This datafile is part of a study that demonstrates, using a manipulative field experiment, that herbivory and the introduction of reed rhizomes strongly control early vegetation development and carbon dynamics on the bare soils on a newly constructed archipelago (Marker Wadden, the Netherlands). In this full-factorial field experiment, we excluded herbivores (with cage exclosures) and introduced reed. In six replicated blocks we applied each of four treatments: “no herbivory, planted reed”, “herbivory, planted reed”, “no herbivory, no planted reed” and “herbivory, no planted reed”. The study took place from 2017 till 2018 on a newly constructed archipelago (Marker Wadden) in the Netherlands. The dataset contains data on vegetation cover, reed shoot number and maximum reed height after one season of growth, as well as data on porewater nutrient concentrations and greenhouse gas fluxes (carbon dioxide and methane) in the experimental treatments.