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...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
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fteawag:oai:dora:eawag_14148 2023-05-15T14:56:58+02:00 Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth 2017 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d eng eng IOP Publishing Environmental Research Letters--Environ. Res. Lett.--journals:869--1748-9326-- eawag:14148 journal id: journals:869 issn: 1748-9326 e-issn: ut: 000395418600001 local: 18730 scopus: 2-s2.0-85015782866 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d uri: pmid: Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Text Journal Article 2017 fteawag https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d 2023-04-09T04:46:24Z 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 ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra DORA Eawag Arctic Svalbard Norway Environmental Research Letters 12 2 025001 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DORA Eawag |
op_collection_id |
fteawag |
language |
English |
topic |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris |
spellingShingle |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
topic_facet |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris |
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 ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth |
author_facet |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth |
author_sort |
Little, Chelsea J. |
title |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_short |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_fullStr |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full_unstemmed |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_sort |
short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high arctic tundra |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
op_relation |
Environmental Research Letters--Environ. Res. Lett.--journals:869--1748-9326-- eawag:14148 journal id: journals:869 issn: 1748-9326 e-issn: ut: 000395418600001 local: 18730 scopus: 2-s2.0-85015782866 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d uri: pmid: |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
025001 |
_version_ |
1766329026075426816 |