Ecological and metabolomic responses of plants to deer exclosure in a suburban forest.

ABSTRACT: Trees and shrubs in suburban forests can be subject to chronic herbivory from abundant white-tailed deer, influencing survival, growth, secondary metabolites, and ecological success in the community. We investigated how deer affect the size, cover, and metabolomes of four species in the understory of a suburban forest in central New Jersey, USA: the woody shrubs Euonymus alatus and Lindera benzoin, the tree Nyssa sylvatica, and the semi-woody shrub Rosa multiflora. For each species, we compared plants in 38 16 m² plots with or without deer exclosure, measuring proportion cover and mean height after 6.5 years of fencing. We scored each species in all plots for deer browsing over 8 years and assessed selection by deer among the species. We did untargete

SUBMITTER: Morrison JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9643135 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature