Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia
The Siberian mammoth steppe ecosystem changed dramatically with the disappearance of large grazers in the Holocene. The concept of Pleistocene rewilding is based on the idea that large herbivore grazing significantly alters plant communities and can be employed to recreate lost ecosystems. On the ot...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8217226 2023-05-15T18:44:57+02:00 Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia Reinecke, Jennifer Ashastina, Kseniia Kienast, Frank Troeva, Elena Wesche, Karsten 2021-06-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217226/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34155242 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217226/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34155242 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Sci Rep Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 2021-06-27T00:37:51Z The Siberian mammoth steppe ecosystem changed dramatically with the disappearance of large grazers in the Holocene. The concept of Pleistocene rewilding is based on the idea that large herbivore grazing significantly alters plant communities and can be employed to recreate lost ecosystems. On the other hand, modern rangeland ecology emphasizes the often overriding importance of harsh climates. We visited two rewilding projects and three rangeland regions, sampling a total of 210 vegetation relevés in steppe and surrounding vegetation (grasslands, shrublands and forests) along an extensive climatic gradient across Yakutia, Russia. We analyzed species composition, plant traits, diversity indices and vegetation productivity, using partial canonical correspondence and redundancy analysis. Macroclimate was most important for vegetation composition, and microclimate for the occurrence of extrazonal steppes. Macroclimate and soil conditions mainly determined productivity of vegetation. Bison grazing was responsible for small-scale changes in vegetation through trampling, wallowing and debarking, thus creating more open and disturbed plant communities, soil compaction and xerophytization. However, the magnitude of effects depended on density and type of grazers as well as on interactions with climate and site conditions. Effects of bison grazing were strongest in the continental climate of Central Yakutia, and steppes were generally less affected than meadows. We conclude that contemporary grazing overall has rather limited effects on vegetation in northeastern Siberia. Current rewilding practices are still far from recreating a mammoth steppe, although large herbivores like bison can create more open and drier vegetation and increase nutrient availability in particular in the more continental Central Yakutian Plain. Text Yakutia Siberia PubMed Central (PMC) Scientific Reports 11 1 |
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Article Reinecke, Jennifer Ashastina, Kseniia Kienast, Frank Troeva, Elena Wesche, Karsten Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
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The Siberian mammoth steppe ecosystem changed dramatically with the disappearance of large grazers in the Holocene. The concept of Pleistocene rewilding is based on the idea that large herbivore grazing significantly alters plant communities and can be employed to recreate lost ecosystems. On the other hand, modern rangeland ecology emphasizes the often overriding importance of harsh climates. We visited two rewilding projects and three rangeland regions, sampling a total of 210 vegetation relevés in steppe and surrounding vegetation (grasslands, shrublands and forests) along an extensive climatic gradient across Yakutia, Russia. We analyzed species composition, plant traits, diversity indices and vegetation productivity, using partial canonical correspondence and redundancy analysis. Macroclimate was most important for vegetation composition, and microclimate for the occurrence of extrazonal steppes. Macroclimate and soil conditions mainly determined productivity of vegetation. Bison grazing was responsible for small-scale changes in vegetation through trampling, wallowing and debarking, thus creating more open and disturbed plant communities, soil compaction and xerophytization. However, the magnitude of effects depended on density and type of grazers as well as on interactions with climate and site conditions. Effects of bison grazing were strongest in the continental climate of Central Yakutia, and steppes were generally less affected than meadows. We conclude that contemporary grazing overall has rather limited effects on vegetation in northeastern Siberia. Current rewilding practices are still far from recreating a mammoth steppe, although large herbivores like bison can create more open and drier vegetation and increase nutrient availability in particular in the more continental Central Yakutian Plain. |
format |
Text |
author |
Reinecke, Jennifer Ashastina, Kseniia Kienast, Frank Troeva, Elena Wesche, Karsten |
author_facet |
Reinecke, Jennifer Ashastina, Kseniia Kienast, Frank Troeva, Elena Wesche, Karsten |
author_sort |
Reinecke, Jennifer |
title |
Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
title_short |
Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
title_full |
Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
title_fullStr |
Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of NE-Siberia |
title_sort |
effects of large herbivore grazing on relics of the presumed mammoth steppe in the extreme climate of ne-siberia |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217226/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34155242 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 |
genre |
Yakutia Siberia |
genre_facet |
Yakutia Siberia |
op_source |
Sci Rep |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217226/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34155242 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92079-1 |
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