3.1 | Deer browse rates on the four species
Browse rates on unfenced plants scored during the summer of 2018 (from
20 July-20 August) varied slightly among the species, with the highest
rates on N. sylvatica and E. alatus and the lowest onR. multiflora (Figure 1) , but the difference among the
four was not statistically significant (G = 1.1, df = 3, P = 0.8). Deer
browse can be patchy, so any one sample in a season may be rather
idiosyncratic, whereas browse measured over multiple seasons offers a
fuller picture of deer preference. The overall browse rates based on the
scores pooled from 2012 through 2019 displayed significant differences
among the four species (G = 22, df = 3, P < 0.0001).
Bonferroni-corrected pairwise tests indicated that the indigenous
species L. benzoin had significantly greater browse rates than
the nonindigenous invasive species E. alatus (P = 0.0006) andR. multiflora (P = 0.004). The indigenous species N.
sylvatica also was significantly more browsed than E. alatus (P
= 0.02) and was somewhat less browsed than R. multiflora (P =
0.06). The two indigenous species were browsed at similar rates, as were
the two nonindigenous species (Figure 1) .