Figure 1.
Enclosed study area on Anticosti Island (Québec, Canada). Gray zones are the sampling areas located in the cutover patches, with a 15 m buffer from residual forest patches, fences, and roads. Plots (n = 125) were distributed in the sampling area according to a systematic stratified sampling of nonaligned random points, that is, four plots were randomly placed in each cell of a 200 × 200 m grid, with at least 11 m between each to avoid overlap. Each plot consisted of two concentric subplots of 4 and 40 m2. Plots located in the sampling area were sampled in 2013 for deer browse (4 m2) and abundance of neighboring plants (40 m2) and in 2014 for deer browse and nutritional quality (40 m2)