heinrichs, S.\u00a0<i>et al.<\/i>\u00a0Functional responses of understory vegetation to ungulate exclusion in temperate forest ecosystems\u2014a comparative trait-based approach.\u00a0<i>Annals of Forest Science<\/i>\u00a0<b>83<\/b>, 45 (2026). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-026-01364-4\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s13595-026-01364-4<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Data availability<br \/>\n<\/strong>The data that support the findings of this study will be available from Zenodo Digital Repository after an embargo on July 31, 2027\u00a0(Seliger et al.\u00a0<a id=\"ref-link-section-d64866697e5772\" title=\"Seliger A, Zaeh J, Heinrichs S, Ammer C, Vor T (2026a) Functional responses of understory vegetation to ungulate exclusion in temperate forest ecosystems - a comparative trait-based approach. Zenodo [dataset]. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.22109629 \" href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s13595-026-01364-4#ref-CR129\" data-track=\"click\" data-track-action=\"reference anchor\" data-track-label=\"link\" data-test=\"citation-ref\" aria-label=\"Reference 2026a\">2026a<\/a>) at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.22109629\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.22109629<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Handling editor<br \/>\n<\/strong>Valentine Lafond<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research paper Key message An extensive exclosure-control experiment examining functional responses of forest understory vegetation revealed that ungulate exclusion favored plant traits associated with herbivory vulnerability and competitive ability, while ungulate access promoted rather disturbance-indicating communities with more acquisitive, fast-growing characteristics. This functional ecology perspective on plant-herbivore-interactions offers novel insights for both forest management and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1,109,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-type","category-non-classe","category-open-access","category-research-paper","cat-14-id","cat-1-id","cat-109-id","cat-15-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/240"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7113,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7108\/revisions\/7113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ist.blogs.inrae.fr\/afs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}