AbstractsSociology

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia The aim of the present thesis was to assess the use of phytosociology in wildlife management. In Section II, as a case study, I investigated red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) free ranging populations occurring in the Natural Park of Montesinho, northeast Portugal, using faecal-pellet counts to assess deer use of semi-natural meadows (lameiros) and forest communities. Phytosociological classification contributed to explain red deer spring selective use of meadows at finer scales and performed better than other clustering criteria for classifying vegetation patches. At the landscape level, composition of the neighbouring vegetation mosaic, topography, and meadow’s characteristics, as management status and dominant phytosociology, produced the best models for deer seasonal use of meadows. The forest use analysis revealed red and roe deer preference for oak forests over pine plantations, and habitat use overlapping between red and roe deer all year round. In Section III, I extrapolated the information gathered in Section II on deer use to build, for the Montemuro-Freita-Arada massif, a predictive map for roe deer use of meadows, showing a generally low use, with exception of isolated meadows closer to oak forest patches