Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore
Summary In many arctic herbivores, the growth of young depends upon a synchrony between hatching date and seasonal change in plant nutritive quality. If plants respond more quickly than herbivores to climate warming, this may cause a mismatch between the availability of high‐quality food and the hat...
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crwiley:10.1111/1365-2745.12213 2024-09-15T18:39:42+00:00 Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore Doiron, Madeleine Gauthier, Gilles Lévesque, Esther Newman, Jonathan 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2745.12213 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Journal of Ecology volume 102, issue 2, page 508-517 ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745 journal-article 2014 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 2024-08-27T04:28:12Z Summary In many arctic herbivores, the growth of young depends upon a synchrony between hatching date and seasonal change in plant nutritive quality. If plants respond more quickly than herbivores to climate warming, this may cause a mismatch between the availability of high‐quality food and the hatching of young. This study examines the impact of experimental warming on the main food plants of an arctic herbivore, the greater snow goose ( C hen caerulescens atlantica L .) breeding on B ylot I sland, N unavut, C anada. During summers 2007–2009, we increased the temperature using small glasshouses (open‐top chambers, OTC ) in two habitats, wetlands and mesic tundra. Every 10 days, we measured above‐ground plant biomass and a proxy of nutritive quality, nitrogen concentration, of graminoid plants in warmed and control plots from snowmelt in June until late July. Open‐top chambers increased mean maximum temperature by up to 2.0 °C in wetlands and 4.6 °C in mesic tundra. Annual warming significantly increased biomass of graminoids by up to 29% in wetlands and 20% in mesic tundra. There was no difference in nitrogen concentration of the four plant species sampled ( D upontia fisheri , E riophorum scheuchzeri , A rctagrostis latifolia and L uzula spp.) early in the season, but the seasonal decline in nitrogen occurred more rapidly in warmed than in control plots (10% to 14% less nitrogen in warmed plots in July). This effect was consistent across the 3 years of the experiment and independent of annual variation in plant phenology. There was either a weak positive effect or no effect of the warming treatment on the nitrogen biomass of plants depending on species or period of the season. Synthesis . Our results show that warming speeds up plant phenology and the seasonal decline in nutritive quality for arctic herbivores. Because young herbivores like geese are highly sensitive to the nitrogen concentration of their food, a warmer climate will likely reduce their growth. Climate warming may therefore have a negative ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Wiley Online Library Journal of Ecology 102 2 508 517 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Summary In many arctic herbivores, the growth of young depends upon a synchrony between hatching date and seasonal change in plant nutritive quality. If plants respond more quickly than herbivores to climate warming, this may cause a mismatch between the availability of high‐quality food and the hatching of young. This study examines the impact of experimental warming on the main food plants of an arctic herbivore, the greater snow goose ( C hen caerulescens atlantica L .) breeding on B ylot I sland, N unavut, C anada. During summers 2007–2009, we increased the temperature using small glasshouses (open‐top chambers, OTC ) in two habitats, wetlands and mesic tundra. Every 10 days, we measured above‐ground plant biomass and a proxy of nutritive quality, nitrogen concentration, of graminoid plants in warmed and control plots from snowmelt in June until late July. Open‐top chambers increased mean maximum temperature by up to 2.0 °C in wetlands and 4.6 °C in mesic tundra. Annual warming significantly increased biomass of graminoids by up to 29% in wetlands and 20% in mesic tundra. There was no difference in nitrogen concentration of the four plant species sampled ( D upontia fisheri , E riophorum scheuchzeri , A rctagrostis latifolia and L uzula spp.) early in the season, but the seasonal decline in nitrogen occurred more rapidly in warmed than in control plots (10% to 14% less nitrogen in warmed plots in July). This effect was consistent across the 3 years of the experiment and independent of annual variation in plant phenology. There was either a weak positive effect or no effect of the warming treatment on the nitrogen biomass of plants depending on species or period of the season. Synthesis . Our results show that warming speeds up plant phenology and the seasonal decline in nutritive quality for arctic herbivores. Because young herbivores like geese are highly sensitive to the nitrogen concentration of their food, a warmer climate will likely reduce their growth. Climate warming may therefore have a negative ... |
author2 |
Newman, Jonathan |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Doiron, Madeleine Gauthier, Gilles Lévesque, Esther |
spellingShingle |
Doiron, Madeleine Gauthier, Gilles Lévesque, Esther Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
author_facet |
Doiron, Madeleine Gauthier, Gilles Lévesque, Esther |
author_sort |
Doiron, Madeleine |
title |
Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
title_short |
Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
title_full |
Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
title_fullStr |
Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
title_sort |
effects of experimental warming on nitrogen concentration and biomass of forage plants for an arctic herbivore |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2F1365-2745.12213 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_source |
Journal of Ecology volume 102, issue 2, page 508-517 ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12213 |
container_title |
Journal of Ecology |
container_volume |
102 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
508 |
op_container_end_page |
517 |
_version_ |
1810484054732046336 |