We investigate the impact of browsing forest ungulates on: (1) Forest development (tree growth, species composition, browsing pressure and tree density), to collect primary data relating to timber provisioning, forest ungulate production (forage availability) and ecosystem functioning. Methods (Speed et al. 2011, 2013): The density of trees of different species and height classes is recorded in four subplots in each exclosure/browsed plot. Individual trees are also marked and height and browsing pressure are recorded annually, producing a time series of forest development; (2) Field layer vegetation dynamics (species diversity and primary productivity, berry production) – focusing on the provisioning services of berries and wildlife forage. Methods: Field layer is recorded biennially in 10 quadrats per exclosure/browsed plot using the point intercept method (Speed et al. 2014).

Additional sampling and analyses have on some of the field sites (mostly in Trøndelag):

• Soil sampling
  • Carbon
  • Nitrogen
  • pH
• Plant Root Simulating (PRS) probes
  • Nitrogen availability
• Tea bag index
  • Decomposition
• Soil temperature
• Canopy cover
• Moss depth
• Foliar secondary compounds and element concentrations

Database

In the fall 2016 Marc began the work of merging all existing dataset from the SustHerb project into a single unified database. This is going to help us ensure the longevity of the data (and metadata) by standardizing all the variables and making it easier to do quality control and data cleaning. Both experimental and environmental data are stored in a relational database management system (RDBMS) which also makes it easy to combine and extract just the data one needs.