Nine Portal plots showed incomplete replacement of the kangaroo rat energy index in 2022–2025

Can other species still replace the energy use lost after a dominant consumer is removed? Diaz and Ernest (2022) found that compensation by small granivorous rodents at Portal, Arizona, decreased after 2010. We tested the first full calendar years after the 2020–2021 monitoring gap. We used PortalData 6.117.0 and nine plots with fixed rodent treatments: four controls and five kangaroo rat exclosures. We retained 39 complete censuses in 2022–2025. Energy was an index from captured body mass, summed as 5.69*m^0.75. Replacement was the increase in small granivore energy on exclosures, divided by control kangaroo rat energy. Ratios used pooled energy with equal weights for eligible calendar years. Estimated replacement was 32.0%. Its 95% block bootstrap interval was 14.7–42.7% with plots fixed and 2.3–56.9% with plots and time resampled. Complete replacement would give 100%. The increase from 2010–2019 was 10.9 percentage points, with a joint interval of -11.8 to +31.2 points. Thus, a recent increase was not resolved. The 1997–2009 estimate was 49.5%; its difference from the new era was uncertain when plots were resampled. Bailey's pocket mouse supplied 78% of the net replacement contrast in the new era. Kangaroo rats caught inside exclosures raised the total exclosure/control ratio from 53.7% to 61.0%. These captures are not compensation by other species. Mass, sampling, and season checks supported incomplete replacement. Reconstructed totals matched the earlier public table closely: 99.2% of nonzero plot totals were within 5%. Limits include one site, four new years, capture probability, past treatments, and an estimated energy index. We supply source tables, code, figures, provenance, and results for an offline primary reproduction.

biodiversity · community dynamics · functional compensation · Portal Project · kangaroo rat removal · energy index · long-term experiment · reproducibility