The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems
Mosses in northern ecosystems are ubiquitous components of plant communities, and strongly influence nutrient, carbon and water cycling. We use literature review, synthesis and model simulations to explore the role of mosses in ecological stability and resilience. Moss community responses to disturb...
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ftuninhampshire:oai:scholars.unh.edu:earthsci_facpub-1272 2023-05-15T15:07:11+02:00 The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems Turetsky, Merritt R Bond-Lamberty, B Euskirchen, E Talbot, Julie Frolking, Steve McGuire, A D Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina 2012-08-01T07:00:00Z https://scholars.unh.edu/earthsci_facpub/273 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04254.x/full unknown University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository https://scholars.unh.edu/earthsci_facpub/273 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04254.x/full © 2012 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2012 New Phytologist Trust Earth Sciences Scholarship bryophytes disturbance dynamic vegetation model ecosystem function plant functional type stability warming wildfire text 2012 ftuninhampshire 2023-01-30T21:34:54Z Mosses in northern ecosystems are ubiquitous components of plant communities, and strongly influence nutrient, carbon and water cycling. We use literature review, synthesis and model simulations to explore the role of mosses in ecological stability and resilience. Moss community responses to disturbance showed all possible responses (increases, decreases, no change) within most disturbance categories. Simulations from two process-based models suggest that northern ecosystems would need to experience extreme perturbation before mosses were eliminated. But simulations with two other models suggest that loss of moss will reduce soil carbon accumulation primarily by influencing decomposition rates and soil nitrogen availability. It seems clear that mosses need to be incorporated into models as one or more plant functional types, but more empirical work is needed to determine how to best aggregate species. We highlight several issues that have not been adequately explored in moss communities, such as functional redundancy and singularity, relationships between response and effect traits, and parameter vs conceptual uncertainty in models. Mosses play an important role in several ecosystem processes that play out over centuries – permafrost formation and thaw, peat accumulation, development of microtopography – and there is a need for studies that increase our understanding of slow, long-term dynamical processes. Text Arctic permafrost University of New Hampshire: Scholars Repository Arctic |
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University of New Hampshire: Scholars Repository |
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ftuninhampshire |
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topic |
bryophytes disturbance dynamic vegetation model ecosystem function plant functional type stability warming wildfire |
spellingShingle |
bryophytes disturbance dynamic vegetation model ecosystem function plant functional type stability warming wildfire Turetsky, Merritt R Bond-Lamberty, B Euskirchen, E Talbot, Julie Frolking, Steve McGuire, A D Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
topic_facet |
bryophytes disturbance dynamic vegetation model ecosystem function plant functional type stability warming wildfire |
description |
Mosses in northern ecosystems are ubiquitous components of plant communities, and strongly influence nutrient, carbon and water cycling. We use literature review, synthesis and model simulations to explore the role of mosses in ecological stability and resilience. Moss community responses to disturbance showed all possible responses (increases, decreases, no change) within most disturbance categories. Simulations from two process-based models suggest that northern ecosystems would need to experience extreme perturbation before mosses were eliminated. But simulations with two other models suggest that loss of moss will reduce soil carbon accumulation primarily by influencing decomposition rates and soil nitrogen availability. It seems clear that mosses need to be incorporated into models as one or more plant functional types, but more empirical work is needed to determine how to best aggregate species. We highlight several issues that have not been adequately explored in moss communities, such as functional redundancy and singularity, relationships between response and effect traits, and parameter vs conceptual uncertainty in models. Mosses play an important role in several ecosystem processes that play out over centuries – permafrost formation and thaw, peat accumulation, development of microtopography – and there is a need for studies that increase our understanding of slow, long-term dynamical processes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Turetsky, Merritt R Bond-Lamberty, B Euskirchen, E Talbot, Julie Frolking, Steve McGuire, A D Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina |
author_facet |
Turetsky, Merritt R Bond-Lamberty, B Euskirchen, E Talbot, Julie Frolking, Steve McGuire, A D Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina |
author_sort |
Turetsky, Merritt R |
title |
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
title_short |
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
title_full |
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
title_sort |
resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems |
publisher |
University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://scholars.unh.edu/earthsci_facpub/273 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04254.x/full |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
Earth Sciences Scholarship |
op_relation |
https://scholars.unh.edu/earthsci_facpub/273 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04254.x/full |
op_rights |
© 2012 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2012 New Phytologist Trust |
_version_ |
1766338735913304064 |