Trade-offs Between Deer Herbivory and Nitrogen Competition Alter Grassland Forb Composition

Two of the major factors that control the composition of herbaceous plant communities are competition for limiting soil resources and herbivory. We present results from a 14-year full factorial experiment in a tallgrass prairie ecosystem that crossed nitrogen (N) addition with fencing to exclude white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, from half the plots. Deer presence was associated with only modest decreases in aboveground plant biomass (14