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About Deer in the Spotlight
White-tailed deer are overabundant in much of the United States, including Minnesota. This means deer populations are larger than can probably be sustained over the long term. Overabundant deer can have large impacts on forest ecosystems. Their feeding diminishes the abundance, size, and diversity of understory plants. By removing native plants and disturbing soils, they can aid the spread of invasive plants and invasive earthworms. By feeding on the seedlings of canopy tree species, they may also interrupt the long-term stability of forests.
At Macalester College's Ordway Field Station in Inver Grove Heights MN, we are studying the effects of deer in two different forests: an oak forest on Ordway's rolling hills, and a floodplain forest adjacent to the Mississippi River. Deer populations at Ordway estimated using helicopter surveys hover around 15 individuals per square km. This is significantly higher than the 8-to-10 per square km that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates to be the carrying capacity of the ecosystems here. We have already observed significant impacts of deer on understory plants in portions of the oak forest, but we would like to know how widespread these effects are, and whether they are likely to impact the long-term stability of both types of forest.
