Abstract: A field survey was carried out to determine the effects of plateau pika disturbances on plant species diversity and productivity in a Kobresia pygmaea meadow in the Qinghai Lake Region. A random stratified paired sampling design was used to select a disturbed area containing burrow entrances and plateau pika simultaneously, and an undisturbed area without burrow entrances or plateau pika. The field experiment was conducted in early May, 2015. The dominant plant was the same in the disturbed and undisturbed areas, but its degree of dominance was lower in the disturbed area than in the undisturbed area. Ten plots (25 m×25 m) were randomly placed with at least 25 m distance between plots. Each plot was fenced to exclude other wild herbivores. In each plot, vegetation was sampled in three subplots on the diagonal (each 1 m×1 m, with at least 10 m distance between subplots). The results showed that plateau pika disturbances had different effects on species diversity and plant functional groups. Plateau pika disturbances increased the richness index of weeds and plant species richness, and decreased the plant evenness index, the richness index of Cyperaceae, and the evenness index of Gramineae (P<0.05). In disturbed areas, plant species richness and evenness and the richness index of weeds gradually increased with increasing plateau pika disturbance levels, while the evenness index of Gramineae decreased. Plateau pika disturbances significantly reduced the total community biomass (P<0.05), but the trends in the changes of biomass differed among functional groups. Plateau pika disturbances significantly decreased the biomass of Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and Leguminosae, but increased the biomass of weeds (P<0.05). With increasing plateau pika disturbance levels, the biomass of Cyperaceae and Leguminosae decreased, the biomass of weeds increased, and the biomass of Gramineae first increased and then decreased. These results suggested that analyses of plant diversity cannot replace analyses of plant functional diversity when trying to understand the responses of alpine meadows to plateau pika disturbances.