3.1.1. 10-year-old stands
Soil moisture regimes did not differ significantly among treatments
(Table 1). Differences in species composition between the
treatments occurred for 10-year-old stands, especially for jack pine
and trembling aspen growth in tree and shrub layers (Table 2). The
NMDS ordination for shrubs and trees resulted in a three-dimensional
solution that explained 85% of the variation in the data (final
stress = 13.8), a reliable solution for ecological data (McCune and
Grace, 2002). Examination of the third axis showed little evidence
of variation related to the treatments, so only Axes 1 and 2 are presented
(Fig. 2A). Axis 1, which explained 39% of the variation in the
data, was most positively correlated with shrubs considered preferred
moose forage, including, serviceberry (s = 0.456), mountain
maple (s = 0.419), trembling aspen (s = 0.387), and beaked hazel
(s = 0.277). This axis was most negatively correlated with jack pine