Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra
Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, esp...
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ftdryad:oai:v1.datadryad.org:10255/dryad.134913 2023-05-15T14:25:12+02:00 Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen B. U. Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth Svalbard Norway Holocene 2017-01-25T15:14:03Z http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.134913 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.2m1k2/1 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d doi:10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 Little CJ, Cutting HBU, Alatalo J, Cooper E (2017) Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra. Environmental Research Letters 12: 025001. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.134913 biodiversity climate change community structure tundra vegetation warming experiment herbivory Article 2017 ftdryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2/1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d 2020-01-01T15:45:06Z Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, especially in the High Arctic. Mesic tundra plots on Svalbard, Norway, were subjected to grazing at two different intensities by captive Barnacle geese from 2003–2005, in a factorial design with warming by Open Top Chambers. Warming manipulations were continued through 2014, when we measured vegetation structure and composition as well as growth and reproduction of three dominant species in the mesic meadow. Significantly more dead vascular plant material was found in warmed compared to ambient plots, regardless of grazing history, but in contrast to many short-term experiments no difference in the amount of living material was found. This has strong implications for nutrient and carbon cycling and could feed back into community productivity. Dominant species showed increased flowering in warmed plots, especially in those plots where grazing had been applied. However, this added sexual reproduction did not translate to substantial shifts in vegetative cover. Forbs and rushes increased slightly in warmed plots regardless of grazing, while the dominant shrub, Salix polaris, generally declined with effects dependent on grazing, and the evergreen shrub Dryas octopetala declined with previous intensive grazing. There were no treatment effects on community diversity or evenness. Thus despite no changes in total live abundance, a typical short-term response to environmental conditions, we found pronounced changes in dead biomass indicating that tundra ecosystem processes respond to medium- to long-term changes in conditions caused by 12 seasons of summer warming. We suggest that while high arctic tundra plant communities are fairly resistant to current levels of climate warming, underlying ecosystem processes are beginning to change. In addition, even short bouts of intense herbivory can have long-term consequences for some species in these communities. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) Arctic Svalbard Norway |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
op_collection_id |
ftdryad |
language |
unknown |
topic |
biodiversity climate change community structure tundra vegetation warming experiment herbivory |
spellingShingle |
biodiversity climate change community structure tundra vegetation warming experiment herbivory Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen B. U. Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
topic_facet |
biodiversity climate change community structure tundra vegetation warming experiment herbivory |
description |
Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, especially in the High Arctic. Mesic tundra plots on Svalbard, Norway, were subjected to grazing at two different intensities by captive Barnacle geese from 2003–2005, in a factorial design with warming by Open Top Chambers. Warming manipulations were continued through 2014, when we measured vegetation structure and composition as well as growth and reproduction of three dominant species in the mesic meadow. Significantly more dead vascular plant material was found in warmed compared to ambient plots, regardless of grazing history, but in contrast to many short-term experiments no difference in the amount of living material was found. This has strong implications for nutrient and carbon cycling and could feed back into community productivity. Dominant species showed increased flowering in warmed plots, especially in those plots where grazing had been applied. However, this added sexual reproduction did not translate to substantial shifts in vegetative cover. Forbs and rushes increased slightly in warmed plots regardless of grazing, while the dominant shrub, Salix polaris, generally declined with effects dependent on grazing, and the evergreen shrub Dryas octopetala declined with previous intensive grazing. There were no treatment effects on community diversity or evenness. Thus despite no changes in total live abundance, a typical short-term response to environmental conditions, we found pronounced changes in dead biomass indicating that tundra ecosystem processes respond to medium- to long-term changes in conditions caused by 12 seasons of summer warming. We suggest that while high arctic tundra plant communities are fairly resistant to current levels of climate warming, underlying ecosystem processes are beginning to change. In addition, even short bouts of intense herbivory can have long-term consequences for some species in these communities. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen B. U. Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth |
author_facet |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen B. U. Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth |
author_sort |
Little, Chelsea J. |
title |
Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_short |
Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full |
Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_sort |
data from: short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high arctic tundra |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.134913 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 |
op_coverage |
Svalbard Norway Holocene |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.2m1k2/1 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d doi:10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 Little CJ, Cutting HBU, Alatalo J, Cooper E (2017) Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra. Environmental Research Letters 12: 025001. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.134913 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2m1k2/1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
_version_ |
1766297620800602112 |