caa a22 4500 467885664 CHVBK 20180406152733.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e20060601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10021-006-0091-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10021-006-0091-4 Phosphorus Translocation by Red Deer on a Subalpine Grassland in the Central European Alps [Elektronische Daten] [Martin Schütz, Anita Risch, Gérald Achermann, Conny Thiel-Egenter, Deborah Page-Dumroese, Martin Jurgensen, Peter Edwards] We examined the role of red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) in translocating phosphorus (P) from their preferred grazing sites (short-grass vegetation on subalpine grasslands) to their wider home range in a subalpine grassland ecosystem in the Central European Alps. Phosphorus was used because it is the limiting nutrient in these grasslands. When we compared P removal of aboveground biomass due to grazing with P input due to the deposit of feces on a grid of 268 cells (20 m × 20 m) covering the entire grassland, we detected distinct spatial patterns: the proportion of heavily grazed short-grass vegetation increased with increasing soil-P pool, suggesting that red deer preferably grazed on grid cells with a higher soil-P pool. Biomass consumption related to increased proportion of short-grass vegetation, and therefore P removal, increased with increasing soil-P pool. However, within the two vegetation types (short-grass and tall-grass), consumption was independent from soil-P pool. In addition, P input rates from defecation increased with increasing soil-P pool, resulting in a constant mean net P loss of 0.083 kg ha−1 y−1 (0.03%-0.07% of soil-P pool) independent of both soil-P pool and vegetation type. Thus, there was no P translocation between grid cells with different soil-P pools or between short-grass and tall-grass vegetation. Based on these results, it is likely that the net rate of P loss is too small to explain the observed changes in vegetation composition from tall-herb/meadow communities to short-grass and from tall-grass to short-grass on the grassland since 1917. Instead, we suggest that the grazing patterns of red deer directly induced succession from tall-herb/meadow communities to short-grass vegetation. Yet, it is also possible that long-term net soil-P losses indirectly drive plant succession from short-grass to tall-grass vegetation, because nutrient depletion could reduce grazing pressure in short-grass vegetation and enable the characteristic tall-grass species Carex sempervirens Vill. to establish. Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 2006 Cervus elaphus nationallicence elimination pattern nationallicence grazing pattern nationallicence phosphorus removal/input nationallicence succession nationallicence Swiss National Park nationallicence Schütz Martin Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut Risch Anita Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut Achermann Gérald Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut Thiel-Egenter Conny Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut Page-Dumroese Deborah Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 83843, Moscow, Idaho, USA aut Jurgensen Martin School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 49931, Houghton, Michigan, USA aut Edwards Peter Geobotanical Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-8044, Zurich, Switzerland aut Ecosystems Springer-Verlag; www.springer-ny.com 9/4(2006-06-01), 624-633 1432-9840 9:4<624 2006 9 10021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-006-0091-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-006-0091-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Schütz Martin Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Risch Anita Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Achermann Gérald Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Thiel-Egenter Conny Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Page-Dumroese Deborah Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 83843, Moscow, Idaho, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jurgensen Martin School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 49931, Houghton, Michigan, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Edwards Peter Geobotanical Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-8044, Zurich, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ecosystems Springer-Verlag; www.springer-ny.com 9/4(2006-06-01), 624-633 1432-9840 9:4<624 2006 9 10021 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer