Reindeer Grazing Effect on Root Biomass in Boreal Forests : Effect of soil depth, tree distance and reindeer grazing on root biomass

• Main Author: Wiippola, Maya
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UmeÃ¥ universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap 2023
• Subjects: Other Biological Topics; Annan biologi; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-213678

Boreal forest is the largest biome in the world and therefore holds much of the global carbon and has a great root system size which makes it relevant to analyze how common grazing animals affect this environment. Roots have many different roles in the ground and for the plants, where fine roots take up nutrients and circulate biomaterials among other things and coarser roots make up most of the biomass and sequestrate most carbon. Herbivores have been shown to affect plant productivity and remove aboveground biomass through their grazing, and this could have both positive, negative, and neutral effects. The purpose of this study was to examine how the root biomass varies depending on reindeer grazing in boreal forests, and this was done by studying how tree distance, ground depth and grazing reindeer affect root biomass. Fine, coarse, and very coarse roots were sampled in ungrazed and grazed areas in northern Finland. This was done with a distance of 1-3 meters from trees and depths in increments of 0-25 cm. No factors were significant for coarse roots and treatment not affecting them could be explained by some plants being able to survive defoliation or simply not being reduced by reindeer. Distance hardly affected root biomass which other studies also found, and also similar to other studies depth affected fine roots. Grazing was shown to reduce fine and very coarse root biomass. Loss of fine roots can affect microbial activity in the soil and loss of coarser roots can possibly affect the area long-term in different ways. Â