Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline?
Mountain birch forests (Betula pubescens Ehrh. ssp. czerepanovii) at the subarctic treeline not only benefit from global warming, but are also increasingly affected by caterpillar outbreaks from foliage-feeding geometrid moths. Both of these factors have unknown consequences on soil organic carbon (...
Published in: | Global Change Biology |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Wiley
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10138/338233 |
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/338233 |
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Open Polar |
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HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
deadwood insect herbivory microbial N mining priming effect Soil organic carbon soil respiration COARSE WOODY DEBRIS OPEROPHTERA-BRUMATA MICROBIAL BIOMASS SHRUB EXPANSION N AVAILABILITY ROOT EXUDATION BETULA-PENDULA BASIC DENSITY CARBON STOCKS FOREST 1181 Ecology evolutionary biology |
spellingShingle |
deadwood insect herbivory microbial N mining priming effect Soil organic carbon soil respiration COARSE WOODY DEBRIS OPEROPHTERA-BRUMATA MICROBIAL BIOMASS SHRUB EXPANSION N AVAILABILITY ROOT EXUDATION BETULA-PENDULA BASIC DENSITY CARBON STOCKS FOREST 1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Meyer, Nele Xu, Yi Karjalainen, Katri Adamczyk, Sylwia Biasi, Christina van Delden, Lona Martin, Angela Mganga, Kevin Z Myller, Kristiina Sietiö, Outi-Maaria Suominen, Otso Karhu, Kristiina Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
topic_facet |
deadwood insect herbivory microbial N mining priming effect Soil organic carbon soil respiration COARSE WOODY DEBRIS OPEROPHTERA-BRUMATA MICROBIAL BIOMASS SHRUB EXPANSION N AVAILABILITY ROOT EXUDATION BETULA-PENDULA BASIC DENSITY CARBON STOCKS FOREST 1181 Ecology evolutionary biology |
description |
Mountain birch forests (Betula pubescens Ehrh. ssp. czerepanovii) at the subarctic treeline not only benefit from global warming, but are also increasingly affected by caterpillar outbreaks from foliage-feeding geometrid moths. Both of these factors have unknown consequences on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and biogeochemical cycles. We measured SOC stocks down to the bedrock under living trees and under two stages of dead trees (12 and 55 years since moth outbreak) and treeless tundra in northern Finland. We also measured in-situ soil respiration, potential SOC decomposability, biological (enzyme activities and microbial biomass), and chemical (N, mineral N, and pH) soil properties. SOC stocks were significantly higher under living trees (4.1 +/- 2.1 kg m(2)) than in the treeless tundra (2.4 +/- 0.6 kg m(2)), and remained at an elevated level even 12 (3.7 +/- 1.7 kg m(2)) and 55 years (4.9 +/- 3.0 kg m(2)) after tree death. Effects of tree status on SOC stocks decreased with increasing distance from the tree and with increasing depth, that is, a significant effect of tree status was found in the organic layer, but not in mineral soil. Soil under living trees was characterized by higher mineral N contents, microbial biomass, microbial activity, and soil respiration compared with the treeless tundra; soils under dead trees were intermediate between these two. The results suggest accelerated organic matter turnover under living trees but a positive net effect on SOC stocks. Slowed organic matter turnover and continuous supply of deadwood may explain why SOC stocks remained elevated under dead trees, despite the heavy decrease in aboveground C stocks. We conclude that the increased occurrence of moth damage with climate change would have minor effects on SOC stocks, but ultimately decrease ecosystem C stocks (49% within 55 years in this area), if the mountain birch forests will not be able to recover from the outbreaks. Peer reviewed |
author2 |
Soils and climate change Department of Forest Sciences Department of Agricultural Sciences Agrotechnology Forest Soil Science Forest Ecology and Management |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Meyer, Nele Xu, Yi Karjalainen, Katri Adamczyk, Sylwia Biasi, Christina van Delden, Lona Martin, Angela Mganga, Kevin Z Myller, Kristiina Sietiö, Outi-Maaria Suominen, Otso Karhu, Kristiina |
author_facet |
Meyer, Nele Xu, Yi Karjalainen, Katri Adamczyk, Sylwia Biasi, Christina van Delden, Lona Martin, Angela Mganga, Kevin Z Myller, Kristiina Sietiö, Outi-Maaria Suominen, Otso Karhu, Kristiina |
author_sort |
Meyer, Nele |
title |
Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
title_short |
Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
title_full |
Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
title_fullStr |
Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
title_sort |
living, dead, and absent trees-how do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the subarctic mountain birch treeline? |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/338233 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-117.453,-117.453,56.733,56.733) |
geographic |
Deadwood |
geographic_facet |
Deadwood |
genre |
Northern Finland Subarctic Tundra |
genre_facet |
Northern Finland Subarctic Tundra |
op_relation |
10.1111/gcb.15951 This research was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number 316401, supporting the salary of K.K.) and Helsinki Institute of Life Science, HiLIFE (a HiLIFE Fellow Grant to K. K supporting, for example, the salary of N.M, and analytical costs). We would like to thank the staff at Kevo Subarctic Research Station for providing research facilities and M. Wallner, L. Menzel, S.--J. Chan, and K. Sollner for help with laboratory work. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Open access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL. Meyer , N , Xu , Y , Karjalainen , K , Adamczyk , S , Biasi , C , van Delden , L , Martin , A , Mganga , K Z , Myller , K , Sietiö , O-M , Suominen , O & Karhu , K 2022 , ' Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? ' , Global Change Biology , vol. 28 , no. 2 , pp. 441-462 . https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15951 ORCID: /0000-0003-0127-9368/work/105911193 ORCID: /0000-0002-7908-7561/work/105911873 ORCID: /0000-0001-9581-3933/work/123558656 62fc649e-14b7-4ad3-a79f-d10504fe2d2b http://hdl.handle.net/10138/338233 000714115200001 |
op_rights |
cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Global Change Biology |
container_volume |
28 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
441 |
op_container_end_page |
462 |
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spelling |
ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/338233 2024-01-07T09:45:29+01:00 Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? Meyer, Nele Xu, Yi Karjalainen, Katri Adamczyk, Sylwia Biasi, Christina van Delden, Lona Martin, Angela Mganga, Kevin Z Myller, Kristiina Sietiö, Outi-Maaria Suominen, Otso Karhu, Kristiina Soils and climate change Department of Forest Sciences Department of Agricultural Sciences Agrotechnology Forest Soil Science Forest Ecology and Management 2022-01-04T08:59:01Z 22 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/338233 eng eng Wiley 10.1111/gcb.15951 This research was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number 316401, supporting the salary of K.K.) and Helsinki Institute of Life Science, HiLIFE (a HiLIFE Fellow Grant to K. K supporting, for example, the salary of N.M, and analytical costs). We would like to thank the staff at Kevo Subarctic Research Station for providing research facilities and M. Wallner, L. Menzel, S.--J. Chan, and K. Sollner for help with laboratory work. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Open access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL. Meyer , N , Xu , Y , Karjalainen , K , Adamczyk , S , Biasi , C , van Delden , L , Martin , A , Mganga , K Z , Myller , K , Sietiö , O-M , Suominen , O & Karhu , K 2022 , ' Living, dead, and absent trees-How do moth outbreaks shape small-scale patterns of soil organic matter stocks and dynamics at the Subarctic mountain birch treeline? ' , Global Change Biology , vol. 28 , no. 2 , pp. 441-462 . https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15951 ORCID: /0000-0003-0127-9368/work/105911193 ORCID: /0000-0002-7908-7561/work/105911873 ORCID: /0000-0001-9581-3933/work/123558656 62fc649e-14b7-4ad3-a79f-d10504fe2d2b http://hdl.handle.net/10138/338233 000714115200001 cc_by openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess deadwood insect herbivory microbial N mining priming effect Soil organic carbon soil respiration COARSE WOODY DEBRIS OPEROPHTERA-BRUMATA MICROBIAL BIOMASS SHRUB EXPANSION N AVAILABILITY ROOT EXUDATION BETULA-PENDULA BASIC DENSITY CARBON STOCKS FOREST 1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Article publishedVersion 2022 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:12:19Z Mountain birch forests (Betula pubescens Ehrh. ssp. czerepanovii) at the subarctic treeline not only benefit from global warming, but are also increasingly affected by caterpillar outbreaks from foliage-feeding geometrid moths. Both of these factors have unknown consequences on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and biogeochemical cycles. We measured SOC stocks down to the bedrock under living trees and under two stages of dead trees (12 and 55 years since moth outbreak) and treeless tundra in northern Finland. We also measured in-situ soil respiration, potential SOC decomposability, biological (enzyme activities and microbial biomass), and chemical (N, mineral N, and pH) soil properties. SOC stocks were significantly higher under living trees (4.1 +/- 2.1 kg m(2)) than in the treeless tundra (2.4 +/- 0.6 kg m(2)), and remained at an elevated level even 12 (3.7 +/- 1.7 kg m(2)) and 55 years (4.9 +/- 3.0 kg m(2)) after tree death. Effects of tree status on SOC stocks decreased with increasing distance from the tree and with increasing depth, that is, a significant effect of tree status was found in the organic layer, but not in mineral soil. Soil under living trees was characterized by higher mineral N contents, microbial biomass, microbial activity, and soil respiration compared with the treeless tundra; soils under dead trees were intermediate between these two. The results suggest accelerated organic matter turnover under living trees but a positive net effect on SOC stocks. Slowed organic matter turnover and continuous supply of deadwood may explain why SOC stocks remained elevated under dead trees, despite the heavy decrease in aboveground C stocks. We conclude that the increased occurrence of moth damage with climate change would have minor effects on SOC stocks, but ultimately decrease ecosystem C stocks (49% within 55 years in this area), if the mountain birch forests will not be able to recover from the outbreaks. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Finland Subarctic Tundra HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Deadwood ENVELOPE(-117.453,-117.453,56.733,56.733) Global Change Biology 28 2 441 462 |