{"id":99596,"date":"2026-05-01T08:45:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/?post_type=cpt_publication&#038;p=99596"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:45:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:45:58","slug":"linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand","status":"publish","type":"cpt_publication","link":"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/en\/our-publications\/linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Linking moose browsing to composition and growth delays in fir dominated boreal stand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Published in Forest Ecology and Management 608: 123619<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Selective browsing by moose (<em>Alces alces<\/em>) can substantially alter forest regeneration by reducing the survival and growth of selected species, shifting competitive dynamics and altering stand succession. We investigated (1) whether selective browsing by moose prevents selected species from reaching later growth stages, and (2) whether balsam fir (<em>Abies balsamea<\/em>) sapling height growth is reduced under various intensities of apical and lateral browsing. During summer 2023, we surveyed 56 balsam fir-dominated stands cut between 2000 and 2015 in the For\u00eat Montmorency, in Qu\u00e9bec, Canada. Browsing strongly influenced seedling density according to the hierarchical generalized linear mixed effects model. Highly selected species at the seedling stage, such as broadleaves, also suffered the greatest decline at sapling stages, suggesting that the selective browsing prevents broadleaves species from reaching the sapling stage. For balsam fir saplings, both apical and lateral browsing additively reduced apparent height growth, with lateral browsing having a comparable effect to apical browsing. Under high apical browsing, apparent height growth declined by a factor of 0.79 [95\u202f% CI=\u202f0.70: 0.90] compared with unbrowsed individuals. Our findings demonstrate that moose browsing not only reshapes species composition but also delays the growth of surviving saplings, highlighting the need to incorporate browsing pressure when predicting forest growth and yield and for ensuring the implementation of adaptive management strategies.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"publication-title\" class=\"publication-title u-h3\">\u00a0<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published in Forest Ecology and Management 608: 123619 Selective browsing by moose (Alces alces) can substantially alter forest regeneration by reducing the survival and growth of selected species, shifting competitive dynamics and altering stand succession. We investigated (1) whether selective browsing by moose prevents selected species from reaching later growth stages, and (2) whether balsam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","format":"standard","cptt_secteur":[1179,1247],"cptt_theme":[1282,1180,1181],"cptt_categ_publi":[1149],"cptt_auteurs_ministeriels":[1067],"class_list":["post-99596","cpt_publication","type-cpt_publication","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","cptt_secteur-forests","cptt_secteur-forets","cptt_theme-forest-dynamics","cptt_theme-forestry-research","cptt_theme-forests","cptt_categ_publi-scientific-article","cptt_auteurs_ministeriels-m-barrette"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Linking moose browsing to composition and growth delays in fir dominated boreal stand - Minist\u00e8re des Ressources naturelles et des For\u00eats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This study demonstrates that moose browsing negatively affects balsam fir composition and growth in boreal forest stands.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/en\/our-publications\/linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Linking moose browsing to composition and growth delays in fir dominated boreal stand - Minist\u00e8re des Ressources naturelles et des For\u00eats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This study demonstrates that moose browsing negatively affects balsam fir composition and growth in boreal forest stands.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/en\/our-publications\/linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Minist\u00e8re des Ressources naturelles et des For\u00eats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RessourcesNaturellesForets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-01T12:45:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Image-g%c3%a9n%c3%a9rale-hiver_FB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mrnfqc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/en\/our-publications\/linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mrnf.gouv.qc.ca\/en\/our-publications\/linking-moose-browsing-composition-growth-delays-fir-dominated-boreal-stand\/\",\"name\":\"Linking moose browsing to composition and growth delays in fir dominated boreal stand - 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