Data and Code:Scale-dependent effects of herbivory on bryophyte communities in Arctic wetlands: A 25-year experiment ...

• Main Author: Liu, Chao
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: figshare 2023
• Subjects: Community ecology excl. invasive species ecology; Arctic; Bylot Island; Nunavut; permafrost; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24134883.v2; https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_and_Code/24134883/2

Our study explored how snow goose foraging activity alters bryophytes community composition via direct effects on alpha and beta diversity and indirectly by changing the strength of competitive interactions between bryophyte species. To do so, we surveyed the abundance of individual bryophyte species inside exclosures where snow geese had been excluded for a long time (25 years) and outside at three spatial scales (cm to m scales) in an Arctic wetland (Bylot Island in Nunavut, Canada).We conducted this study in tundra wetlands, mostly fens created by polygon-patterned permafrost, located in the Qarlikturvik glacial valley on Bylot Island in Nunavut, Canada (73°N, 80°W). This region is the most important breeding site of the greater snow goose in the Arctic. Each summer, a breeding population of snow geese estimated at 20,000 pairs in one large colony covering approximately 65 km 2 on the southern plain of Bylot Island. A total of 18 goose exclosures (4 m x 4 m) were randomly established in polygon fens of ...