The expansion of Eucalyptus plantations has raised concerns about their effects on wildlife, yet the influence of stand-level management on roe deer remains poorly understood. We investigated how plantation management shapes roe deer responses in central Portugal using 375 camera-trap deployments from 2019 and 2020 and four session-specific single-season occupancy models that separated detection probability from site-use probability. Across sessions, stand size was retained mainly in the detection component, indicating that variation in camera-trap sampling coverage influenced detectability more consistently than ecological site use. Support for site-use effects varied among periods, but the strongest result emerged in the 2020 dry season, when site use was lower in reforestation stands than in afforestation stands and temporal responses differed among production regimens. The 2020 wet season also supported a positive effect of time since intervention on site use after accounting for broad spatial structure. By contrast, the 2019 wet season informed detection only, whereas the 2019 dry season showed non-linear relationships weakened by overdispersion and QAICc sensitivity. Overall, our findings indicate that Eucalyptus plantations should not be treated as ecologically uniform systems, because roe deer responses depend on when and how stands are managed, with reforestation representing the most disruptive phase.
Ares-Pereira et al. (Tue,) studied this question.