Table 1.

Descriptive statistics for plot characteristics and variables measured in 4 and 40 m² concentric subplots on Anticosti Island (Québec, Canada). We collected the data for the three species (balsam fir, paper birch, and white spruce) either in 2013 or in 2014. We calculated browsing rate (%) by white‐tailed deer as the number of shoots browsed/number of shoots available in each 4 m² plot. We collected all the other variables in the 40 m² plot. We evaluated fiber content (% NDF: hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, ADF: cellulose and lignin, ADL: lignin), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVTD_DM), and nitrogen content (% N) using bulk samples collected over 3‐10 stems per plot. Distances are expressed in meters

Species	Variables	Year measured	n	Mean	Standard deviation
–	Distance to residual forest	–	125	97	82
–	Distance to road	–	125	122	78
–	Distance to fence	–	125	241	159
Balsam fir	Browsing rate	2013	124	5	10
		2014	125	5	8
	Number of stems	2013	125	64	54
	NDF	2014	104	33	2
	ADF	2014	104	27	1
	ADL	2014	104	15.1	0.8
	IVTDDM	2014	104	73	1
	N	2014	104	1.1	0.1
Paper birch	Browsing rate	2013	92	18	21
		2014	89	19	24
	Number of stems	2013	125	37	35
	NDF	2014	78	29	3
	ADF	2014	78	29	3
	ADL	2014	78	16	2
	IVTDDM	2014	78	75	5
	N	2014	78	2.3	0.3
White spruce	Number of stems	2013	125	25	23
	NDF	2014	85	47	6
	ADF	2014	85	37	5
	ADL	2014	85	20	4
	IVTDDM	2014	85	61	5
	N	2014	85	1.0	0.2