Interannual Consistency of Gross Energy in Red Oak Acorns

• DOI: 10.3996/102012-jfwm-095
• Publication Date: 2013-10-10T18:11:15Z
• Authors: Alan G. Leach; Richard M. Kaminski; Jacob N. Straub; Andrew W. Ezell; Tracy S. Hawkins; Theodor D. Leininger
• Keywords: Anas

Abstract Red oak Quercus spp., Subgenus Erythrobalanus acorns are forage for mallards Anas platyrhyncos, wood ducks Aix sponsa, and other wildlife that use bottomland hardwood forests in the southeastern United States. However, annual variation true metabolizable energy from would affect carrying-capacity estimates of wintering ducks. Because gross strongly positively correlated is easier to measure than energy, we used as a surrogate energy. We measured six species red autumns 2008 2009. Within species, mean these varied less 2% between years. The small interannual found this study have negligible effect on carrying capacity wildlife.