Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022
Groundberries are an important component of the flora of the boreal forest and provide seasonally important food for many birds and mammals, as well as local people in northern Canada. Here, we ask whether there has been a change in the cover of groundberries in the Yukon boreal forest over the last...
Published in: | Botany |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 |
id |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 2023-12-17T10:29:18+01:00 Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 Krebs, Charles J. Boonstra, Rudy Kenney, Alice J. Hofer, Elizabeth Jung, Thomas S. O'Donoghue, Mark Rudy Boonstra Charles Krebs Thomas Jung Yukon Department of Environment 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Botany ISSN 1916-2790 1916-2804 Plant Science Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2023 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 2023-11-19T13:38:32Z Groundberries are an important component of the flora of the boreal forest and provide seasonally important food for many birds and mammals, as well as local people in northern Canada. Here, we ask whether there has been a change in the cover of groundberries in the Yukon boreal forest over the last two decades. We monitored five common species at undisturbed forest sites spaced 300 km apart. At our Kluane site, we monitored 710 fixed quadrats per year for 26 years (1997–2022), and at Mayo 500 quadrats per year for 18 years (2005–2022). The cover of four species, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng. (bearberry) , Arctostaphylos rubra (Rehder & E.H. Wilson) Fernald (red bearberry) , Empetrum nigrum L. (crowberry), and Geocaulon lividum (Richardson) Fernald (toadflax), declined annually by 0.2%–0.8% at both sites. In contrast, Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. (lingonberry) increased annually by 0.5% and 0.8%. We tested whether increases in summer temperature and rainfall were correlated with the observed changes but found no significant relationships. These boreal plants are changing in abundance, but we have limited data on the extent and speed of these changes. We recommend experiments to understand the cause(s) of these changes in groundberry productivity. Our study is a start in monitoring important berry species in this critical ecosystem of northern Canada. Article in Journal/Newspaper Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Mayo Yukon Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) Canada Yukon Botany |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Plant Science Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Plant Science Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Krebs, Charles J. Boonstra, Rudy Kenney, Alice J. Hofer, Elizabeth Jung, Thomas S. O'Donoghue, Mark Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
topic_facet |
Plant Science Ecology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Groundberries are an important component of the flora of the boreal forest and provide seasonally important food for many birds and mammals, as well as local people in northern Canada. Here, we ask whether there has been a change in the cover of groundberries in the Yukon boreal forest over the last two decades. We monitored five common species at undisturbed forest sites spaced 300 km apart. At our Kluane site, we monitored 710 fixed quadrats per year for 26 years (1997–2022), and at Mayo 500 quadrats per year for 18 years (2005–2022). The cover of four species, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng. (bearberry) , Arctostaphylos rubra (Rehder & E.H. Wilson) Fernald (red bearberry) , Empetrum nigrum L. (crowberry), and Geocaulon lividum (Richardson) Fernald (toadflax), declined annually by 0.2%–0.8% at both sites. In contrast, Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. (lingonberry) increased annually by 0.5% and 0.8%. We tested whether increases in summer temperature and rainfall were correlated with the observed changes but found no significant relationships. These boreal plants are changing in abundance, but we have limited data on the extent and speed of these changes. We recommend experiments to understand the cause(s) of these changes in groundberry productivity. Our study is a start in monitoring important berry species in this critical ecosystem of northern Canada. |
author2 |
Rudy Boonstra Charles Krebs Thomas Jung Yukon Department of Environment |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Krebs, Charles J. Boonstra, Rudy Kenney, Alice J. Hofer, Elizabeth Jung, Thomas S. O'Donoghue, Mark |
author_facet |
Krebs, Charles J. Boonstra, Rudy Kenney, Alice J. Hofer, Elizabeth Jung, Thomas S. O'Donoghue, Mark |
author_sort |
Krebs, Charles J. |
title |
Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
title_short |
Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
title_full |
Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
title_fullStr |
Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central Yukon, 1997–2022 |
title_sort |
trends in groundberry cover under climate change in the southern and central yukon, 1997–2022 |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 |
geographic |
Canada Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Canada Yukon |
genre |
Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Mayo Yukon |
genre_facet |
Crowberry Empetrum nigrum Mayo Yukon |
op_source |
Botany ISSN 1916-2790 1916-2804 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2023-0068 |
container_title |
Botany |
_version_ |
1785581648433119232 |