(Table 1) Carbon pools in different vegetation components in grazed and ungrazed plots near Ny-Ålesund, Spitzbergen, supplement to: Sjögersten, Sofie; van der Wal, René; Loonen, Maarten J J E; Woodin, Sarah J (2011): Recovery of ecosystem carbon fluxes and storage from herbivory. Biogeochemistry, 106(3), 357-370

The carbon (C) sink strength of arctic tundra is under pressure from increasing populations of arctic breeding geese. In this study we examined how CO2 and CH4 fluxes, plant biomass and soil C responded to the removal of vertebrate herbivores in a high arctic wet moss meadow that has been intensivel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sjögersten, Sofie, van der Wal, René, Loonen, Maarten J J E, Woodin, Sarah J
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2011
Subjects:
Area/locality
DATE/TIME
Treatment
Biomass as carbon per area
Biomass as carbon, standard deviation
International Polar Year 2007-2008 IPY
Arctic
Ny-Ålesund
Branta leucopsis
International Polar Year
IPY
Ny Ålesund
Spitzbergen
Tundra
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.837086
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.837086
Description
Summary:The carbon (C) sink strength of arctic tundra is under pressure from increasing populations of arctic breeding geese. In this study we examined how CO2 and CH4 fluxes, plant biomass and soil C responded to the removal of vertebrate herbivores in a high arctic wet moss meadow that has been intensively used by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) for ca. 20 years. We used 4 and 9 years old grazing exclosures to investigate the potential for recovery of ecosystem function during the growing season (July 2007). The results show greater above- and below-ground vascular plant biomass within the grazing exclosures with graminoid biomass being most responsive to the removal of herbivory whilst moss biomass remained unchanged. The changes in biomass switched the system from net emission to net uptake of CO2 (0.47 and -0.77 µmol/m**2/s in grazed and exclosure plots, respectively) during the growing season and doubled the C storage in live biomass. In contrast, the treatment had no impact on the CH4 fluxes, the total litter C pool or the soil C concentration. The rapid recovery of the above ground biomass and CO2 fluxes demonstrates the plasticity of this high arctic ecosystem in terms of response to changing herbivore pressure. : Based on C pool data collected at peak biomass in the end of July 2007. Data shown are for grazed (by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis)) and exclosure plots. Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150

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