Authors
Laurel M Glover, Sabrina N Volponi, Alejandro A Royo, Tamara L Johnstone-Yellin
Publication date
2024/6/1
Journal
Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
Description
Herbivores alter plant quantity and quality through direct tissue consumption and indirectly via the structural and chemical allocational strategies plants deploy in response to herbivory. Here we examine how browsing by white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus alters nutritional quality of six regenerating hardwood species (red maple Acer rubrum, black cherry Prunus serotina, birch Betula spp., pin cherry Prunus pennsylvanica, white ash Fraxinus americana, and American beech Fagus grandifolia). Using an established, large-scale experiment that manipulated deer access to plots using fencing, we tested whether browsing altered the nutritional quality and biomass as well as nutritional capacity to support deer of six hardwood species in an early successional hardwood forest of Pennsylvania, United States. Pin cherry was the most nutritious of the six species with greater dry matter digestibility and digestible …
Scholar articles
LM Glover, SN Volponi, AA Royo, TL Johnstone-Yellin - Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management, 2024