Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon
Abstract In the tundra, woody plants are dispersing towards higher latitudes and altitudes due to increasingly favourable climatic conditions. The coverage and height of woody plants are increasing, which may influence the soils of the tundra ecosystem. Here, we use structural equation modelling to...
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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crspringernat:10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2 2023-05-15T16:12:01+02:00 Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon Kemppinen, Julia Niittynen, Pekka Virkkala, Anna-Maria Happonen, Konsta Riihimäki, Henri Aalto, Juha Luoto, Miska Helsingin Yliopisto Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica Otto Malm Foundation Väisälä Fund Suomen Akatemia Koneen Säätiö University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Ecosystems volume 24, issue 6, page 1378-1392 ISSN 1432-9840 1435-0629 Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2 2022-01-04T08:30:10Z Abstract In the tundra, woody plants are dispersing towards higher latitudes and altitudes due to increasingly favourable climatic conditions. The coverage and height of woody plants are increasing, which may influence the soils of the tundra ecosystem. Here, we use structural equation modelling to analyse 171 study plots and to examine if the coverage and height of woody plants affect the growing-season topsoil moisture and temperature (< 10 cm) as well as soil organic carbon stocks (< 80 cm). In our study setting, we consider the hierarchy of the ecosystem by controlling for other factors, such as topography, wintertime snow depth and the overall plant coverage that potentially influence woody plants and soil properties in this dwarf shrub-dominated landscape in northern Fennoscandia. We found strong links from topography to both vegetation and soil. Further, we found that woody plants influence multiple soil properties: the dominance of woody plants inversely correlated with soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil organic carbon stocks (standardised regression coefficients = − 0.39; − 0.22; − 0.34, respectively), even when controlling for other landscape features. Our results indicate that the dominance of dwarf shrubs may lead to soils that are drier, colder, and contain less organic carbon. Thus, there are multiple mechanisms through which woody plants may influence tundra soils. Article in Journal/Newspaper Fennoscandia Tundra Springer Nature (via Crossref) Ecosystems |
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Open Polar |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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language |
English |
topic |
Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
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Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Kemppinen, Julia Niittynen, Pekka Virkkala, Anna-Maria Happonen, Konsta Riihimäki, Henri Aalto, Juha Luoto, Miska Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
topic_facet |
Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Abstract In the tundra, woody plants are dispersing towards higher latitudes and altitudes due to increasingly favourable climatic conditions. The coverage and height of woody plants are increasing, which may influence the soils of the tundra ecosystem. Here, we use structural equation modelling to analyse 171 study plots and to examine if the coverage and height of woody plants affect the growing-season topsoil moisture and temperature (< 10 cm) as well as soil organic carbon stocks (< 80 cm). In our study setting, we consider the hierarchy of the ecosystem by controlling for other factors, such as topography, wintertime snow depth and the overall plant coverage that potentially influence woody plants and soil properties in this dwarf shrub-dominated landscape in northern Fennoscandia. We found strong links from topography to both vegetation and soil. Further, we found that woody plants influence multiple soil properties: the dominance of woody plants inversely correlated with soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil organic carbon stocks (standardised regression coefficients = − 0.39; − 0.22; − 0.34, respectively), even when controlling for other landscape features. Our results indicate that the dominance of dwarf shrubs may lead to soils that are drier, colder, and contain less organic carbon. Thus, there are multiple mechanisms through which woody plants may influence tundra soils. |
author2 |
Helsingin Yliopisto Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica Otto Malm Foundation Väisälä Fund Suomen Akatemia Koneen Säätiö University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kemppinen, Julia Niittynen, Pekka Virkkala, Anna-Maria Happonen, Konsta Riihimäki, Henri Aalto, Juha Luoto, Miska |
author_facet |
Kemppinen, Julia Niittynen, Pekka Virkkala, Anna-Maria Happonen, Konsta Riihimäki, Henri Aalto, Juha Luoto, Miska |
author_sort |
Kemppinen, Julia |
title |
Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
title_short |
Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
title_full |
Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
title_fullStr |
Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dwarf Shrubs Impact Tundra Soils: Drier, Colder, and Less Organic Carbon |
title_sort |
dwarf shrubs impact tundra soils: drier, colder, and less organic carbon |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2/fulltext.html |
genre |
Fennoscandia Tundra |
genre_facet |
Fennoscandia Tundra |
op_source |
Ecosystems volume 24, issue 6, page 1378-1392 ISSN 1432-9840 1435-0629 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00589-2 |
container_title |
Ecosystems |
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1765997238619734016 |