Pigs in hardwood floodplain forests – new publication

Free-range domestic pig keeping in forests is a millennia-old practice in many silvopastoral systems. Despite the long history of its potential impact on forests, the influence of this practice on the structure, composition and species richness of the understorey is hardly known. Researchers from Hungary and Serbia studied the impact of free-ranging domestic pigs on the herb and shrub layers, and the consequences of abandoning pig keeping in a hardwood floodplain forest in Serbia. Ákos Bede-Fazekas, assistant professor in our department, is a co-author of the paper published in the D1-ranked scientific journal " Forest Ecology and Management" (IF = 3.7). The research led by László Demeter revealed that this previously widespread, but now almost completely disappeared land-use practice may have had a marked impact on the understorey vegetation of Eurasian temperate oak forests.