Data for: Vertebrate digging alters plants and soils

Soil-disturbing animals are common globally and play important roles in creating and maintaining healthy functional soils and landscapes. Yet many of these animals are threatened or locally extinct, either by habitat loss, predation by non-native animals or poaching/poisoning. Some reintroduction and rewilding programs have as their core aims both the increase in animal populations and reinstatement of processes that have been lost due to their extirpation. Here we review the effects of soil-disturbing vertebrates on ecosystem processes, using a meta-analytical approach to advance the argument that they can be used to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems, by altering mainly composition and function, but with fewer positive effects on structure. We describe four case studies showing that loss or reintroduction of soil-disturbing vertebrates leads to ecosystem state changes, and highlight the role of spatial scale, co-varying management changes, and species co-occurrence in modulating their effects. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using soil-disturbing vertebrates over mechanised engineering approaches such as pitting and furrowing, including more self-sustainable and heterogenous disturbances, creation of new habitats, and added recreational values. Finally, we identify key knowledge gaps in our understanding of the use of soil-disturbing vertebrates for rehabilitating degraded ecosystems.