Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic
Global warming has pronounced effects on tundra vegetation, and rising mean temperatures increase plant growth potential across the Arctic biome. Herbivores may counteract the warming impacts by reducing plant growth, but the strength of this effect may depend on prevailing regional climatic conditi...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/growth-rings-show-limited-evidence-for-ungulates-potential-to-sup https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 |
id |
ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/594945 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/594945 2024-04-28T08:07:15+00:00 Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic Vuorinen, Katariina E.M. Austrheim, Gunnar Tremblay, Jean Pierre Myers-Smith, I.H. Hortman, Hans I. Frank, Peter Barrio, Isabel C. Dalerum, Frederik Björkman, M. Björk, Robert G. Ehrich, Dorothee Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Sokolova, Natalya Ropars, Pascale Boudreau, Stephane Normand, Signe Magnússon, R.Í. Sass-Klaassen, U.G.W. 2022 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/growth-rings-show-limited-evidence-for-ungulates-potential-to-sup https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/565932 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/growth-rings-show-limited-evidence-for-ungulates-potential-to-sup doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wageningen University & Research Environmental Research Letters 17 (2022) 3 ISSN: 1748-9326 Arctic browsing climate change dendroecology herbivory shrub tundra Article/Letter to editor 2022 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 2024-04-03T14:54:52Z Global warming has pronounced effects on tundra vegetation, and rising mean temperatures increase plant growth potential across the Arctic biome. Herbivores may counteract the warming impacts by reducing plant growth, but the strength of this effect may depend on prevailing regional climatic conditions. To study how ungulates interact with temperature to influence growth of tundra shrubs across the Arctic tundra biome, we assembled dendroecological data from 20 sites, comprising 1153 individual shrubs and 223 63 annual growth rings. Evidence for ungulates suppressing shrub radial growth was only observed at intermediate summer temperatures (6.5 °C–9 °C), and even at these temperatures the effect was not strong. Multiple factors, including forage preferences and landscape use by the ungulates, and favourable climatic conditions enabling effective compensatory growth of shrubs, may weaken the effects of ungulates on shrubs, possibly explaining the weakness of observed ungulate effects. Earlier local studies have shown that ungulates may counteract the impacts of warming on tundra shrub growth, but we demonstrate that ungulates' potential to suppress shrub radial growth is not always evident, and may be limited to certain climatic conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Global warming Tundra Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Environmental Research Letters |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic browsing climate change dendroecology herbivory shrub tundra |
spellingShingle |
Arctic browsing climate change dendroecology herbivory shrub tundra Vuorinen, Katariina E.M. Austrheim, Gunnar Tremblay, Jean Pierre Myers-Smith, I.H. Hortman, Hans I. Frank, Peter Barrio, Isabel C. Dalerum, Frederik Björkman, M. Björk, Robert G. Ehrich, Dorothee Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Sokolova, Natalya Ropars, Pascale Boudreau, Stephane Normand, Signe Magnússon, R.Í. Sass-Klaassen, U.G.W. Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
topic_facet |
Arctic browsing climate change dendroecology herbivory shrub tundra |
description |
Global warming has pronounced effects on tundra vegetation, and rising mean temperatures increase plant growth potential across the Arctic biome. Herbivores may counteract the warming impacts by reducing plant growth, but the strength of this effect may depend on prevailing regional climatic conditions. To study how ungulates interact with temperature to influence growth of tundra shrubs across the Arctic tundra biome, we assembled dendroecological data from 20 sites, comprising 1153 individual shrubs and 223 63 annual growth rings. Evidence for ungulates suppressing shrub radial growth was only observed at intermediate summer temperatures (6.5 °C–9 °C), and even at these temperatures the effect was not strong. Multiple factors, including forage preferences and landscape use by the ungulates, and favourable climatic conditions enabling effective compensatory growth of shrubs, may weaken the effects of ungulates on shrubs, possibly explaining the weakness of observed ungulate effects. Earlier local studies have shown that ungulates may counteract the impacts of warming on tundra shrub growth, but we demonstrate that ungulates' potential to suppress shrub radial growth is not always evident, and may be limited to certain climatic conditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vuorinen, Katariina E.M. Austrheim, Gunnar Tremblay, Jean Pierre Myers-Smith, I.H. Hortman, Hans I. Frank, Peter Barrio, Isabel C. Dalerum, Frederik Björkman, M. Björk, Robert G. Ehrich, Dorothee Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Sokolova, Natalya Ropars, Pascale Boudreau, Stephane Normand, Signe Magnússon, R.Í. Sass-Klaassen, U.G.W. |
author_facet |
Vuorinen, Katariina E.M. Austrheim, Gunnar Tremblay, Jean Pierre Myers-Smith, I.H. Hortman, Hans I. Frank, Peter Barrio, Isabel C. Dalerum, Frederik Björkman, M. Björk, Robert G. Ehrich, Dorothee Sokolov, Aleksandr A. Sokolova, Natalya Ropars, Pascale Boudreau, Stephane Normand, Signe Magnússon, R.Í. Sass-Klaassen, U.G.W. |
author_sort |
Vuorinen, Katariina E.M. |
title |
Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
title_short |
Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
title_full |
Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the Arctic |
title_sort |
growth rings show limited evidence for ungulates' potential to suppress shrubs across the arctic |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/growth-rings-show-limited-evidence-for-ungulates-potential-to-sup https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters 17 (2022) 3 ISSN: 1748-9326 |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/565932 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/growth-rings-show-limited-evidence-for-ungulates-potential-to-sup doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5207 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
_version_ |
1797576433352048640 |