Recreation and hunting differentially affect deer behaviour and sapling performance.

Humans are increasingly acknowledged as apex predators that shape landscapes of fear to which herbivores adapt their behaviour. Here, we investigate how humans modify deer space-use and their effects on vegetation at two spatial scales; zones with different types of human use (large-scale risk factor) and, nested within that, trails (fine-scale risk factor). In zones with three contrasting types of human activities: (1) no recreation, no hunting, (2) with recreation, no hunting, and (3) with recreation and hunting, we linked deer space-use (dropping counts) to browsing intensity, relative growth, and survival of planted saplings. Plots were located at two distances to trails (20 vs. 100m) to test how trails affect deer space-use and sapling performance. Additionally, plots were distributed over forest and heathland as risk effects are habitat-dependent. Deer space-use was highest in the zone without recreation or hunting, resulting in higher browsing levels and lower sapling growth and ...