Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland
Abstract Changes in the terrestrial carbon cycle may ameliorate or exacerbate future climatic warming. Research on this topic has focused almost exclusively on abiotic drivers, whereas biotic factors, including trophic interactions, have received comparatively little attention. We quantified the sin...
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crwiley:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x 2024-06-23T07:50:25+00:00 Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland Cahoon, Sean M. P. Sullivan, Patrick F. Post, Eric Welker, Jeffrey M. 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-2486.2011.02528.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Global Change Biology volume 18, issue 2, page 469-479 ISSN 1354-1013 1365-2486 journal-article 2011 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x 2024-06-06T04:20:36Z Abstract Changes in the terrestrial carbon cycle may ameliorate or exacerbate future climatic warming. Research on this topic has focused almost exclusively on abiotic drivers, whereas biotic factors, including trophic interactions, have received comparatively little attention. We quantified the singular and interactive effects of herbivore exclusion and simulated warming on ecosystem CO 2 exchange over two consecutive growing seasons in W est G reenland. Exclusion of caribou and muskoxen over the past 8 years has led to dramatic increases in shrub cover, leaf area, ecosystem photosynthesis, and a nearly threefold increase in net C uptake. These responses were accentuated by warming, but only in the absence of herbivores. Carbon cycle responses to herbivore exclusion alone and combined with warming were driven by changes in gross ecosystem photosynthesis, as limited differences in ecosystem respiration were observed. Our results show that large herbivores can be of critical importance as mediators of arctic ecosystem responses to climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Greenland Wiley Online Library Arctic Greenland Global Change Biology 18 2 469 479 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Changes in the terrestrial carbon cycle may ameliorate or exacerbate future climatic warming. Research on this topic has focused almost exclusively on abiotic drivers, whereas biotic factors, including trophic interactions, have received comparatively little attention. We quantified the singular and interactive effects of herbivore exclusion and simulated warming on ecosystem CO 2 exchange over two consecutive growing seasons in W est G reenland. Exclusion of caribou and muskoxen over the past 8 years has led to dramatic increases in shrub cover, leaf area, ecosystem photosynthesis, and a nearly threefold increase in net C uptake. These responses were accentuated by warming, but only in the absence of herbivores. Carbon cycle responses to herbivore exclusion alone and combined with warming were driven by changes in gross ecosystem photosynthesis, as limited differences in ecosystem respiration were observed. Our results show that large herbivores can be of critical importance as mediators of arctic ecosystem responses to climate change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cahoon, Sean M. P. Sullivan, Patrick F. Post, Eric Welker, Jeffrey M. |
spellingShingle |
Cahoon, Sean M. P. Sullivan, Patrick F. Post, Eric Welker, Jeffrey M. Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
author_facet |
Cahoon, Sean M. P. Sullivan, Patrick F. Post, Eric Welker, Jeffrey M. |
author_sort |
Cahoon, Sean M. P. |
title |
Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
title_short |
Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
title_full |
Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Large herbivores limit CO 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in West Greenland |
title_sort |
large herbivores limit co 2 uptake and suppress carbon cycle responses to warming in west greenland |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-2486.2011.02528.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Greenland |
op_source |
Global Change Biology volume 18, issue 2, page 469-479 ISSN 1354-1013 1365-2486 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02528.x |
container_title |
Global Change Biology |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
469 |
op_container_end_page |
479 |
_version_ |
1802641317890621440 |