Data for: The long-term impacts of deer herbivory in determining temperate forest stand and canopy structural complexity

1. Ungulates place immense consumptive pressure on forest vegetation globally, leaving legacies of reduced biodiversity and simplified vegetative structure. However, what remains unresolved is whether browse-induced changes occurring early in succession ultimately manifest themselves in the developed forest canopy. Understanding the development and persistence of these legacies is critical as canopy structure is an important determinant of forest ecosystem functions like carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat.
2. We measured how white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browse during stand initiation affected canopy structure, tree species richness, diversity, stem density, and basal area on Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau using a portable canopy LiDAR system. We capitalized on an historic deer enclosure experiment where forests were subjected to four deer densities (4, 8, 15, and 25 deer/km2) for ten years following stand initiation.
3. Deer browsing impacts on the forest canopy a..., All data was collected in 2016 within the formerly clearcut locations of a replicated deer enclosure experiment. Deer populations were maintained from 1979 to 1990 at four distant sites, each of which was partitioned by deer densities of 4, 8, 15, and 25 deer/km2, in Elk County (710 m elevation; 41°34’22” N, 78°28’30” W), Warren County (550 m elevation; 41°38’48” N, 79°08’11” W), Forest County (550 m elevation; 41°34’40” N, 79°06’19” W), and McKean County (670 m elevation; 41°38’21” N, 78°19’33” W). More information regarding experimental design can be found in the corresponding paper (Reed et al. 2022).
We placed three parallel 30 x 5 m belt transects in each clearcut treatment, all separated by a minimum of 30 m from one another. All trees >5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) were identified to species and measured for DBH. Canopy structural complexity was measured along each transect using a portable canopy LiDAR system. Canopy structural data were processed using the \"FORESTR\" R..., A) One treatment (15 deer/km2) at State Game Land 30 was harvested prior to our study, reducing our sample size to 15 treatment areas.
B) All statistical methods are included in the manuscript (Reed et al. 2022)
C) All naming conventions and metadata included in README file