Brown Lemming Herbivory Experiment Data, Alaskan Arctic (summers 2018, 2019)

• Main Authors: Jessica Plein, Donatella Zona, Rulon Clark, Kyle Arndt, Walter Oechel, Douglas Stow
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2022
• Subjects: Alaskan Arctic; Arctic tundra; Carbon fluxes; Brown lemming; Herbivory; Lemmus trimucronatus; Vegetation recovery; Vegetation response; Arctic; Barrow; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2S17ST8F

Arctic tundra vegetation, and therefore the carbon balance of Arctic tundra ecosystems, can be substantially impacted by herbivory. With these data, we tested how herbivory by brown lemmings (Lemmus trimucronatus) can impact vegetation and carbon exchange of a wet-sedge tundra ecosystem near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska during summer of 2018, and the recovery of vegetation during summer of 2019. We placed brown lemmings in individual enclosure plots and tested the impact of lemmings’ herbivory on carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) immediately after lemming removal and during different times of the following growing season.