Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events in northern ecosystems. The outcome of these events across the landscape, might be mediated by species effects, such as niche construction, with likely consequences on vegetation resilience. To test this hypothesis,...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/21986 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/21986 2023-05-15T16:06:06+02:00 Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event Gonzalez, Victoria Lindgård, Bente Reiersen, Rigmor Hagen, Snorre Bråthen, Kari Anne 2021-02-04 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/21986 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 eng eng Public Library of Science PLOS ONE Gonzalez, Lindgård, Reiersen, Hagen, Bråthen. Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event. PLOS ONE. 2021;16(2) FRIDAID 1912556 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/21986 openAccess Copyright 2021 The Author(s) VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2021 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 2021-08-11T22:53:41Z Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events in northern ecosystems. The outcome of these events across the landscape, might be mediated by species effects, such as niche construction, with likely consequences on vegetation resilience. To test this hypothesis, we simulated an extreme event by removing aboveground vegetation in tundra heathlands dominated by the allelopathic dwarf shrub Empetrum nigrum, a strong niche constructor. We tested the hypothesis under different climate regimes along a 200-km long gradient from oceanic to continental climate in Northern Norway. We studied the vegetation recovery process over ten years along the climatic gradient. The recovery of E. nigrum and subordinate species was low and flattened out after five years at all locations along the climatic gradient, causing low vegetation cover at the end of the study in extreme event plots. Natural seed recruitment was low at all sites, however, the addition of seeds from faster growing species did not promote vegetation recovery. A soil bioassay from 8 years after the vegetation was removed, suggested the allelopathic effect of E. nigrum was still present in the soil environment. Our results provide evidence of how a common niche constructor species can dramatically affect ecosystem recovery along a climatic gradient after extreme events in habitats where it is dominant. By its extremely slow regrowth and it preventing establishment of faster growing species, this study increases our knowledge on the possible outcomes when extreme events harm niche constructors in the tundra. Article in Journal/Newspaper Empetrum nigrum Northern Norway Tundra University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Norway PLOS ONE 16 2 e0245929 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 Gonzalez, Victoria Lindgård, Bente Reiersen, Rigmor Hagen, Snorre Bråthen, Kari Anne Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
topic_facet |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480 |
description |
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events in northern ecosystems. The outcome of these events across the landscape, might be mediated by species effects, such as niche construction, with likely consequences on vegetation resilience. To test this hypothesis, we simulated an extreme event by removing aboveground vegetation in tundra heathlands dominated by the allelopathic dwarf shrub Empetrum nigrum, a strong niche constructor. We tested the hypothesis under different climate regimes along a 200-km long gradient from oceanic to continental climate in Northern Norway. We studied the vegetation recovery process over ten years along the climatic gradient. The recovery of E. nigrum and subordinate species was low and flattened out after five years at all locations along the climatic gradient, causing low vegetation cover at the end of the study in extreme event plots. Natural seed recruitment was low at all sites, however, the addition of seeds from faster growing species did not promote vegetation recovery. A soil bioassay from 8 years after the vegetation was removed, suggested the allelopathic effect of E. nigrum was still present in the soil environment. Our results provide evidence of how a common niche constructor species can dramatically affect ecosystem recovery along a climatic gradient after extreme events in habitats where it is dominant. By its extremely slow regrowth and it preventing establishment of faster growing species, this study increases our knowledge on the possible outcomes when extreme events harm niche constructors in the tundra. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gonzalez, Victoria Lindgård, Bente Reiersen, Rigmor Hagen, Snorre Bråthen, Kari Anne |
author_facet |
Gonzalez, Victoria Lindgård, Bente Reiersen, Rigmor Hagen, Snorre Bråthen, Kari Anne |
author_sort |
Gonzalez, Victoria |
title |
Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
title_short |
Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
title_full |
Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
title_fullStr |
Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
title_full_unstemmed |
Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
title_sort |
niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/21986 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Empetrum nigrum Northern Norway Tundra |
genre_facet |
Empetrum nigrum Northern Norway Tundra |
op_relation |
PLOS ONE Gonzalez, Lindgård, Reiersen, Hagen, Bråthen. Niche construction mediates climate effects on recovery of tundra heathlands after extreme event. PLOS ONE. 2021;16(2) FRIDAID 1912556 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/21986 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2021 The Author(s) |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245929 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
e0245929 |
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1766402014265212928 |