Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra
Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, esp...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ekologi och genetik
2017
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Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-319107 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
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ftuppsalauniv:oai:DiVA.org:uu-319107 2024-02-11T10:00:54+01:00 Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth J. 2017 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-319107 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d eng eng Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ekologi och genetik Eawag Swiss Fed Inst Aquat Sci & Technol, Dept Aquat Ecol, CH-8600 Dubendorf, Switzerland. Oregon State Univ, Dept Forest Ecosyst & Soc, Cascades Campus, Bend, OR 97701 USA. Qatar Univ, Coll Arts & Sci, Dept Biol & Environm Sci, Doha, Qatar. UiT Arctic Univ Norway, Fac Biosci Fisheries & Econ, Dept Arctic & Marine Biol, N-9037 Tromso, Norway. IOP PUBLISHING LTD Environmental Research Letters, 2017, 12:2, http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-319107 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d ISI:000395418600001 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Ecology Ekologi Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2017 ftuppsalauniv https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d 2024-01-17T23:33:33Z Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, especially in the High Arctic. Mesic tundra plots on Svalbard, Norway, were subjected to grazing at two different intensities by captive Barnacle geese from 2003-2005, in a factorial design with warming by Open Top Chambers. Warming manipulations were continued through 2014, when we measured vegetation structure and composition as well as growth and reproduction of three dominant species in the mesic meadow. Significantly more dead vascular plant material was found in warmed compared to ambient plots, regardless of grazing history, but in contrast to many short-term experiments no difference in the amount of living material was found. This has strong implications for nutrient and carbon cycling and could feed back into community productivity. Dominant species showed increased flowering in warmed plots, especially in those plots where grazing had been applied. However, this added sexual reproduction did not translate to substantial shifts in vegetative cover. Forbs and rushes increased slightly in warmed plots regardless of grazing, while the dominant shrub, Salix polaris, generally declined with effects dependent on grazing, and the evergreen shrub Dryas octopetala declined with previous intensive grazing. There were no treatment effects on community diversity or evenness. Thus despite no changes in total live abundance, a typical short-term response to environmental conditions, we found pronounced changes in dead biomass indicating that tundra ecosystem processes respond to medium-to long-term changes in conditions caused by 12 seasons of summer warming. We suggest that while high arctic tundra plant communities are fairly resistant to current levels of climate warming, underlying ecosystem processes are beginning to ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) Arctic Svalbard Norway Environmental Research Letters 12 2 025001 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Uppsala University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftuppsalauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Ecology Ekologi |
spellingShingle |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Ecology Ekologi Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth J. Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
topic_facet |
Alopecurus magellanicus Bistorta vivipara biodiversity climate change community structure open-top chambers Salix polaris Ecology Ekologi |
description |
Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, especially in the High Arctic. Mesic tundra plots on Svalbard, Norway, were subjected to grazing at two different intensities by captive Barnacle geese from 2003-2005, in a factorial design with warming by Open Top Chambers. Warming manipulations were continued through 2014, when we measured vegetation structure and composition as well as growth and reproduction of three dominant species in the mesic meadow. Significantly more dead vascular plant material was found in warmed compared to ambient plots, regardless of grazing history, but in contrast to many short-term experiments no difference in the amount of living material was found. This has strong implications for nutrient and carbon cycling and could feed back into community productivity. Dominant species showed increased flowering in warmed plots, especially in those plots where grazing had been applied. However, this added sexual reproduction did not translate to substantial shifts in vegetative cover. Forbs and rushes increased slightly in warmed plots regardless of grazing, while the dominant shrub, Salix polaris, generally declined with effects dependent on grazing, and the evergreen shrub Dryas octopetala declined with previous intensive grazing. There were no treatment effects on community diversity or evenness. Thus despite no changes in total live abundance, a typical short-term response to environmental conditions, we found pronounced changes in dead biomass indicating that tundra ecosystem processes respond to medium-to long-term changes in conditions caused by 12 seasons of summer warming. We suggest that while high arctic tundra plant communities are fairly resistant to current levels of climate warming, underlying ecosystem processes are beginning to ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth J. |
author_facet |
Little, Chelsea J. Cutting, Helen Alatalo, Juha Cooper, Elisabeth J. |
author_sort |
Little, Chelsea J. |
title |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_short |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_fullStr |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_full_unstemmed |
Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra |
title_sort |
short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high arctic tundra |
publisher |
Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ekologi och genetik |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-319107 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Dryas octopetala Salix polaris Svalbard Tundra |
op_relation |
Environmental Research Letters, 2017, 12:2, http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-319107 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d ISI:000395418600001 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa579d |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
025001 |
_version_ |
1790596624035086336 |