Replication Data for: Greening conceals evergreening: can allelopathy undermine the resource base of a reindeer pastoralist system? ...

• Main Author: Tuomi, Maria W.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: DataverseNO 2023
• Subjects: Arctic Greening; Arctic; Crowberry; Northern Norway; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18710/wz5rse; https://dataverse.no/citation?persistentId=doi:10.18710/WZ5RSE

1. Ongoing Arctic greening can increase productivity and reindeer pasture quality in the tundra. However, greening may also entail proliferation of unpalatable species, with distinct consequences for pastoral socialo-ecological systems (SES). 2. We show extensive greening across 20 reindeer districts in northern Norway between 2003 and 2020. The allelopathic, evergreen dwarf-shrub crowberry biomass increased by 60%, contrasted by smaller increases of deciduous dwarf-shrubs and stagnating forb and graminoid biomass. 3. We found evidence, although uncertain, of a negative relationship between biomass and reindeer densities, but only among forbs, the least abundant plant group. 4. Our results challenge the management decision-making, which aims at sustainable pasture management, but which assumes stationary density-dependent relationships. Adaptive management criteria sensitive to changes in focal resource-consumer relationships could help to avoid mismanaging a SES in transition. 5. Large-scale shift towards ...