Relative cover of vegetation from a small mammal experiment from summer 2018 and 2019 near Nome 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 Nome, 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 and 4) pulse treatments (PU) where we stocked the fence with 4 voles in 2018 and then removed and excluded voles in 2019. 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.