Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway?
The boundary between the boreal and arctic biomes in northwest Europe has been a matter of debate for many years. Some authors consider that the boundary is marked by the northern limit of tree growth in the northernmost Norwegian mainland. In this study we have collected air and soil temperature da...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f390b9e2b87d4a1b9397dc223a836b81 2023-05-15T14:51:59+02:00 Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? Gauri Bandekar Live Semb Vestgarden Andrew Jenkins Arvid Odland 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/article/f390b9e2b87d4a1b9397dc223a836b81 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/article/f390b9e2b87d4a1b9397dc223a836b81 PLoS ONE, Vol 15, Iss 9, p e0239183 (2020) Medicine R Science Q article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 2022-12-31T07:07:19Z The boundary between the boreal and arctic biomes in northwest Europe has been a matter of debate for many years. Some authors consider that the boundary is marked by the northern limit of tree growth in the northernmost Norwegian mainland. In this study we have collected air and soil temperature data from 37 heath stands from northern Finnmark (71°N), the northernmost part of the Norwegian mainland, through Bear Island (74°N) in the Barents sea, to Adventsdalen (78)°N (in Spitsbergen) in Svalbard archipelago. In Finnmark, plots both south and north of the treeline were investigated. Vegetation and soil chemistry analyses were performed on the plots in Finnmark and Svalbard. Significant decreasing south-north trends in air and soil temperatures were observed from Finnmark to Spitsbergen. Soils in Finnmark were acidic and rich in organic matter, while those on Adventsdalen were basic and poor in organic matter. Vegetational analysis identified five communities: three in Finnmark and two on Adventsdalen. The communities in Finnmark had marked mutual similarities but were very different from those on Adventsdalen. No significant ecological differences between heaths south and north of the treeline in Finnmark were observed. Air and soil temperature variables in Finnmark were outside the recognized range for the arctic biome and inconsistent with the presence of permafrost both south and north of the treeline. A major difference between Finnmark and Spitsbergen was amount of soil frost and length of the growing season. Our results suggest that the boreal biome extends all the way to the north coast of mainland Norway; and previously used division of heaths in Finnmark into boreal, alpine and arctic biomes is not justified. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island Finnmark permafrost Svalbard Finnmark Spitsbergen Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island ENVELOPE(-67.250,-67.250,-68.151,-68.151) Norway Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago PLOS ONE 15 9 e0239183 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Gauri Bandekar Live Semb Vestgarden Andrew Jenkins Arvid Odland Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
The boundary between the boreal and arctic biomes in northwest Europe has been a matter of debate for many years. Some authors consider that the boundary is marked by the northern limit of tree growth in the northernmost Norwegian mainland. In this study we have collected air and soil temperature data from 37 heath stands from northern Finnmark (71°N), the northernmost part of the Norwegian mainland, through Bear Island (74°N) in the Barents sea, to Adventsdalen (78)°N (in Spitsbergen) in Svalbard archipelago. In Finnmark, plots both south and north of the treeline were investigated. Vegetation and soil chemistry analyses were performed on the plots in Finnmark and Svalbard. Significant decreasing south-north trends in air and soil temperatures were observed from Finnmark to Spitsbergen. Soils in Finnmark were acidic and rich in organic matter, while those on Adventsdalen were basic and poor in organic matter. Vegetational analysis identified five communities: three in Finnmark and two on Adventsdalen. The communities in Finnmark had marked mutual similarities but were very different from those on Adventsdalen. No significant ecological differences between heaths south and north of the treeline in Finnmark were observed. Air and soil temperature variables in Finnmark were outside the recognized range for the arctic biome and inconsistent with the presence of permafrost both south and north of the treeline. A major difference between Finnmark and Spitsbergen was amount of soil frost and length of the growing season. Our results suggest that the boreal biome extends all the way to the north coast of mainland Norway; and previously used division of heaths in Finnmark into boreal, alpine and arctic biomes is not justified. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gauri Bandekar Live Semb Vestgarden Andrew Jenkins Arvid Odland |
author_facet |
Gauri Bandekar Live Semb Vestgarden Andrew Jenkins Arvid Odland |
author_sort |
Gauri Bandekar |
title |
Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
title_short |
Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
title_full |
Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
title_fullStr |
Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland Norway to the Svalbard archipelago. Does the arctic biome extend into mainland Norway? |
title_sort |
bioclimatic gradients and soil property trends from northernmost mainland norway to the svalbard archipelago. does the arctic biome extend into mainland norway? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/article/f390b9e2b87d4a1b9397dc223a836b81 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-67.250,-67.250,-68.151,-68.151) |
geographic |
Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island Norway Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island Norway Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
genre |
Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island Finnmark permafrost Svalbard Finnmark Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barents Sea Bear Island Finnmark permafrost Svalbard Finnmark Spitsbergen |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 15, Iss 9, p e0239183 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 https://doaj.org/article/f390b9e2b87d4a1b9397dc223a836b81 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239183 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
e0239183 |
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