Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change
The substantial increase of the migratory Svalbard population of Barnacle geese Branta leucopsis during the past 50 years has been attributed to a warming climate, changes in agricultural land use, and conservation measures. The geese are likely to continue to forage and reproduce in Arctic wetlands...
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UiT Norges arktiske universitet
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/6550 2023-05-15T14:56:52+02:00 Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change Paquin, Karolina 2014-05-19 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6550 eng eng UiT Norges arktiske universitet UiT The Arctic University of Norway https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6550 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_6154 openAccess Copyright 2014 The Author(s) VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 BIO-3950 Master thesis Mastergradsoppgave 2014 ftunivtroemsoe 2021-06-25T17:53:58Z The substantial increase of the migratory Svalbard population of Barnacle geese Branta leucopsis during the past 50 years has been attributed to a warming climate, changes in agricultural land use, and conservation measures. The geese are likely to continue to forage and reproduce in Arctic wetlands in increasing numbers. This project revisited the experimental plots from an earlier experiment (FRAGILE) on goose grazing and climate warming to assess the long-term recovery potential of wet tundra plant communities from the grazing disturbance applied 8 years prior. Recovery was defined as comparable above ground biomass and community composition of control and grazed treatments, and it was expected to detect the influence of high grazing pressure, and for this response to differ under warmed conditions. Grazing and OTCs were combined in a fully factorial design, with 3 summers of grazing pressure applied using captured barnacle geese to simulate natural and high applied, and 10 years of simulated conditions of climate warming using OTCs. OTCs increased the air temperature, but decreased the soil temperature. In ambient treatment, no effect of grazing was detected for the functional groups but biomass responded positively to 5 hour grazing treatment. In OTCs, the biomass responded positively in 1 hour treatment, functional groups pteridophytes and graminoids responded positively in all grazing levels, and bryophytes only in ungrazed. Presence of rarer species fluctuated over the years, while the dominant forage species Dupontia sp, Eriophorum scheuchzeri, Cardamine nymanii, Equisetum arvense and Calliergon richardsonii have remained ubiquitous in all years. Thus, the positive impact of grazing on biomass and response of certain functional groups was still detectable eight years after intense goose grazing and ten years of continuous warming, suggesting that Arctic tundra wetlands are slow to recover from intensified grazing disturbance. Master Thesis Arctic Branta leucopsis Cardamine nymanii Climate change Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Svalbard |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 BIO-3950 |
spellingShingle |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 BIO-3950 Paquin, Karolina Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
topic_facet |
VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488 VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488 BIO-3950 |
description |
The substantial increase of the migratory Svalbard population of Barnacle geese Branta leucopsis during the past 50 years has been attributed to a warming climate, changes in agricultural land use, and conservation measures. The geese are likely to continue to forage and reproduce in Arctic wetlands in increasing numbers. This project revisited the experimental plots from an earlier experiment (FRAGILE) on goose grazing and climate warming to assess the long-term recovery potential of wet tundra plant communities from the grazing disturbance applied 8 years prior. Recovery was defined as comparable above ground biomass and community composition of control and grazed treatments, and it was expected to detect the influence of high grazing pressure, and for this response to differ under warmed conditions. Grazing and OTCs were combined in a fully factorial design, with 3 summers of grazing pressure applied using captured barnacle geese to simulate natural and high applied, and 10 years of simulated conditions of climate warming using OTCs. OTCs increased the air temperature, but decreased the soil temperature. In ambient treatment, no effect of grazing was detected for the functional groups but biomass responded positively to 5 hour grazing treatment. In OTCs, the biomass responded positively in 1 hour treatment, functional groups pteridophytes and graminoids responded positively in all grazing levels, and bryophytes only in ungrazed. Presence of rarer species fluctuated over the years, while the dominant forage species Dupontia sp, Eriophorum scheuchzeri, Cardamine nymanii, Equisetum arvense and Calliergon richardsonii have remained ubiquitous in all years. Thus, the positive impact of grazing on biomass and response of certain functional groups was still detectable eight years after intense goose grazing and ten years of continuous warming, suggesting that Arctic tundra wetlands are slow to recover from intensified grazing disturbance. |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Paquin, Karolina |
author_facet |
Paquin, Karolina |
author_sort |
Paquin, Karolina |
title |
Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
title_short |
Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
title_full |
Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
title_fullStr |
Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recovery potential of Arctic wetland tundra on Svalbard. Long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
title_sort |
recovery potential of arctic wetland tundra on svalbard. long-term impacts of grazing by barnacle geese (branta leucopsis) within the context of climate change |
publisher |
UiT Norges arktiske universitet |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6550 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Branta leucopsis Cardamine nymanii Climate change Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Branta leucopsis Cardamine nymanii Climate change Eriophorum Eriophorum scheuchzeri Svalbard Tundra |
op_relation |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6550 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_6154 |
op_rights |
openAccess Copyright 2014 The Author(s) |
_version_ |
1766328925014720512 |