Climate, tree masting and spatial behaviour in wild boar (Sus scrofa L.): insight from a long-term study

  • Francesco Bisi
  • Roberta Chirichella
  • Francesco Chianucci
  • Jost Von Hardenberg
  • Andrea Cutini
  • Adriano Martinoli
  • Marco Apollonio
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Key message

Climate factors affect seed biomass production which in turn influences autumn wild boar spatial behaviour. Adaptive management strategies require an understanding of both masting and its influence on the behaviour of pulsed resource consumers like wild boar.

Context

Pulsed resources ecosystem could be strongly affected by climate. Disantangling the role of climate on mast seeding allow to understand a seed consumer spatial behaviour to design proper wildlife and forest management strategies.

Aims

We investigated the relationship between mast seeding and climatic variables and we evaluated the influence of mast seeding on wild boar home range dynamics.

Methods

We analysed mast seeding as seed biomass production of three broadleaf tree species (Fagus sylvatica L., Quercus cerris L., Castanea sativa Mill.) in the northern Apennines. Next, we explored which climatic variables affected tree masting patterns and finally we tested the effect of both climate and seed biomass production on wild boar home range size.

Results

Seed biomass production is partially regulated by climate; high precipitation in spring of the current year positively affects seed biomass production while summer precipitation of previous year has an opposite effect. Wild boar home range size is negatively correlated to seed biomass production, and the climate only partially contributes to determine wild boar spatial behaviour.

Conclusion

Climate factors influence mast seeding, and the negative correlation between wild boar home range and mast seeding should be taken into account for designing integrated, proactive hunting management.

Keywords

Masting Mast seeding Seed consumer Deciduous forests Hunting management Apennine forests 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access

Notes

Acknowledgements

We thank all other participants of PRIN project who contributed in discussion and shared unpublished results giving important indication to improve first draft of this manuscript. We further acknowledge the Ufficio Territoriale per la Biodiversità for climate data supply and all students and field assistants for wild boar data collection. We thank John Gurnell for useful comments. Finally, we acknowledge the Editor and two anonymous Reviewers for their precious comments.

Compliance with ethical standards

Following the Italian law 157/92 on wildlife management, the authors acquired the permission of catching wild boars in 2002 and 2005 from the Regional Government of Tuscany.

Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest and research integrity and ethical standards are maintained.

Supplementary material

13595_2018_726_Fig3_ESM.gif (61 kb)
ESM 1

(GIF 60 kb)

13595_2018_726_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (35 kb)
(PDF 35.3 kb)
13595_2018_726_MOESM2_ESM.pdf (9 kb)
ESM 2 (PDF 8 kb)

References

  1. Anderson DP, Forester JD, Turner MG, Frair JL, Merrill EH, Fortin D, Mao JS, Boyce MS (2005) Factors influencing female home range sizes in elk (Cervus elaphus) in North American landscapes. Landsc Ecol 20:257–271CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Andrzejewski R, Jezierski W (1978) Management of a wild boar population and its effects on commercial land. Acta Theriol 23:309–339CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Apollonio M, Andersen R, Putman R (2010) Ungulate management in Europe in the XXI century. Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
  4. Barton BT, Beckerman AP, Schmitz OJ (2009) Climate warming strengthens indirect interactions in an old-field food web. Ecology 90:2346–2351CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. Barton K (2015) MuMIn: multi-model inference. R package version 1(15):1Google Scholar
  6. Bellard C, Bertelsmeier C, Leadley P, Thuiller W, Courchamp F (2012) Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity. Ecol Lett 15:365–377CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  7. Bieber C, Ruf T (2005) Population dynamics in wild boar Sus scrofa: ecology, elasticity of growth rate and implications for the management of pulsed resource consumers. J Appl Ecol 42:1203–1213CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Bisi F, von Hardenberg J, Bertolino S, Wauters LA, Imperio S, Preatoni DG, Mazzamuto MV, Provenzale A, Martinoli A (2016) Current and future conifer seed production in the alps: testing weather factors as cues behind masting. Eur J For Res 135:743–754CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Bogdziewicz M, Szymkowiak J, Kasprzyk I, Grewling Ł, Borowski Z, Borycka K, Kantorowicz W, Myszkowska D, Piotrowicz K, Ziemianin M, Pesendorfer MB (2017) Masting in wind-pollinated trees: system-specific roles of weather and pollination dynamics in driving seed production. Ecology 98:2615–2625CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Boisvenue C, Running SW (2006) Impacts of climate change on natural forest productivity–evidence since the middle of the 20th century. Glob Change Biol 12:862–882CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Boutin S, Wauters LA, McAdam AG, Humphries MM, Tosi G, Dhondt AA (2006) Anticipatory reproduction and population growth in seed predators. Science 314:1928–1930CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  12. Bréda N, Huc R, Granier A, Dreyer E (2006) Temperate forest trees and stands under severe drought: a review of ecophysiological responses, adaptation processes and long-term consequences. Ann For Sci 63:625–644CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach (2nd ed.), Springer, VerlagGoogle Scholar
  14. Calenge C (2006) The package adehabitat for the R software: a tool for the analysis of space and habitat use by animals. Ecol Model 197:516–519CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Cannon CH, Curran LM, Marshall AJ, Leighton M (2007) Beyond mast-fruiting events: community asynchrony and individual dormancy dominate woody plant reproductive behavior across seven Bornean forest types. Curr Sci India 93:1558–1566Google Scholar
  16. Canu A, Scandura M, Merli E, Chirichella R, Bottero E, Chianucci F, Cutini A, Apollonio M (2015) Reproductive phenology and conception synchrony in a natural wild boar population. Hystrix Ital J Mammal 26:77–84Google Scholar
  17. Chianucci F, Cutini A (2013) Estimation of canopy properties in deciduous forests with digital hemispherical and cover photography. Agric For Meteorol 168:130–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Chianucci F, Mattioli L, Amorini E, Giannini T, Marcon A, Chirichella R, Apollonio M, Cutini A (2015) Early and long-term impacts of browsing by roe deer in oak coppiced woods along a gradient of population density. Ann Silvicultural Res 39:32–36Google Scholar
  19. Clotfelter ED, Pedersen AB, Cranford JA, Ram N, Snajdr EA, Nolan JV, Ketterson ED (2007) Acorn mast drives long-term dynamics of rodent and songbird populations. Oecologia 154:493–503CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  20. Cutini A, Chianucci F, Chirichella R, Donaggio E, Mattioli L, Apollonio M (2013) Mast seeding in deciduous forests of the northern Apennines (Italy) and its influence on wild boar population dynamics. Ann For Sci 70:493–502CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Cutini A, Chianucci F, Giannini T, Manetti MC, Salvati L (2015) Is anticipated seed cutting an effective option to accelerate transition to high forest in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) coppice stands? Ann For Sci 72:631–640CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. DeLucia EH, Nabity PD, Zavala JA, Berenbaum MR (2012) Climate change: resetting plant-insect interactions. Plant Physiol 160:1677–1685CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  23. Drobyshev I, Övergaard R, Saygin I, Niklasson M, Hickler T, Karlsson M, Sykes MT (2010) Masting behaviour and dendrochronology of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southern Sweden. For Ecol Manag 259:2160–2171CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Drobyshev I, Granström A, Linderholm HW, Hellberg E, Bergeron Y, Niklasson M (2014) Multi-century reconstruction of fire activity in Northern European boreal forest suggests differences in regional fire regimes and their sensitivity to climate. J Ecol 102:738–748CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Espelta JM, Cortés P, Molowny-Horas R, Sánchez-Humanes B, Retana J (2008) Masting mediated by summer drought reduces acorn predation in Mediterranean oak forests. Ecology 89:805–817CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  26. Fournier-Chambrillon C, Maillard D, Fournier P (1995) Diet of wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) inhabiting the Montpellier garrigue. J Mt Ecol 3:174–179Google Scholar
  27. Genet H, Bréda N, Dufrene E (2009) Age-related variation in carbon allocation at tree and stand scales in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) using a chronosequence approach. Tree Physiol 30:177–192CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  28. Genov P, Massei G (2004) The environmental impact of wild boar. Galemys: Boletín informativo de la Sociedad Española para la conservación y estudio de los mamíferos 16:135–145Google Scholar
  29. Giorgi F, Lionello P (2008) Climate change projections for the Mediterranean region. Glob Planet Chang 63:90–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Gómez JM, Hódar JA (2008) Wild boars (Sus scrofa) affect the recruitment rate and spatial distribution of holm oak (Quercus ilex). For Ecol Manag 256:1384–1389CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Groot Bruinderink GWTA, Hazebroek E, van der Voot H (1994) Diet and condition of wild boar, Sus scrofa scrofa, without supplementary feeding. J Zool 233:631–648CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Heller NE, Zavaleta ES (2009) Biodiversity management in the face of climate change: a review of 22 years of recommendations. Biol Conserv 142:14–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Hilton GM, Packam JR (2003) Variation in the masting of common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in northern Europe over two centuries (1800–2001). Forestry 76:319–328CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Hiroki S, Matsubara T (1995) Fluctuation of nut production and seedling appearance of a Japanese beech (Fagus crenata Blume). Ecol Res 10:161–169CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Jamieson MA, Trowbridge AM, Raffa KF, Lindroth RL (2012) Consequences of climate warming and altered precipitation patterns for plant-insect and multitrophic interactions. Plant Physiol 160:1719–1727CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  36. Jezierski W, Myrcha A (1975) Food requirements of a wild boar population. Polish Ecol Stud 1:61–83Google Scholar
  37. Kelly D (1994) The evolutionary ecology of mast seeding. Trends Ecol Evol 9:465–470CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  38. Kelly D, Sork VL (2002) Mast seeding in perennial plants: why, how, where? Ann Rev Ecol Syst 33:427–447CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Kelly D, Geldenhuis A, James A, Penelope Holland E, Plank MJ, Brockie RE, Cowan PE, Harper GA, Lee WG, Maitland MJ, Mark AF, Mills JA, Wilson PR, Byrom AE (2013) Of mast and mean: differential temperature cue makes mast seeding insensitive to climate change. Ecol Lett 16:90–98CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  40. Kenward R (1987) Wildlife radio tagging. Academic Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
  41. Keuling O, Stier N, Roth M (2008) Annual and seasonal space use of different age classes of female wild boar Sus scrofa L. Eur J Wildl Res 54:403–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Kon H, Noda T, Terazawa K, Koyama H, Yasaka M (2005) Proximate factors causing mast seeding in Fagus crenata: the effects of resource level and weather cues. Botany 83:1402–1409Google Scholar
  43. Kozakai C, Yamazaki K, Nemoto Y, Nakajima A, Koike S, Abe S, Masaki T, Kaji K (2011) Effect of mast production on home range use of Japanese black bears. J Wildlife Manage 75:867–875CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Larter NC, Gates CC (1994) Home range size of wood bison: effects of age, sex and forage availability. J Mammal 75:142–149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Lusk JJ, Swihart RK, Goheen JR (2007) Correlates of interspecific synchrony and interannual variation in seed production by deciduous trees. For Ecol Manag 242:656–670CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Magee L (1990) R2 measures based on Wald and likelihood ratio joint significance tests. Am Stat 44:250–253Google Scholar
  47. Mann HB (1945) Nonparametric tests against trend. Econometrica 13:245–259CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. Massei G, Genov PV, Staines BW (1996) Diet, food availability and reproduction of wild boar in a Mediterranean coastal area. Acta Theriol 41:307–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  49. Massei G, Genov P, Staines BW, Groman ML (1997) Factors influencing home range and activity of wild boar (Sus scrofa) in a Mediterranean coastal area. J Zool 242:411–423CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. McLeod AI (2011) Kendall: Kendall rank correlation and Mann-Kendall trend test. R package version 2.2. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=Kendall
  51. Michelot A, Bréda N, Damesin C, Dufrêne E (2012) Differing growth responses to climatic variations and soil water deficits of Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea and Pinus sylvestris in a temperate forest. For Ecol Manag 265:161–171CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Montserrat-Martí G, Camarero JJ, Palacio S, Pérez-Rontomé C, Milla R, Albuixech J, Maestro M (2009) Summer-drought constrains the phenology and growth of two coexisting Mediterranean oaks with contrasting leaf habit: implications for their persistence and reproduction. Trees 23:787–799CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Morellet N, Bonenfant C, Börger L, Ossi F, Cagnacci F, Heurich M, Kjellander P, Linnell JDC, Nicoloso S, Sustr P, Urbano F, Mysterud A (2013) Seasonality, weather and climate affect home range size in roe deer across a wide latitudinal gradient within Europe. J Anim Ecol 82:1326–1339CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  54. Nussbaumer A, Waldner P, Etzold S, Gessler A, Benham S, Thomsen IM, Jørgensen BB, Timmermann V, Verstraeten A, Sioen G, Rautio P (2016) Patterns of mast fruiting of common beech, sessile and common oak, Norway spruce and Scots pine in Central and Northern Europe. For Ecol Manag 363:237–251CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. Övergaard R, Gemmel P, Karlsson M (2007) Effects of weather conditions on mast year frequency in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Sweden. Forestry 80:555–565CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Pagel J, Schurr FM (2012) Forecasting species ranges by statistical estimation of ecological niches and spatial population dynamics. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 21:293–304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Parmesan C (2007) Influences of species, latitudes and methodologies on estimates of phenological response to global warming. Glob Change Biol 13:1860–1872CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Pinheiro J, Bates D, DebRoy S, Sarkar D, R Core Team, 2015 _nlme: linear and nonlinear mixed effects models_. R package version 3.1–121, http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=nlme
  59. Piovesan G, Adams JM (2001) Masting behaviour in beech: linking reproduction and climatic variation. Can J Bot 79:1039–1047Google Scholar
  60. Podgórski T, Baś G, Jędrzejewska B, Sönnichsen L, Śnieżko S, Jędrzejewski W, Okarma H (2013) Spatiotemporal behavioral plasticity of wild boar (Sus scrofa) under contrasting conditions of human pressure: primeval forest and metropolitan area. J Mammal 94:109–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Pohlert T (2016) Trend: non-parametric trend tests and change-point detection. R package version 0.2.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=trend
  62. Preatoni DG, Bisi F (2013) HRTools: commodity functions for home range calculation. R package version 1.0. http://home.prea.net/
  63. R Core Team 2015 R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/
  64. Reed TE, Grøtan V, Jenouvrier S, Sæther BE, Visser ME (2013) Population growth in a wild bird is buffered against phenological mismatch. Science 340:488–491CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  65. Rees M, Kelly D, Bjornstad O (2002) Snow tussocks, chaos, and the evolution of mast seeding. Am Nat 160:44–59CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  66. Reyer CP, Leuzinger S, Rammig A, Wolf A, Bartholomeus RP, Bonfante A, de Lorenzi F, Dury M, Gloning P, Jaoudé RA, Klein T, Kuster TM, Martins M, Niedrist G, Riccardi M, Wohlfahrt G, De Angelisi P, De Dato G, Francois L, Menzel A, Pereira M (2013) A plant's perspective of extremes: terrestrial plant responses to changing climatic variability. Glob Change Biol 19:75–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  67. Sen PK (1968) Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall’s tau. J Am Stat Assoc 63:1379–1389CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  68. Servanty S, Jean-Michel G, Carole T, Serge B, Eric B (2009) Pulsed resources and climate-induced variation in the reproductive traits of wild boar under high hunting pressure. J Anim Ecol 78:1278–1290CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  69. Scharnweber T, Manthey M, Criegee C, Bauwe A, Schröder C, Wilmking M (2011) Drought matters–declining precipitation influences growth of Fagus sylvatica L. and Quercus robur L. in north-eastern Germany. For Ecol Manag 262:947–961CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  70. Schley L, Roper T (2003) Diet of wild boar Sus scrofa in Western Europe, with particular reference to consumption of agricultural crops. Mammal Rev 33:43–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  71. Skjøth CA, Geels C, Hvidberg M, Hertel O, Brandt J, Frohn LM, Hansen KM, Hedegaard GB, Christensen JH, Moseholm L (2008) An inventory of tree species in Europe—an essential data input for air pollution modelling. Ecol Model 217:292–304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  72. Swihart RK, Slade NA (1985) Testing for independence of observation in animal movements. Ecology 66:1176–1184CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  73. Thurfjell H, Spong G, Ericsson G (2014) Effects of weather, season and daylight on female wild boar movement. Acta Theriol 59:467–472CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  74. UTB (2015) Ufficio Territoriale per la Biodiversità, Pieve S. Stefano, Province of Arezzo, official data: http://www.indicepa.gov.it/ricerca/n-dettagliouffici.php?prg_ou=37163
  75. Van Winkle W (1975) Comparison of several probabilistic home range models. J Wildl Manag 33:118–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  76. Vetter SG, Ruf T, Bieber C, Arnold W (2015) What is a mild winter? Regional differences in within-species responses to climate change. PLoS One 10:e0132178CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  77. Voight W, Perner J, Davis AJ, Eggers T, Schumacher J, Bährmann R, Fabian B, Heinrich W, Köhler G, Lichter D, Marstaller R, Sander FW (2003) Trophic levels are differentially sensitive to climate. Ecology 84:2444–2453CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  78. Walther GR, Post E, Convey P, Menzel A, Parmesan C, Beebee TJC, Formentin JM, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Bairlein F (2002) Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature 416:389–395CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  79. Wauters LA, Githiru M, Bertolino S, Molinari A, Tosi G, Lens L (2008) Demography of alpine red squirrel populations in relation to fluctuations in seed crop size. Ecography 31:104–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  80. White GC, Garrott RA (1990) Analysis of wildlife radio-tracking data. London Academic Press, San DiegoGoogle Scholar
  81. Williamson GB, Ickes K (2002) Mast fruiting and ENSO cycles–does the cue betray a cause? Oikos 97:459–461CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  82. Wirthner S, Schütz M, Page-Dumroese DS, Busse MD, Kirchner JW, Risch AC (2012) Do changes in soil properties after rooting by wild boars (Sus scrofa) affect understory vegetation in Swiss hardwood forests? Can J For Res 42:585–592CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© INRA and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Francesco Bisi
    • 1
    • 2
  • Roberta Chirichella
    • 3
  • Francesco Chianucci
    • 4
  • Jost Von Hardenberg
    • 5
  • Andrea Cutini
    • 4
  • Adriano Martinoli
    • 1
  • Marco Apollonio
    • 3
  1. 1.Environment Analysis and Management Unit - Guido Tosi Research Group - Department of Theoretical and Applied SciencesUniversità degli Studi dell’InsubriaVareseItaly
  2. 2.Istituto OikosMilanItaly
  3. 3.Department of Veterinary MedicineUniversity of SassariSassariItaly
  4. 4.Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria - Forestry Research CentreArezzoItaly
  5. 5.Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, CNRTorinoItaly

Personalised recommendations