Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion
Herbivores can play an important role in determining arctic ecosystem function with effects determined in part by herbivore identity. We examined the impact of long-term (twenty-two years) small and large mammal herbivore exclusion in two arctic plant communities in northern Alaska: dry heath (DH) a...
Published in: | Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2020
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:615ae310e7e44fdd9adccaa68029ebe8 2023-05-15T14:14:32+02:00 Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion Austin Roy Matthew Suchocki Laura Gough Jennie R. McLaren 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/article/615ae310e7e44fdd9adccaa68029ebe8 EN eng Taylor & Francis Group http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/toc/1523-0430 https://doaj.org/toc/1938-4246 1523-0430 1938-4246 doi:10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/article/615ae310e7e44fdd9adccaa68029ebe8 Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol 52, Iss 1, Pp 109-119 (2020) moist acidic tundra dry heath tundra exclosure extracellular enzyme herbivory microbial biomass plant community soil nutrients Environmental sciences GE1-350 Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 2022-12-31T04:31:28Z Herbivores can play an important role in determining arctic ecosystem function with effects determined in part by herbivore identity. We examined the impact of long-term (twenty-two years) small and large mammal herbivore exclusion in two arctic plant communities in northern Alaska: dry heath (DH) and moist acidic tundra (MAT). Our aims were to examine how herbivore exclusion influences (1) plant communities and (2) soil nutrient pools and microbial processes. Though herbivore absence increased moss and decreased evergreen shrub cover in MAT, there were few other significant effects on vegetation in either community. We also observed no influence of exclusion on most soil properties. However, in DH, phosphatase activity was greater in areas where small mammals alone were present, suggesting that they are altering phosphorus (P) availability, perhaps through herbivores’ influence on the plant community and subsequently on competition for P with the microbial community. We conclude that herbivore impacts in the Arctic are dependent on both the plant community and herbivore identity (size). We show the importance of understanding the roles of herbivores in the Arctic and contribute to a growing number of herbivore studies in a biome likely to experience future changes in herbivore communities and ecosystem function. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Arctic Tundra Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 52 1 109 119 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
moist acidic tundra dry heath tundra exclosure extracellular enzyme herbivory microbial biomass plant community soil nutrients Environmental sciences GE1-350 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
moist acidic tundra dry heath tundra exclosure extracellular enzyme herbivory microbial biomass plant community soil nutrients Environmental sciences GE1-350 Ecology QH540-549.5 Austin Roy Matthew Suchocki Laura Gough Jennie R. McLaren Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
topic_facet |
moist acidic tundra dry heath tundra exclosure extracellular enzyme herbivory microbial biomass plant community soil nutrients Environmental sciences GE1-350 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Herbivores can play an important role in determining arctic ecosystem function with effects determined in part by herbivore identity. We examined the impact of long-term (twenty-two years) small and large mammal herbivore exclusion in two arctic plant communities in northern Alaska: dry heath (DH) and moist acidic tundra (MAT). Our aims were to examine how herbivore exclusion influences (1) plant communities and (2) soil nutrient pools and microbial processes. Though herbivore absence increased moss and decreased evergreen shrub cover in MAT, there were few other significant effects on vegetation in either community. We also observed no influence of exclusion on most soil properties. However, in DH, phosphatase activity was greater in areas where small mammals alone were present, suggesting that they are altering phosphorus (P) availability, perhaps through herbivores’ influence on the plant community and subsequently on competition for P with the microbial community. We conclude that herbivore impacts in the Arctic are dependent on both the plant community and herbivore identity (size). We show the importance of understanding the roles of herbivores in the Arctic and contribute to a growing number of herbivore studies in a biome likely to experience future changes in herbivore communities and ecosystem function. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Austin Roy Matthew Suchocki Laura Gough Jennie R. McLaren |
author_facet |
Austin Roy Matthew Suchocki Laura Gough Jennie R. McLaren |
author_sort |
Austin Roy |
title |
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
title_short |
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
title_full |
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
title_fullStr |
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
title_full_unstemmed |
Above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
title_sort |
above- and belowground responses to long-term herbivore exclusion |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis Group |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/article/615ae310e7e44fdd9adccaa68029ebe8 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Arctic Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Arctic Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol 52, Iss 1, Pp 109-119 (2020) |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/toc/1523-0430 https://doaj.org/toc/1938-4246 1523-0430 1938-4246 doi:10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 https://doaj.org/article/615ae310e7e44fdd9adccaa68029ebe8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1733891 |
container_title |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
container_volume |
52 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
109 |
op_container_end_page |
119 |
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1766286947608690688 |