Lukas Graf
Research
My PhD - research focuses mainly on estimation and restauration of ungulate forage, as well as estimation of browsing damages of moose (Alces alces) on Scot's pine (P. sylvatica).
My first project mainly focuses on restoration of bilberry (V. myrtillus) in spruce (P. abies) dominated forests in southern Sweden. Dwarfshrubs, such as bilberry, are an important food source for many wild cervid species and are hence of great importance to reduce browsing damages. However, in the past decades the amount of bilberry in southern swedish forests has greatly reduced. The research in this project focuses on restauration of bilberry in spruce dominated forest using different silvicultural techniques.
In my second project, I focus on estimation of ungulate forage on a landscape scale. I use data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory in combination with remote sensing data from different datasources (Swedish Laserscanning Survey, Forest Attribute Maps, worldclim.org) to estimate the amount of pine, birch and AROW (aspen, rowan, oak, willow) in browsing height (0.5-4m) in Sweden. This project will help cervid management in Sweden, since many decision are soleley based on the hectared within browsing height in a given moose management unint.
My last project focuses on browsing damages in relation to forage availability and cervid population densities over time in southern Sweden.
Cooperation
BOKU University - Vienna, Austria
LUKE - Helsinki, Finland
Background
I have a B.Sc. in Forest Ecology and Management from the Georg-August Univerversity of Göttingen, Göttingen and a M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology and Management from BOKU University in Vienna, Austria.
I have several years of experience working as a wildlife ecologist working in many international projects, for example, with moose, white-tailed deer, golden jackals and golden eagles in Austria, Germany, Finland and Sweden.
Selected publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bJOXw-wAAAAJ&hl=de