Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting
Abstract Dramatic increases in air temperature and precipitation are occurring in the High Arctic (>70°N), yet few studies have characterized the long‐term responses of High Arctic ecosystems to the interactive effects of experimental warming and increased rain. Beginning in 2003, we applied a fa...
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crwiley:10.1111/gcb.16027 2024-06-02T08:01:10+00:00 Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting Jespersen, Robert Gus Leffler, Alan Joshua Väisänen, Maria Welker, Jeffrey M. National Science Foundation 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/am-pdf/10.1111/gcb.16027 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#am http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Global Change Biology volume 28, issue 5, page 1853-1869 ISSN 1354-1013 1365-2486 journal-article 2021 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16027 2024-05-03T11:53:05Z Abstract Dramatic increases in air temperature and precipitation are occurring in the High Arctic (>70°N), yet few studies have characterized the long‐term responses of High Arctic ecosystems to the interactive effects of experimental warming and increased rain. Beginning in 2003, we applied a factorial summer warming and wetting experiment to a polar semidesert in northwest Greenland. In summer 2018, we assessed several metrics of ecosystem structure and function, including plant cover, greenness, ecosystem CO 2 exchange, aboveground (leaf, stem) and belowground (litter, root, soil) carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations (%) and pools, as well as leaf and soil stable isotopes (δ 13 C and δ 15 N). Wetting induced the most pronounced changes in ecosystem structure, accelerating the expansion of Salix arctica cover by 370% and increasing aboveground C, N, and biomass pools by 94%–101% and root C, N, and biomass pools by 60%–122%, increases which coincided with enhanced net ecosystem CO 2 uptake. Further, wetting combined with warming enhanced plot‐level greenness, whereas in isolation neither wetting nor warming had an effect. At the plant level, the effects of warming and wetting differed among species and included warming‐linked decreases in leaf N and δ 15 N in S. arctica , whereas leaf N and δ 15 N in Dryas integrifolia did not respond to the climate treatments. Finally, neither plant‐ nor plot‐level C and N allocation patterns nor soil C, N, δ 13 C, or δ 15 N concentrations changed in response to our manipulations, indicating that these ecosystem metrics may resist climate change, even in the longer term. In sum, our results highlight the importance of summer precipitation in regulating ecosystem structure and function in arid parts of the High Arctic, but they do not completely refute previous findings of resistance in some High Arctic ecosystem properties to climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Greenland Wiley Online Library Arctic Greenland Global Change Biology 28 5 1853 1869 |
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English |
description |
Abstract Dramatic increases in air temperature and precipitation are occurring in the High Arctic (>70°N), yet few studies have characterized the long‐term responses of High Arctic ecosystems to the interactive effects of experimental warming and increased rain. Beginning in 2003, we applied a factorial summer warming and wetting experiment to a polar semidesert in northwest Greenland. In summer 2018, we assessed several metrics of ecosystem structure and function, including plant cover, greenness, ecosystem CO 2 exchange, aboveground (leaf, stem) and belowground (litter, root, soil) carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations (%) and pools, as well as leaf and soil stable isotopes (δ 13 C and δ 15 N). Wetting induced the most pronounced changes in ecosystem structure, accelerating the expansion of Salix arctica cover by 370% and increasing aboveground C, N, and biomass pools by 94%–101% and root C, N, and biomass pools by 60%–122%, increases which coincided with enhanced net ecosystem CO 2 uptake. Further, wetting combined with warming enhanced plot‐level greenness, whereas in isolation neither wetting nor warming had an effect. At the plant level, the effects of warming and wetting differed among species and included warming‐linked decreases in leaf N and δ 15 N in S. arctica , whereas leaf N and δ 15 N in Dryas integrifolia did not respond to the climate treatments. Finally, neither plant‐ nor plot‐level C and N allocation patterns nor soil C, N, δ 13 C, or δ 15 N concentrations changed in response to our manipulations, indicating that these ecosystem metrics may resist climate change, even in the longer term. In sum, our results highlight the importance of summer precipitation in regulating ecosystem structure and function in arid parts of the High Arctic, but they do not completely refute previous findings of resistance in some High Arctic ecosystem properties to climate change. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jespersen, Robert Gus Leffler, Alan Joshua Väisänen, Maria Welker, Jeffrey M. |
spellingShingle |
Jespersen, Robert Gus Leffler, Alan Joshua Väisänen, Maria Welker, Jeffrey M. Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
author_facet |
Jespersen, Robert Gus Leffler, Alan Joshua Väisänen, Maria Welker, Jeffrey M. |
author_sort |
Jespersen, Robert Gus |
title |
Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
title_short |
Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
title_full |
Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
title_fullStr |
Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
title_full_unstemmed |
Resistance and change in a High Arctic ecosystem, NW Greenland: Differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
title_sort |
resistance and change in a high arctic ecosystem, nw greenland: differential sensitivity of ecosystem metrics to 15 years of experimental warming and wetting |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/gcb.16027 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/am-pdf/10.1111/gcb.16027 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Greenland |
op_source |
Global Change Biology volume 28, issue 5, page 1853-1869 ISSN 1354-1013 1365-2486 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#am http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16027 |
container_title |
Global Change Biology |
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28 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1853 |
op_container_end_page |
1869 |
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1800745473306263552 |