CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 530Soil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsWildlife Ecology and ConservationEcology and biodiversity studies

Moose Browsing and Soil Fertility in the Boreal Forests of Isle Royale National Park

Pastor, J., Dewey, B., Naiman, R. J., McInnes, P. F., Cohen, Y.·1993·Ecology
DOI 10.2307/1939308
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Selective foraging by moose on hardwoods and avoidance of conifers alters community composition and structure, which in turn can affect nutrient cycles and productivity. The effect of moose browsing on the nutrient cycles of boreal forests was studied using three 40—yr—old exclosures on Isle Royale, Michigan. Two alternative mechanisms by which moose affect ecosystems were tested: (1) moose depress both the quantity and quality of litter return to the soil, and hence N mineralization and net primary productivity, by browsing on hardwoods and avoiding conifers; (2) moose stimulate N mineralization, and hence net primary productivity, by opening the canopy and by dropping fecal pellets. Soil nutrient availability and microbial activity, including exchangeable cations, total carbon and nitrogen, nitrogen mineralization rates, and microbial respiration rates, were uniformly higher in exclosures than outside. These differences were more significant where browsing intensity was high and less often significant where browsing intensity was low. N mineralization in browsed plots declined with increasing moose consumption rates. Net primary production in exclosures and browsed plots was strongly correlated with N mineralization. N mineralization in turn was positively correlated with litter N return and negatively correlated with litter cellulose content. These differences in litter quantity and quality were caused by an increased abundance of unbrowsed spruce outside the exclosures. M…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2307/1939308

Cites

2 of 2 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Moose likely accelerated the decline of deciduous trees and the increase in spruce over the past century by preferentially consuming deciduous forage and not eating spruce.

    “By preferentially consuming deciduous forage and not eating spruce, moose likely accelerated the decline of deciduous trees and the increase in spruce over the past century (e.g., Pastor et al. 1993).”

    From Trophic Cascades in a Multicausal World: Isle Royale and Yellowstone (2014) · cites this paper as Pastor et al. 1993

  • In boreal ecosystems, moose suppress forest productivity by selectively browsing on hardwoods and releasing conifer, which decreases litter nitrogen return to soils.

    “In boreal ecosystems, moose suppress forest productivity by selectively browsing on hardwoods and releasing conifer, which subsequently decreases the litter nitrogen return to the soils (Pastor et al. 1993).”

    From Effects of gray wolf‐induced trophic cascades on ecosystem carbon cycling (2016) · cites this paper as Pastor et al. 1993

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Pastor, J., Dewey, B., Naiman, R. J., McInnes, P. F., & Cohen, Y.
Affiliations
University of Minnesota (US)
ORCID
Cohen, Y.
Venue
Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1993-03
Volume
74
Issue
2
Pages
467-480
ISSN
  • 0012-9658 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-9170
DOI
10.2307/1939308
OpenAlex
W2133171231
Cited by
530
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 16
FWCI
17.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
Ecology (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Ecology and biodiversity studies
Keywords
moose browsing, herbivory, soil nitrogen mineralization, boreal forest, litter quality, net primary productivity, exclosures, fecal pellets, canopy opening, nutrient cycling, microbial respiration, Isle Royale National Park

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review