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

We conducted a manipulative experiment to quantify the impact of small mammal herbivores on the plant community of the tundra at three sites near Toolik Lake, 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 tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus) every summer except for 2024 and 4) pulse treatments (PU) where we stocked the fence with 4 voles in 2018 and then removed and excluded voles from 2019 onward. 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).