Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017
Warming environmental conditions are often credited with increasing Arctic shrub growth and altering abundance and distribution, yet it is unclear if tundra shrub expansion will continue into future decades. Water availability may begin to limit Arctic shrub growth if increasing air temperatures cre...
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Arctic Data Center
2021
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dataone:doi:10.18739/A26688K5G 2024-06-03T18:46:35+00:00 Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 Rebecca Finger-Higgens Shrub steppe tundra located outside of Kangerlussuaq, Greenland ENVELOPE(-50.68772,-50.09044,67.18189,67.05299) BEGINDATE: 2017-06-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2017-08-01T00:00:00Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.18739/A26688K5G unknown Arctic Data Center Arctic, shrub, growth forms, soil moisture, trade-offs, plant traits, Greenland Salix glauca Betula nana Dataset 2021 dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC https://doi.org/10.18739/A26688K5G 2024-06-03T18:17:08Z Warming environmental conditions are often credited with increasing Arctic shrub growth and altering abundance and distribution, yet it is unclear if tundra shrub expansion will continue into future decades. Water availability may begin to limit Arctic shrub growth if increasing air temperatures create drier soil conditions due to increased evapotranspiration and permafrost-thaw-induced soil drainage. However, few studies have effectively considered how dominant tundra shrub species respond to variations in both temperature and moisture. To better understand the key effects of temperature variation and soil moisture on two dominant circumpolar deciduous shrubs, we studied shrub growth along a natural landscape gradient in West Greenland. We found that the growth forms of both grey willow (Salix glauca) and dwarf birch (Betula nana) were sensitive to variations in air temperature and soil moisture. For both species, increases in air temperature were positively correlated to greater shrub volume, with much of the additional canopy volume due to increased woody biomass. Leaf biomass was best predicted by edaphic features including extractable ammonium, which was positively related to soil moisture, and bulk density. Warmer soils generally tended to be drier, suggesting that ongoing warming in the area would lead to significant water limitation. Our findings suggest that drier soil conditions are likely limiting foliar production by two circumpolar dominant shrubs, Betula nana and Salix glauca, which could have wide-ranging, biome level consequences about ongoing and predicted shrub growth and expansion. Dataset Arctic Betula nana Dwarf birch Greenland Kangerlussuaq permafrost Tundra Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) Arctic Greenland Kangerlussuaq ENVELOPE(-55.633,-55.633,72.633,72.633) ENVELOPE(-50.68772,-50.09044,67.18189,67.05299) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Arctic Data Center (via DataONE) |
op_collection_id |
dataone:urn:node:ARCTIC |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Arctic, shrub, growth forms, soil moisture, trade-offs, plant traits, Greenland Salix glauca Betula nana |
spellingShingle |
Arctic, shrub, growth forms, soil moisture, trade-offs, plant traits, Greenland Salix glauca Betula nana Rebecca Finger-Higgens Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
topic_facet |
Arctic, shrub, growth forms, soil moisture, trade-offs, plant traits, Greenland Salix glauca Betula nana |
description |
Warming environmental conditions are often credited with increasing Arctic shrub growth and altering abundance and distribution, yet it is unclear if tundra shrub expansion will continue into future decades. Water availability may begin to limit Arctic shrub growth if increasing air temperatures create drier soil conditions due to increased evapotranspiration and permafrost-thaw-induced soil drainage. However, few studies have effectively considered how dominant tundra shrub species respond to variations in both temperature and moisture. To better understand the key effects of temperature variation and soil moisture on two dominant circumpolar deciduous shrubs, we studied shrub growth along a natural landscape gradient in West Greenland. We found that the growth forms of both grey willow (Salix glauca) and dwarf birch (Betula nana) were sensitive to variations in air temperature and soil moisture. For both species, increases in air temperature were positively correlated to greater shrub volume, with much of the additional canopy volume due to increased woody biomass. Leaf biomass was best predicted by edaphic features including extractable ammonium, which was positively related to soil moisture, and bulk density. Warmer soils generally tended to be drier, suggesting that ongoing warming in the area would lead to significant water limitation. Our findings suggest that drier soil conditions are likely limiting foliar production by two circumpolar dominant shrubs, Betula nana and Salix glauca, which could have wide-ranging, biome level consequences about ongoing and predicted shrub growth and expansion. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Rebecca Finger-Higgens |
author_facet |
Rebecca Finger-Higgens |
author_sort |
Rebecca Finger-Higgens |
title |
Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
title_short |
Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
title_full |
Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
title_fullStr |
Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Shrub plant traits of Betula nana and Salix glauca in West Greenland, 2017 |
title_sort |
shrub plant traits of betula nana and salix glauca in west greenland, 2017 |
publisher |
Arctic Data Center |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A26688K5G |
op_coverage |
Shrub steppe tundra located outside of Kangerlussuaq, Greenland ENVELOPE(-50.68772,-50.09044,67.18189,67.05299) BEGINDATE: 2017-06-01T00:00:00Z ENDDATE: 2017-08-01T00:00:00Z |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-55.633,-55.633,72.633,72.633) ENVELOPE(-50.68772,-50.09044,67.18189,67.05299) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Kangerlussuaq |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Kangerlussuaq |
genre |
Arctic Betula nana Dwarf birch Greenland Kangerlussuaq permafrost Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Betula nana Dwarf birch Greenland Kangerlussuaq permafrost Tundra |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18739/A26688K5G |
_version_ |
1800868142886420480 |