Estimated rodent energy use on kangaroo rat exclusion plots was 59% of controls in 44 Portal censuses in 2021–2025

We tested whether smaller rodents gave energy compensation after kangaroo rat removal at the Portal experiment in Arizona. We used four control plots and five exclusion plots with stable rodent treatments since 1988. The later window had 44 complete censuses from June 2021 to December 2025 and 3,172 captures. Energy was estimated as the sum of 5.69 times body mass to the power 0.75. The exclusion-to-control total ratio was 0.590. Its 95% interval was 0.454 to 0.672 with time blocks and 0.387 to 0.769 with plot and time resampling. The count ratio was 0.771 and the biomass ratio was 0.534. Small-rodent excess equaled 0.289 of the control kangaroo-rat energy estimate. This was below full replacement. Its change from 2010-2020 was uncertain. Historical contrasts became less precise when plots were resampled. Quality, mass, effort, plot, and survey-coverage checks retained the total energy deficit. Kangaroo rats caught on exclusion plots supplied 0.067 of the control total; removing that term gave a ratio of 0.522. The package contains source tables, provenance, code, figures, all results, and reproduction checks. Limits include one site, a long 2020-2021 survey gap, capture-based indices, an assumed metabolic relation, and few plots. These results do not establish continuous change or measured energy use.

Portal Project · species removal · functional compensation · rodent community · energy use · long-term ecology · reproducibility