Recovery of ecosystem carbon fluxes and storage from herbivory

The carbon (C) sink strength of arctic tundra is under pressure from increasing populations of arctic breeding geese. In this study we examined how CO(2) and CH(4) fluxes, plant biomass and soil C responded to the removal of vertebrate herbivores in a high arctic wet moss meadow that has been intens...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biogeochemistry
Main Authors: Sjoegersten, Sofie, van der Wal, Rene, Loonen, Maarten J. J. E., Woodin, Sarah J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Carbon
Geese
Herbivory
Methane
Recovery
Tundra
Vegetation
FOREST-TUNDRA ECOTONE
POLYGONAL TUNDRA
ARCTIC TUNDRA
AGRICULTURAL CHANGE
METHANE EMISSION
NORTHERN SIBERIA
ORGANIC-CARBON
COASTAL MARSH
LENA DELTA
HUDSON-BAY
Arctic
Hudson
Hudson Bay
Branta leucopsis
lena delta
Siberia
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/5c8b24bc-df4c-4f2c-b6f3-953fd2f908e3
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/5c8b24bc-df4c-4f2c-b6f3-953fd2f908e3
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9516-4
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/56913726/Recovery_of_ecosystem_carbon_fluxes.pdf
Description
Summary:The carbon (C) sink strength of arctic tundra is under pressure from increasing populations of arctic breeding geese. In this study we examined how CO(2) and CH(4) fluxes, plant biomass and soil C responded to the removal of vertebrate herbivores in a high arctic wet moss meadow that has been intensively used by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) for ca. 20 years. We used 4 and 9 years old grazing exclosures to investigate the potential for recovery of ecosystem function during the growing season (July 2007). The results show greater above- and below-ground vascular plant biomass within the grazing exclosures with graminoid biomass being most responsive to the removal of herbivory whilst moss biomass remained unchanged. The changes in biomass switched the system from net emission to net uptake of CO(2) (0.47 and -0.77 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) in grazed and exclosure plots, respectively) during the growing season and doubled the C storage in live biomass. In contrast, the treatment had no impact on the CH(4) fluxes, the total litter C pool or the soil C concentration. The rapid recovery of the above ground biomass and CO(2) fluxes demonstrates the plasticity of this high arctic ecosystem in terms of response to changing herbivore pressure.

Similar Items