Relative cover of vegetation from a small mammal experiment from summer 2018-2023 near Utqiagvik Alaska

We conducted a manipulative experiment to quantify the impact of small mammal herbivores on the plant community at three sites near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska. At each site we set up grazing fences in July of 2018 to simulate different levels of small mammal herbivore (vole and lemming) activity. Each site had 3 treatment plots and a control plot: 1)Exclosure treatments (EX) were 8 meter (m) x 8m square mesh fences 2) control plots (CT) were 8m x 8m unfenced plots marked with pin flags at corners 3) press treatments (PR) were 20m x 20m square mesh fences stocked with 4 brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) every summer and 4) pulse treatments (PU) where we stocked the fence with 4 lemmings in 2018 and then removed and excluded lemmings from 2019-2022. At each site in each plot we collected relative abundance of plant species and ground cover in 8 1 square meter (m2) plots once each year (except in 2020).