Differentiated plant-defense strategies: herbivore community dynamics affect plant-herbivore interactions

The title of this research project is: "Differentiated plant-defense strategies: herbivore community dynamics affect plant-herbivore interactions" and it ran from May 2017 until October 2020. There were 6 deer exclosures set up at Liberty Park in the Summit County Metroparks. There were 4 swamp white oaks (Quercus bicolor) planted inside each exclosure and 4 planted outside each exclosure. Insecticide was applied to half of the exclosures to establish 4 different herbivore feeding communities: 1) No herbivores, 2) deer only, 3) insect only, and 4) deer and insect herbivores. From each tree, we measured phytochemical changes in trees above and below the browseline over the four years. Measurements were taken in May and September each year. Additionally, we analyzed insect-feeding guilds and recorded the dominant feeding guild in each tree. One dataset has the insect feeding guild diversity and the other contains the phytochemical changes from the plants.