R script with data for vegetation and macropod scat analysis

Fire and herbivores alter vegetation structure and function. Future fire activity is predicted to increase, and quantifying changes in vegetation communities arising from post-fire herbivory is needed to better manage natural environments.
We investigated the effects of post-fire herbivory on understory plant communities in a coastal eucalypt forest in south-eastern Australia. We quantified herbivore activity, understory plant diversity, and dominant plant morphology following a wildfire in 2017 using two sizes of exclosures. Statistical analysis incorporated the effect of exclusion treatments, time since fire (TSF), and the effect of a previous prescribed burn.
Exclusion treatments altered herbivore activity, but TSF did not. Herbivory reduced plant species richness, diversity and evenness and promoted the dominance of the most abundant plants within the understory. Increasing TSF reduced community diversity and evenness and influenced morphological changes to the dominant understory p...