Estimated wetland vegetation cover comparing reference and muskrat disturbed areas

Biota that act as ecosystem engineers are increasingly recognized as effective components of habitat restoration as they can continuously alter and shape their environments without human intervention. Muskrats are considered ecosystem engineers and are relatively common in North American wetlands. While muskrat impacts to large areas have been documented, few studies have quantified the impact of muskrats on ecosystem biodiversity. We conducted a field study in wetlands along the Upper St. Lawrence River (New York, USA) to investigate the effects of muskrat herbivory and structure building on plant biodiversity in cattail-invaded wetlands. The data collected are separated into two main groups, i.e. “reference” vegetation surveys and “muskrat” vegetation surveys. “Reference” surveys were conducted for the partial grant fulfillment funded by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation [contract AM10165] and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation special project administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, New York Field Office, Cortland, NY [grant number #2005-0129-055/58859]. “Muskrat” surveys were conducted for the Masters project by Z.X. Kua. The five datasets include 1) Reference quadrat plant taxa estimated cover (n = 1912), 2) Reference quadrat cattail measurements (n = 737), 3) Muskrat-disturbed quadrat plant taxa estimated cover (n = 1886), 4) Muskrat-disturbed quadrat cattail measurements (n = 582), and 5) Wetland plant taxa lookup table for vegetation survey (n = 135).