Total Relative Plant Cover and Height
Tortoise exclusion led to a 35% increase in total cover within our plots (Figure 1D, Table S3; X2 = 9.627;p = 0.002), an effect which became stronger throughout the growing season (exclusion × sampling period X2= 14.45; p = 0.002). Similarly, excluding gopher tortoises increased average plant height by 45% (Table S4;X2 = 17.912; p < 0.0001) and that effect became stronger through time (Figure 2, S2, Table S3;X2 = 35.010; p < 0.0001).