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Personne :
Dussault, Christian

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Dussault

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Christian

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Université Laval. Département de biologie

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ncf10384108

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  • PublicationRestreint
    Ecological impacts of deer overabundance
    (Annual Reviews Inc., 2004-06-10) Tremblay, Jean-Pierre; Rooney, Thomas P.; Dussault, Christian; Côté, Steeve D.; Waller, Donald M.
    Deer have expanded their range and increased dramatically in abundance worldwide in recent decades. They inflict major economic losses in forestry, agriculture, and transportation and contribute to the transmission of several animal and human diseases. Their impact on natural ecosystems is also dramatic but less quantified. By foraging selectively, deer affect the growth and survival of many herb, shrub, and tree species, modifying patterns of relative abundance and vegetation dynamics. Cascading effects on other species extend to insects, birds, and other mammals. In forests, sustained overbrowsing reduces plant cover and diversity, alters nutrient and carbon cycling, and redirects succession to shift future overstory composition. Many of these simplified alternative states appear to be stable and difficult to reverse. Given the influence of deer on other organisms and natural processes, ecologists should actively participate in efforts to understand, monitor, and reduce the impact of deer on ecosystems.
  • PublicationRestreint
    Long-term decline in white-tailed deer browse supply: can lichens and litterfall act as alternative food sources that preclude density-dependent feedbacks
    (Canadian Science Publishing, 2005-09-14) Tremblay, Jean-Pierre; Dussault, Christian; Thibault, Isabel.; Huot, Jean; Côté, Steeve D.
    Selective browsing by cervids has persistent impacts on forest ecosystems. On Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada, introduced white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) have caused massive changes to the native boreal forest. Despite the apparent stability of the deer population over recent decades, we suspected that they were not at equilibrium with their browse supply and that further degradation of the habitat had occurred. A comparison of two browse surveys conducted 25 years apart showed a strong decline in browse availability. Although balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) P. Mill.) remained the most available browse species, it declined or disappeared from most stands (n = 13). Preferred deciduous species that were still available 25 years ago have almost disappeared. The continuous decline of the browse supply confirmed our hypothesis. This situation may be exacerbated by a subsidy from the winter litterfall, a significant and stable alternative food source. The abundance of litterfall from mature trees is independent of browsing over a long time period, which introduces a temporal uncoupling between the impact of deer browsing on balsam fir seedlings and the negative feedback from recruitment failure of mature balsam fir on the deer population. This means that the system is susceptible to being forced into an alternative regime.
  • PublicationAccès libre
    Caribou herd dynamics : impacts of climate change on traditional and sport harvesting
    (Université Laval, ArcticNet Inc., 2012-01-01) Tremblay, Jean-Pierre; Festa-Bianchet, Marco; Dussault, Christian; Hins, Caroline; Brodeur, Vincent; Côté, Steeve D.; Simard, M.; Le Corre, Mael René Vincent; Taillon, Joëlle; Sharma, Sapna
    Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are a key species in Arctic ecosystems including northern Québec and Labrador. They play a central role in the ecology of predators and the structure of Arctic plant communities. In addition, caribou provide socioeconomic and cultural benefits from subsistence and sport hunting activities. Changes in the distribution and abundance of caribou due to global climate change would have serious biological, societal, and economic implications. Direct and indirect consequences of climate change on migratory caribou herds may include alteration in habitat use, migration patterns, foraging behaviour and demography. For example, caribou may experience a further northerly shift in distribution due to several factors including longer ice-free periods, increases in snowfall and extreme weather events, alterations in the fire regime, and changes in the distribution of insects and predators. Future research by Caribou Ungava, a research group interested in the ecology of migratory caribou in the context of climate change, will address the factors outlining variations in the population dynamics of caribou, implications for survival and reproduction, as well as the response of caribou habitat to different climate change scenarios. Management efforts focusing on mitigating greenhouse gases to reduce the potential effects of climate change, preserving high quality habitat, limiting anthropogenic landscape disturbances, and managing hunting in a sustainable manner, could alleviate stressors on migratory caribou of the QuébecLabrador peninsula.