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1.
  • Vowles, Tage, et al. (författare)
  • The impact of shrub browsing by mountain hare and reindeer in subarctic Sweden
  • 2016
  • Ingår i: Plant Ecology and Diversity. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1755-0874 .- 1755-1668. ; 9:4, s. 421-428
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Background: Climate warming has been causing an increase in tall shrub cover around the Arctic, however, mammalian herbivory has been shown to inhibit shrub expansion. Though the effect of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and many other mammals has been widely studied in this context, the role of the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) in subarctic Scandinavia remains unknown. Aims: To quantify browsing from mountain hare and reindeer on tall shrubs in different vegetation types and to investigate differences in shrub preference between the two. Methods: In the summers of 2013 and 2014, we counted signs of browsing by hare and reindeer on tall shrub species in 31 study plots at three alpine locations in the Scandes range, Sweden. Results: Hare browsing was significantly more frequent than that by reindeer in two (dry-mesic heath and dry meadow) out of seven vegetation types studied. Reindeer browsing was significantly higher in the low herb meadow and Långfjället shrub heath. Two shrub species, Betula nana and Salix hastata, were significantly more browsed by hare, while reindeer browsing was significantly higher on S. phylicifolia and S. lapponum. Conclusions: Our results show that mountain hares can cause extensive damage to tall shrubs in the subarctic and may have a stronger impact on shrub communities than previously recognised.
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2.
  • Abbott, Benjamin W., et al. (författare)
  • Biomass offsets little or none of permafrost carbon release from soils, streams, and wildfire : an expert assessment
  • 2016
  • Ingår i: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-9326. ; 11:3
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • As the permafrost region warms, its large organic carbon pool will be increasingly vulnerable to decomposition, combustion, and hydrologic export. Models predict that some portion of this release will be offset by increased production of Arctic and boreal biomass; however, the lack of robust estimates of net carbon balance increases the risk of further overshooting international emissions targets. Precise empirical or model-based assessments of the critical factors driving carbon balance are unlikely in the near future, so to address this gap, we present estimates from 98 permafrost-region experts of the response of biomass, wildfire, and hydrologic carbon flux to climate change. Results suggest that contrary to model projections, total permafrost-region biomass could decrease due to water stress and disturbance, factors that are not adequately incorporated in current models. Assessments indicate that end-of-the-century organic carbon release from Arctic rivers and collapsing coastlines could increase by 75% while carbon loss via burning could increase four-fold. Experts identified water balance, shifts in vegetation community, and permafrost degradation as the key sources of uncertainty in predicting future system response. In combination with previous findings, results suggest the permafrost region will become a carbon source to the atmosphere by 2100 regardless of warming scenario but that 65%-85% of permafrost carbon release can still be avoided if human emissions are actively reduced.
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3.
  • Alatalo, Juha M., et al. (författare)
  • Bryophyte cover and richness decline after 18 years of experimental warming in Alpine Sweden
  • 2024
  • Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • 1. Bryophytes in the Arctic and Alpine regions are important in terms of biodiversity, cover and biomass. However, climate change and widespread shrubification of alpine and arctic tundra is predicted to increase in the future, with potentially large impacts on bryophyte communities.2. We studies the impact of 18 years of experimental warming with open top chambers (OTCs) on bryophyte cover, richness and diversity in an alpine mesic meadow and a heath plant community in Northern Sweden. In addition we investigated the relationship between deciduous shrubs and bryophytes.3. Cover and richness of bryophytes both declined due to long-term warming, while diversity did not show any significant responses. After 18 years, bryophyte cover had decreased by 71% and 26 in the heath and meadow, while richness declined by 39% and 26%, respectively.4. Synthesis. Decline in total bryophyte cover in both communities in response to long-term warming was driven by a general decline in many species, with only two individual species showing significant declines. Although most of the species included in the individual analyses did not show any detectable changes, the cumulative change in all species was significant. In addition, species loss was slower than the general decline in bryophyte abundance. As hypothesized, we found significant negative relationship between deciduous shrub cover and bryophyte cover, but not bryophyte richness, in both plant communities. This is likely due to a more delayed decline in species richness compared to abundance, similar to what was observed in response to long-term warming.
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4.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Bryophyte cover and richness decline after 18 years of experimental warming in alpine Sweden
  • 2020
  • Ingår i: Aob Plants. - Oxford : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2041-2851. ; 12:6
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Climate change is expected to affect alpine and Arctic tundra communities. Most previous long-term studies have focused on impacts on vascular plants, this study examined impacts of long-term warming on bryophyte communities. Experimental warming with open-top chambers (OTCs) was applied for 18 years to a mesic meadow and a dry heath alpine plant community. Species abundance was measured in 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2013. Species composition changed significantly from original communities in the heath, but remained similar in mesic meadow. Experimental warming increased beta diversity in the heath. Bryophyte cover and species richness both declined with long-term warming, while Simpson diversity showed no significant responses. Over the 18-year period, bryophyte cover in warmed plots decreased from 43 % to 11 % in heath and from 68 % to 35 % in meadow (75 % and 48 % decline, respectively, in original cover), while richness declined by 39 % and 26 %, respectively. Importantly, the decline in cover and richness first emerged after 7 years. Warming caused significant increase in litter in both plant communities. Deciduous shrub and litter cover had negative impact on bryophyte cover. We show that bryophyte species do not respond similarly to climate change. Total bryophyte cover declined in both heath and mesic meadow under experimental long-term warming (by 1.5-3 degrees C), driven by general declines in many species. Principal response curve, cover and richness results suggested that bryophytes in alpine heath are more susceptible to warming than in meadow, supporting the suggestion that bryophytes may be less resistant in drier environments than in wetter habitats. Species loss was slower than the decline in bryophyte abundance, and diversity remained similar in both communities. Increased deciduous shrub and litter cover led to decline in bryophyte cover. The non-linear response to warming over time underlines the importance of long-term experiments and monitoring.
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5.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Changes in plant composition and diversity in an alpine heath and meadow after 18 years of experimental warming
  • 2022
  • Ingår i: Alpine Botany. - Basel : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1664-2201 .- 1664-221X. ; 132, s. 181-193
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Global warming is expected to have large impacts on high alpine and Arctic ecosystems in the future. Here we report effects of 18 years of experimental warming on two contrasting high alpine plant communities in subarctic Sweden. Using open-top chambers, we analysed effects of long-term passive experimental warming on a heath and a meadow. We determined the impact on species composition, species diversity (at the level of rare, common and dominant species), and phylogenetic and functional diversity. Long-term warming drove differentiation in species composition in both communities; warmed plots, but not control plots, had distinctly different species composition in 2013 compared with 1995. Beta diversity increased in the meadow, while it decreased in the heath. Long-term warming had significant negative effects on the three orders of phylogenetic Hill diversity in the meadow. There was a similar tendency in the heath, but only phylogenetic diversity of dominant species was significantly affected. Long-term warming caused reductions in forbs in the heath, while evergreen shrubs increased. In the meadow, deciduous and evergreen shrubs showed increased abundance from 2001 to 2013 in warmed plots. Responses in species and phylogenetic diversity to experimental warming varied over both time (medium (7 years) vs long-term (18 years)) and space (between two neighbouring plant communities). The meadow community was more negatively affected in terms of species and phylogenetic diversity than the heath community. A potential driver for the changes in the meadow may be decreased soil moisture caused by long-term warming.
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6.
  • Alatalo, Juha M., et al. (författare)
  • Climate change and climatic events: community-, functional- and species-level responses of bryophytes and lichens to constant, stepwise, and pulse experimental warming in an alpine tundra
  • 2014
  • Ingår i: Alpine Botany. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1664-2201 .- 1664-221X. ; 124:2, s. 81-91
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • We experimentally imposed three different kinds of warming scenarios over 3 years on an alpine meadow community to identify the differential effects of climate warming and extreme climatic events on the abundance and biomass of bryophytes and lichens. Treatments consisted of (a) a constant level of warming with open top chambers (an average temperature increase of 1.87 A degrees C), (b) a yearly stepwise increase of warming (average temperature increases of 1.0; 1.87 and 3.54 A degrees C, consecutively), and (c) a pulse warming, i.e., a single first year pulse event of warming (average temperature increase of 3.54 A degrees C only during the first year). To our knowledge, this is the first climate change study that attempts to distinguish between the effects of constant, stepwise and pulse warming on bryophyte and lichen communities. We hypothesised that pulse warming would have a significant short-term effect compared to the other warming treatments, and that stepwise warming would have a significant mid-term effect compared to the other warming treatments. Acrocarpous bryophytes as a group increased in abundance and biomass to the short-term effect of pulse warming. We found no significant effects of mid-term (third-year) stepwise warming. However, one pleurocarpous bryophyte species, Tomentypnum nitens, generally increased in abundance during the warm year 1997 but decreased in control plots and in response to the stepwise warming treatment. Three years of experimental warming (all treatments as a group) did have a significant impact at the community level, yet changes in abundance did not translate into significant changes in the dominance hierarchies at the functional level (for acrocarpous bryophytes, pleurocarpous bryophytes, Sphagnum or lichens), or in significant changes in other bryophyte or lichen species. The results suggest that bryophytes and lichens, both at the functional group and species level, to a large extent are resistant to the different climate change warming simulations that were applied.
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7.
  • Alatalo, Juha M., et al. (författare)
  • Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: Contrasting short and medium termresponses to simulated global change
  • 2014
  • Ingår i: PeerJ. - : PeerJ Inc.. - 2167-8359. ; 2014:1
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • We studied the impact of simulated global change on a high alpine meadow plant community. Specifically, we examined whether short-term (5 years) responses are good predictors for medium-term (7 years) changes in the system by applying a factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to 20 plots in Latnjajaure, subarctic Sweden. Seven years of experimental warming and nutrient enhancement caused dramatic shifts in dominance hierarchies in response to the nutrient and the combined warming and nutrient enhancement treatments. Dominance hierarchies in the meadow moved from a community being dominated by cushion plants, deciduous, and evergreen shrubs to a community being dominated by grasses, sedges, and forbs. Short-termresponses were shown to be inconsistent in their ability to predict medium-term responses for most functional groups, however, grasses showed a consistent and very substantial increase in response to nutrient addition over the seven years. The non-linear responses over time point out the importance of longer-term studies with repeated measurements to be able to better predict future changes. Forecasted changes to temperature and nutrient availability have implications for trophic interactions, and may ultimately influence the access to and palatability of the forage for grazers. Depending on what anthropogenic change will be most pronounced in the future (increase in nutrient deposits, warming, or a combination of them both), different shifts in community dominance hierarchies may occur. Generally, this study supports the productivity-diversity relationship found across arctic habitats, with community diversity peaking in mid-productivity systems and degrading as nutrient availability increases further. This is likely due the increasing competition in plant-plant interactions and the shifting dominance structure with grasses taking over the experimental plots, suggesting that global change could have high costs to biodiversity in the Arctic. © 2014 Alatalo et al.
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8.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Effects of ambient climate and three warming treatments on fruit production in an alpine, subarctic meadow community
  • 2021
  • Ingår i: American Journal of Botany. - Oxford : Wiley. - 0002-9122 .- 1537-2197. ; 108:3, s. 411-422
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Premise Climate change is having major impacts on alpine and arctic regions, and inter-annual variations in temperature are likely to increase. How increased climate variability will impact plant reproduction is unclear. Methods In a 4-year study on fruit production by an alpine plant community in northern Sweden, we applied three warming regimes: (1) a static level of warming with open-top chambers (OTC), (2) press warming, a yearly stepwise increase in warming, and (3) pulse warming, a single-year pulse event of higher warming. We analyzed the relationship between fruit production and monthly temperatures during the budding period, fruiting period, and whole fruit production period and the effect of winter and summer precipitation on fruit production. Results Year and treatment had a significant effect on total fruit production by evergreen shrubs, Cassiope tetragona, and Dryas octopetala, with large variations between treatments and years. Year, but not treatment, had a significant effect on deciduous shrubs and graminoids, both of which increased fruit production over the 4 years, while forbs were negatively affected by the press warming, but not by year. Fruit production was influenced by ambient temperature during the previous-year budding period, current-year fruiting period, and whole fruit production period. Minimum and average temperatures were more important than maximum temperature. In general, fruit production was negatively correlated with increased precipitation. Conclusions These results indicate that predicted increased climate variability and increased precipitation due to climate change may affect plant reproductive output and long-term community dynamics in alpine meadow communities.
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9.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Impact of ambient temperature, precipitation and seven years of experimental warming and nutrient addition on fruit production in an alpine heath and meadow community
  • 2022
  • Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - Amsterdam : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 836
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Alpine and polar regions are predicted to be among the most vulnerable to changes in temperature, precipitation, and nutrient availability. We carried out a seven-year factorial experiment with warming and nutrient addition in two alpine vegetation communities. We analyzed the relationship between fruit production and monthly mean, maximum, and min temperatures during the fall of the pre-fruiting year, the fruiting summer, and the whole fruit production period, and measured the effects of precipitation and growing and thawing degree days (GDD & TDD) on fruit production. Nutrient addition (heath: 27.88 +/- 3.19 fold change at the end of the experiment; meadow: 18.02 +/- 4.07) and combined nutrient addition and warming (heath: 20.63 +/- 29.34 fold change at the end of the experiment; meadow: 18.21 +/- 16.28) increased total fruit production and fruit production of graminoids. Fruit production of evergreen and deciduous shrubs fluctuated among the treatments and years in both the heath and meadow. Pre-maximum temperatures had a negative effect on fruit production in both communities, while current year maximum temperatures had a positive impact on fruit production in the meadow. Pre-minimum, pre-mean, current mean, total minimum, and total mean temperatures were all positively correlated with fruit production in the meadow. The current year and total precipitation had a negative effect on the fruit production of deciduous shrubs in the heath. GDD had a positive effect on fruit production in both communities, while TDD only impacted fruit production in the meadow. Increased nutrient availability increased fruit production over time in the high alpine plant communities, while experimental warming had either no effect or a negative effect. Deciduous shrubs were the most sensitive to climate parameters in both communities, and the meadow was more sensitive than the heath. The difference in importance of TDD for fruit production may be due to differences in snow cover in the two communities.
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10.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Impacts of different climate change regimes and extreme climatic events on an alpine meadow community
  • 2016
  • Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 6
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Climate variability is expected to increase in future but there exist very few experimental studies that apply different warming regimes on plant communities over several years. We studied an alpine meadow community under three warming regimes over three years. Treatments consisted of (a) a constant level of warming with open-top chambers (ca. 1.9 degrees C above ambient), (b) yearly stepwise increases in warming (increases of ca. 1.0, 1.9 and 3.5 degrees C), and (c) pulse warming, a single first-year pulse event of warming (increase of ca. 3.5 degrees C). Pulse warming and stepwise warming was hypothesised to cause distinct first-year and third-year effects, respectively. We found support for both hypotheses; however, the responses varied among measurement levels (whole community, canopy, bottom layer, and plant functional groups), treatments, and time. Our study revealed complex responses of the alpine plant community to the different experimentally imposed climate warming regimes. Plant cover, height and biomass frequently responded distinctly to the constant level of warming, the stepwise increase in warming and the extreme pulse-warming event. Notably, we found that stepwise warming had an accumulating effect on biomass, the responses to the different warming regimes varied among functional groups, and the short-term perturbations had negative effect on species richness and diversity
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11.
  • Alatalo, J. M., et al. (författare)
  • Responses of lichen communities to 18 years of natural and experimental warming
  • 2017
  • Ingår i: Annals of Botany. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0305-7364 .- 1095-8290. ; 120:1, s. 159-170
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Background and Aims Climate change is expected to have major impacts on high alpine and arctic ecosystems in the future, but empirical data on the impact of long-term warming on lichen diversity and richness are sparse. This study report the effects of 18 years of ambient and experimental warming on lichens and vascular plant cover in two alpine plant communities, a dry heath with sparse canopy cover (54 %) and a mesic meadow with a more developed (67 %) canopy cover, in sub-arctic Sweden. Methods The effects of long-term passive experimental warming using open top chambers (OTCs) on lichens and total vascular plant cover, and the impact of plant cover on lichen community parameters, were analysed. Key Results Between 1993 and 2013, mean annual temperature increased about 2 degrees C. Both site and experimental warming had a significant effect on cover, species richness, effective number of species evenness of lichens, and total plant canopy cover. Lichen cover increased in the heath under ambient conditions, and remained more stable under experimental warming. The negative effect on species richness and effective number of species was driven by a decrease in lichens under experimental warming in the meadow. Lichen cover, species richness, effective number of species evenness were negatively correlated with plant canopy cover. There was a significant negative impact on one species and a non-significant tendency of lower abundance of the most common species in response to experimental warming. Conclusions The results from the long-term warming study imply that arctic and high alpine lichen communities are likely to be negatively affected by climate change and an increase in plant canopy cover. Both biotic and abiotic factors are thus important for future impacts of climate change on lichens.
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12.
  • Alatalo, Juha M., et al. (författare)
  • Seven years of experimental warming and nutrient addition causes decline of bryophytes and lichens in alpine meadow and heath communities
  • 2024
  • Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Global change is predicted to have large and rapid impact on polar and alpine regions. Bryophytes and lichens increase their importance in terms of biomass, carbon/nutrient cycling, cover and ecosystem functioning at higher latitudes/altitudes. Here we report from a seven year factorial experiment with nutrient addition and warming on the abundance of bryophytes and lichens in an alpine meadow and heath community. Treatments had significant negative effect on relative change of total abundance bryophytes and lichens, the largest decline to the nutrient addition and the combined nutrient addition and warming treatments, bryophytes decreasing most in the meadow, lichens most in the heath. Nutrient addition, and the combined nutrient addition and warming brought rapid decrease in both bryophytes and lichens, while warming had a delayed negative impact. Of sixteen species that were included the statistical analyses, we found significant negative effects on seven species. We show that impact of simulated global change on bryophytes and lichens differ in in time and magnitude among treatments and plant communities. Our results underscore the importance of longer-term studies to improve the quality of climate change models, as short-term studies are poor predictors of longer-term responses of bryophytes and lichens, similar to what have been shown for vascular plants. Species-specific responses may differ in time, and this will likely cause changes in the dominance structures of bryophytes and lichens over time.
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13.
  • Alatalo, Juha M, 1966-, et al. (författare)
  • Testing reliability of short-term responses to predict longer-term responses of bryophytes and lichens to environmental change
  • 2015
  • Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 58, s. 77-85
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Environmental changes are predicted to have severe and rapid impacts on polar and alpine regions. At high latitudes/altitudes, cryptogams such as bryophytes and lichens are of great importance in terms of biomass, carbon/nutrient cycling, cover and ecosystem functioning. This seven-year factorial experiment examined the effects of fertilizing and experimental warming on bryophyte and lichen abundance in an alpine meadow and a heath community in subarctic Sweden. The aim was to determine whether shortterm responses (five years) are good predictors of longer-term responses (seven years). Fertilizing and warming had significant negative effects on total and relative abundance of bryophytes and lichens, with the largest and most rapid decline caused by fertilizing and combined fertilizing and warming. Bryophytes decreased most in the alpine meadow community, which was bryophyte-dominated, and lichens decreased most in the heath community, which was lichen-dominated. This was surprising, as the most diverse group in each community was expected to be most resistant to perturbation. Warming alone had a delayed negative impact. Of the 16 species included in statistical analyses, seven were significantly negatively affected. Overall, the impacts of simulated warming on bryophytes and lichens as a whole and on individual species differed in time and magnitude between treatments and plant communities (meadow and heath). This will likely cause changes in the dominance structures over time. These results underscore the importance of longer-term studies to improve the quality of data used in climate change models, as models based on short-term data are poor predictors of long-term responses of bryophytes and lichens. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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14.
  • Alatalo, Juha M., et al. (författare)
  • Vascular plant abundance and diversity in an alpine heath under observed and simulated global change
  • 2015
  • Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 5
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Global change is predicted to cause shifts in species distributions and biodiversity in arctic tundra. We applied factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to a nutrient and species poor alpine/arctic heath community for seven years. Vascular plant abundance in control plots increased by 31%. There were also notable changes in cover in the nutrient and combined nutrient and warming treatments, with deciduous and evergreen shrubs declining, grasses overgrowing these plots. Sedge abundance initially increased significantly with nutrient amendment and then declined, going below initial values in the combined nutrient and warming treatment. Nutrient addition resulted in a change in dominance hierarchy from deciduous shrubs to grasses. We found significant declines in vascular plant diversity and evenness in the warming treatment and a decline in diversity in the combined warming and nutrient addition treatment, while nutrient addition caused a decline in species richness. The results give some experimental support that species poor plant communities with low diversity may be more vulnerable to loss of species diversity than communities with higher initial diversity. The projected increase in nutrient deposition and warming may therefore have negative impacts on ecosystem processes, functioning and services due to loss of species diversity in an already impoverished environment.
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15.
  • Ali, A., et al. (författare)
  • Diversity-productivity dependent resistance of an alpine plant community to different climate change scenarios
  • 2016
  • Ingår i: Ecological Research. - : Wiley. - 0912-3814 .- 1440-1703. ; 31:6, s. 935-945
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Here we report from a experiment imposing different warming scenarios [control with ambient temperature, constant level of moderate warming for 3 years, stepwise increase in warming for 3 years, and one season of high level warming (pulse) simulating an extreme summer event] on an alpine ecosystem to study the impact on species diversity-biomass relationship, and community resistance in terms of biomass production. Multiple linear mixed models indicate that experimental years had stronger influence on biomass than warming scenarios and species diversity. Species diversity and biomass had almost humpback relationships under different warming scenarios over different experimental years. There was generally a negative diversity-biomass relationship, implying that a positive diversity-biomass relationship was not the case. The application of different warming scenarios did not change this tendency. The change in community resistance to all warming scenarios was generally negatively correlated with increasing species diversity, the strength of the correlation varying both between treatments and between years within treatments. The strong effect of experimental years was consistent with the notion that niche complementarity effects increase over time, and hence, higher biomass productivity over experimental years. The strongest negative relationship was found in the first year of the pulse treatment, indicating that the community had weak resistance to an extreme event of one season of abnormally warm climate. Biomass production started recovering during the two subsequent years. Contrasting biomass-related resistance emerged in the different treatments, indicating that micro sites within the same plant community may differ in their resistance to different warming scenarios.
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16.
  • Almered Olsson, Gunilla, 1951, et al. (författare)
  • Variation in Life History Traits of Gentiana nivalis (Gentianaceae) in Alpine and Sub-alpine Habitats in the Norwegian Mountains – Implications for Biodiversity in relation to Environmental Change
  • 2015
  • Ingår i: Annales Botanici Fennici. - : Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board. - 0003-3847 .- 1797-2442. ; 52:3-4, s. 149-159
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • The alpine gentian, Gentiana nivalis, is an obligate annual. Because of its complete population turnover every year, it is likely to be more responsive to environmental shifts than are perennials, and also likely to undergo more rapid genetic change in response to selection pressure. The detected morphological differentiation between habitats was related to different proportions of spring- and autumn-germinating individuals with a larger proportion of winter annuals in the subalpine habitats. The spring-germinating annuals that have shorter time for development and have a shorter stature can still develop at the alpine sites where competition is weaker. The subalpine habitats are all semi-natural, shaped by livestock grazing and human activities related to summer farming. Declining human impact is leading to successional changes in the mountain landscape. The future of G. nivalis in the light of current trends in landscape development and climate change is discussed.
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17.
  • Antonsson, Henrik, 1976, et al. (författare)
  • Nurse plant effect of the cushion plant Silene acaulis (L.) Jacq. in an alpine environment in the subarctic Scandes, Sweden
  • 2009
  • Ingår i: Plant Ecology & Diversity. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1755-0874 .- 1755-1668. ; 2:1, s. 17-25
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Background: Facilitation plays important roles in the structuring of plant communities and several studies have found that it tends to increase with environmental severity in alpine plant communities. In addition, cushion plants have been shown to act as nurse plants, moderating extreme environmental conditions, and providing resources for other species, with substantial effects on local plant diversity. Aims: This study addresses the nurse plant effects of Silene acaulis – a common, circumpolar alpine plant species with a compact cushion-forming growth form – along an altitude transect in the mid- to high-alpine zones in northern Sweden. Methods: The numbers of species in paired S. acaulis cushions and identical-sized control plots along an altitude transect between 1150 m and 1450 m above sea level were compared, and differences in species composition were analysed. Results: At altitudes above c. 1280 m, but not at lower altitudes, more species were found inside the cushions than in their paired control plots. Species composition was similar inside cushions and in control plots. Conclusions: Our results suggest that S. acaulis acts as a nurse plant at altitudes higher than a certain threshold (c. 1280 m at the investigated site). It appears to play an important role in creating focal points for local vascular plant diversity in highalpine environments, where vegetation is open and occurs in small patches. Keywords: facilitation; plant-to-plant interactions; Silene acaulis; species richness; stress
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18.
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19.
  • Baruah, G., et al. (författare)
  • Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities
  • 2017
  • Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four different alpine subarctic plant communities: tussock tundra, Dryas heath, dry heath and wet meadow. Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to passively warm the vegetation by 1.5-3 degrees C. Changes in leaf width, leaf length and plant height of 22 vascular plant species were measured. Long-term warming significantly affected all plant traits. Overall, plant species were taller, with longer and wider leaves, compared with control plots, indicating an increase in biomass in warmed plots, with 13 species having significant increases in at least one trait and only three species having negative responses. The response varied among species and plant community in which the species was sampled, indicating community-warming interactions. Thus, plant trait responses are both species- and community-specific. Importantly, we show that there is likely to be great variation between plant species in their ability to maintain positive growth responses over the longer term, which might cause shifts in their relative competitive ability.
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20.
  • Baruah, Gaurav, et al. (författare)
  • Impacts of seven years of experimental warming and nutrient addition on neighbourhood species interactions and community structure in two contrasting alpine plant communities
  • 2018
  • Ingår i: Ecological Complexity. - : Elsevier. - 1476-945X .- 1476-9840. ; 33:Supplement C, s. 31-40
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Abstract Global change is predicted to have major impacts on alpine and arctic ecosystems. Plant fitness and growth will be determined by how plants interact with each other at smaller scales. Local-scale neighbourhood interactions may be altered by environmental pertubations, which could fundamentally affect community structure. This study examined the effects of seven years of experimental warming and nutrient addition on overall changes in the community structure and patterns of interspecific interaction between neighbouring plant species in two contrasting alpine plant communities, mesic meadow and poor heath, in subarctic Sweden. We used a network approach to quantify the dissimilarity of plant interaction networks and the average number of interspecific neighbourhood interactions over time in response to different environmental perturbations. The results revealed that combined warming and nutrient addition had significant negative effects on how dissimilar plant interaction networks were over time compared with the control. Moreover, plant–plant neighbourhood interaction networks were more dissimilar over time in nutrient-poor heath than in nutrient-rich mesic meadow. In addition, nutrient addition alone and combined nutrient addition and warming significantly affected neighbourhood species interactions in both plant communities. Surprisingly, changes in interspecific neighbourhood interactions over time in both communities were very similar, suggesting that the nutrient-poor heath is as robust to experimental environmental perturbation as the mesic meadow. Comparisons of changes in neighbouring species interactions with changes in evenness and richness at the same scale, in order to determine whether diversity drove such changes in local-scale interaction patterns, provided moderate evidence that diversity was behind the changes in local-scale interspecific neighbourhood interactions. This implied that species might interact at smaller scales than those at which community measures were made. Overall, these results demonstrated that global change involving increased nutrient deposition and warming is likely to affect species interactions and alter community structure in plant communities, whether rich or poor in nutrients and species.
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21.
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22.
  • Beylich, A. A., et al. (författare)
  • Intensity and spatio-temporal variability of fluvial sediment transfers in an Arctic-oceanic periglacial environment in northernmost Swedish Lapland (Latnjavagge catchment)
  • 2006
  • Ingår i: Geomorphology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-555X. ; 80:1-2, s. 114-130
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Intensity and spatio-temporal variability of fluvial sediment transfers and mechanical fluvial denudation were analyzed in the periglacial Latnjavagge catchment (9 km(2); 950-1440 m a.s.l.; 68.20N, 18.30E) in Arctic-oceanic northernmost Swedish Lapland. The present-day rates of fluvial sediment transfer are low. The mean annual mechanical fluvial denudation rate at the inlet of lake Latnjajaure, as calculated after five years of process monitoring (2000-2004), and excluding a "rare rainfall event" which caused 3.2 times higher suspended sediment transport during one day as compared to the total mean annual suspended sediment transport, is 2.3 t km(-2) yr(-1). In years without "rare rainfall events", most of the total annual sediment load is transported in a. few days during annual snowmelt runoff. In the calculation of longer-term sediment budgets, rare rainfall events like the July 20th-21 st, 2004 event have to be considered as essential components. Reliable estimation of the recurrence intervals of such events is problematic. The pattern of ice patches and snow fields within the valley, the steepness of streams and channels and the location of areas showing slushflow activity are the major factors,controlling spatial variability of mechanical fluvial denudation in the drainage basin. The five lakes in Latnjavagge, especially lake Latnjajaure, are significant sediment traps and ground below 1300 m a.s.l. is protected by a very stable and closed vegetation cover and rhizosphere across the entire lower catchment. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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23.
  • Beylich, A. A., et al. (författare)
  • Rates of chemical and mechanical fluvial denudation in an arctic oceanic periglacial environment, latnjavagge drainage basin, northernmost Swedish Lapland
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research. - 1523-0430 .- 1938-4246. ; 37:1, s. 75-87
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • A process geomorphological investigation was started in 1999 to study present denudation rates and the mutual relationship of chemical and mechanical fluvial denudation in periglacial environments. Latnjavagge (9 km(2); 950-1440 in a.s.l.; 68° 20'N, 18° 30'E) was chosen as a representative drainage basin of the arctic-oceanic mountain area in northernmost Swedish Lapland. Atmospheric solute inputs, chemical denudation, and mechanical fluvial denudation were analyzed. During the arctic summer field seasons of 2000, 2001, and 2002 measurements of daily precipitation, solute concentrations in precipitation, and in melted snow cores, taken before snowmelt, were recorded. In addition, solute and suspended sediment concentrations in creeks were analyzed, and bedload tracer movements were registered during the entire summer seasons (end of May until beginning of September). Results show a mean annual chemical denudation net rate of 5.4 t km(-2) yr(-1) in the entire catchment. Chemical denudation in Latnjavagge is less than one third of chemical denudation rates reported for Karkevagge (Swedish Lapland) but seems to be at a similar level as in a number of other subarctic, arctic, and alpine environments. Mechanical fluvial denudation is lower than chemical denudation. Most sediment transport in channels occurs in the early summer season during a few days with snowmelt generated runoff peaks. The main sediment sources in the drainage basin are mobilized channel bed pavements exposing fines, ice patches/fields, and material mobilized by slush flows. The calculated mean mechanical fluvial denudation rate is 2.3 t km(-2) yr(-1) at the inlet of lake Latnjajaure, situated in Latnjavagge close to the outlet of the valley. A very stable vegetation cover and rhyzosphere in this environment mainly explain the low value. The mean mechanical fluvial denudation rate at the outlet of the entire Latnjavagge drainage basin, below lake Latnjajaure, is only 0.8 t km(-2) yr(-1). Both chemical and mechanical fluvial denudation show low intensity. The results from Latnjavagge support the contention that chemical denudation is a somewhat important denudational process in periglacial environments.
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24.
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25.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • A Climate Change aspect on root dynamics and nitrogen partitioning in a tundra landscape
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: Sediment budgets and rates of sediment transfer across cold environments in Europe. 3rd Workshop of the ESF Network SEDIFLUX, Durham, UK, 15 – 19 December 2005..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) recently reported that Arctic is rapidly changing due to Climate Change. Likewise, the mountains of Europe are going to experience large shifts in plant composition and 41-56% of the alpine species might be on the edge of extinction according to the 1st synthesis of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA). Although the tundra ecosystems are subjected to dramatical changes as a result of Climate Change, there is little knowledge of the effect on root dynamics and its implication on the nitrifying and denitrifying microbial community. Here, we compare nitrification enzyme activity (NEA) and denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) rates along an altitudinal gradient with the effects of climatic warming using Open Top Chambers (OTCs) in consideration with root dynamics and architecture. This study was conducted at Latnjajaure Field Station (LFS) located in the midalpine region in northern Sweden. LFS is the Swedish field site for the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), established in 1993. This gives an opportunity to investigate long-term effects of climatic warming by OTCs and an altitudinal gradient (1000m to 1365m), both within a very small geographical range. The OTCs used at LFS increases the soil surface temperature by approximately 1.5ºC whereas air temperatures normally falls with 0.6ºC with every hundred meter of increased altitude. To analyse the NEA and DEA we used an anaerobic incubation technique, based on acetylene inhibition technique, resulting in N2O as the only end product, which then were analysed by gas chromatography. Soil cores were additionally sampled in the OTCs to study the effects of climatic warming on the root system. The specific root length, root length density and root biomass were determined for the different root fractions. The results from NEA and DEA contradict each other. The gradient study show decreased NEA and DEA rates with falling altitude, whereas the warming experiment show a slight non significant increase due to the temperature enhancement by OTCs. The preliminary results from the root sampling indicate that there is a plant community specific response in root architecture, which has an output on root biomass and particularly in the fraction of fine roots, although, climatic warming did not have any significant affect on the root biomass. The fact that altitudinal temperature decline did not reduce NEA and DEA rates might in part be explained of the variables measured here, although they are not conclusive.
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26.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Can present melt-out patterns identify snowbed plant species vulnerable to climate change?
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning – ICARP II, Copenhagen, Denmark, 10 – 12 November 2005..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Snowbeds form in topographic depressions which accumulate high amounts of snow during the winter months and the final snowmelt does not occur until late in the growing season. Many species preferentially grow in snowbed habitats and some of these are even limited to habitats in which winter snow accumulates. In connection with the Global Warming forecast, snowbed ecosystems of alpine Europe are regarded as particularly vulnerable in IPCC’s 2001 assessment report. This study is running at Latnjajaure Field Station, in northern Swedish Lapland, where four snowbed plant communi¬ties are studied. The snowbeds are of the “moderate type”, which means that they are melting out before the end of July, and they are situated in both heath and meadow sites. In this study we try to identify vulnerable plant species by the use of snow dynamics and plant community structure. Snowbed plant communi¬ties have high abundances of bryophytes along with high bryophyte diversity, 55 identified bryophytes within the snowbeds. The dominant bryophytes (e.g. Kiaeria stakei, Polytrichastrum sexangulare, Sanionia nivalis, Anthelia juratzkana, Scapania obcordata) are also snowbed specialist. The preliminary results show that earlier melt-out day will increase the vascular plant cover by 0.8 percent per day as well as increase in lichen cover by 0.5 percent per day. Bryophytes will suffer the most by decreasing in abundance by 1.7 percent per day of earlier melt-out day. Although, the response among bryophyte species is not uniform with Kiaeria stakei having the large decrease followed by Anthelia juratzkana, whereas Polytrichastrum sexangulare does not respond at all. There is also interaction among bryophyte species.
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27.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Climate-related soil changes in tundra ecosystems at Latnjajaure, northern Sweden – an ITEX-IPY project
  • 2010
  • Ingår i: International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference.
  • Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
    • During the 90'ies, the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established as a leading project in arctic and alpine ecology, and has become a model for many later network establishments. The present study capitalizes on the early efforts of ITEX and aims at assessing ecosystem changes in the alpine areas of northern Sweden above timberline, i.e. the tundra, in relation to global change. By using the "old" ITEX plots established during the early years of the program we have measured ecosystem respiration (ER), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and nitrogen (N) mineralization over the growing season. In addition, have soil samples been taken to quantify changes in the carbon (C) and N pool, including 13C and 15N. After 12 to 15 years of open top chamber (OTC) treatment no statistical effect was found on the soil temperature (10 cm soil depth), although the was an overall increase in all OTC by +0.2°C. However, the soil moisture decreased significantly by 3-14%, depending on plant community, in the OTCs compared to ambient conditions. Preliminary, there was a 20-37% non-significant higher mean ER in the OTC compared to the ambient plots over the growing season. Furthermore, the OTC treatment did not affect the growing season mineralization of inorganic N, or total C and N content of the soil. The stable isotope data showed both enrichment and depletion as a consequence of the OTC treatment, but no general pattern was discerned. Thus, this non-significant higher ER is most likely of plant origin than soil, as the plant standing biomass has increased in the OTCs. This study does not support the current consensus that tundra soils will alter their C and N dynamics in response to climate change.
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28.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Ecology of Alpine Snowbeds and the Impact of Global Change
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. ; 39:1
  • Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • The ecosystems of alpine snowbed habitats are reviewed with emphasis on ecosystem functioning and capability to adapt to current and predicted global change. Snowbeds form in topographic depressions that accumulate large amounts of snow during the winter months, and the final snowmelt does not occur until late in the growing season. Many species preferentially grow in snowbed habitats and some of these are even restricted to these habitats. In this review we identify several ecosystem services which snowbeds provide to the alpine landscape. For instance, snowbeds provide a steady water and nutrient supply to adjacent plant communities and offer newly emerged high-quality food for herbivores late in the growing season. We also propose that alpine snowbeds are much more productive than earlier thought, especially when the very short growing season and often high grazing pressure are taken fully into account. Furthermore, we propose that bryophytes and graminoids (grasses, sedges, and rushes) probably will be most negatively impacted by global change, and the snowbed plant communities will be invaded by species from adjacent plant communities, especially by shrubs and boreal species. As snowbed plants have special growth conditions, their sensitivity and ability to respond rapidly to changes in annual snowfall patterns make snowbed communities particularly vulnerable in a warmer climate, and thereby sensitive indicators of global change
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29.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • ITEX at Latnjajaure
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: The 14th ITEX workshop, Falls Creek, Victoria, Australia, 2–6 February 2007..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • ITEX and ITEX-related research at Latnjajaure in northern Swedish Lapland has been quite diverse during the past few years, with most emphasis at the ecosystem and landscape scales. The basic warming experiment with open-top chambers and control plots is still running in a variety of ecosystems since 1993. During 2006, a re-inventory of OTCs and controls in Eriophorum vaginatum (cottongrass) dominated tussock tundra at the outlet of the lake showed significant changes since the last point-framing in 1995, not only in the OTCs but also in the control plots. No species were lost but dominance relationships among species had changed dramatically. The underlying permafrost had degraded substantially; it was continuous here in the early 1990ies but could not be detected in 2006. Already in 2003, a geo-radar transect showed no indication of remaining permafrost at the site (Else Kohlstrup et al., Uppsala University). The ecosystem had undergone a clear desiccation, and formerly water-filled boulder pits were now invaded by moss-dominated pioneer vegetation. The cottongrass tussocks had become less dense and more "fluffy" and had gradually been invaded by lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), the most expansive species in the community. The effect size was about twice as high in OTCs as in controls. The cottongrass tussock tundra is one of a handful of vegetation types pointed out as particularly sensitive to Climate Change, based on the listing in IPCC's Third Assessment Report 2001. Our team is undertaking a longer-term project including four of these systems, i.e., snowbeds, tussock tundra, high alpine fellfields, and mesic alpine heath (being invaded by mountain birch). A helicopter inventory of possible sites for tussock tundra in the region in August 2005 revealed a total stock of ca 2 km2 in Sweden (compared with the circum-arctic total of 336,000 km2). As a further outcome of the project on indicator ecosystems, new project, Alpine Cliff Ecology (ACE) was initiated at Latnjajaure in 2006 (see separate presentation). In the snowbed project, initiated in 2002, four snowbed plant communi¬ties are studied. The snowbeds are of the “moderate" class (melting out before the end of July), and they are situated in both heath and meadow sites. Our current studies encompass plant community scale to landscape scale, and include, e.g., monitoring of snow dynamics, microbial and plant community structure in fertilized and control plots, lemming population dynamics, nitrogen and debris deposition, and soil processes (for microbial studies see separate abstract/presentation). Interestingly, our preliminary data suggests that the plant community structure does not change due to fertilization. In 2004 we sampled the OTCs, established in 1993, in dry meadow and dry heath for root morphology characteristics, root biomass distribution, and microbial activity. This study shows that tundra plants may respond to climate change by increasing their specific root length (SRL; m gDM-1) and specific root area (SRA; m2 kgDM -1), whilst the microbial activity may remain unaffected. Furthermore, this study suggests that there might be incorporation of C in tundra soils partly as a result of increased turnover of the finer roots produced within the OTCs. However, the response across plant communities is not consistent. The "Meeting of Litters" experiment headed by Hans Cornelissen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Holland) was finalized in 2004, with a multi-authored paper in review at present. The project focused on comparative decomposition studies on litter samples from a large number of ITEX sites gathered at two experimental outdoor facilities in Sweden: Latnjajaure (mid alpine) and Abisko (sub-alpine). Other international within-ITEX activities at Latnja include a field research campaign by Catharine Copass Thompson and Carrie McCalley from the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and Robert Bell and Kerry Dinsmore from the University of Edinburgh. They visited the Latnjajaure Field Station between August 2 and August 9, 2004. Their research in the Abisko area entailed linking measurements of carbon fluxes to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), an index of greenness which can be measured on multiple scales, including from satellites. The goal for the 2004 summer was to cover as many different kinds of vegetation types in the region as possible, given the constraints of their sampling protocol. The up-scaling to the landscape level was manifested by the final publication of the GIS-based vegetation map over the Latnjajaure catchment (12 km2, 1 m2 pixel resolution) by Lindblad et al. (Pirineos 161: 3-32, 2006). This work is part of Karin Lindblad's Ph.D. thesis for her dissertation 26 January 2007.
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30.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Linkages between N turnover and plant community structure in a tundra landscape
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: Plant and Soil. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-079X .- 1573-5036. ; 294:1-2, s. 247-261
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • The spatial distribution of organic soil nitrogen (N) in alpine tundra was studied along a natural environmental gradient, covering five plant communities, at the Latnjajaure Field Station, northern Swedish Lapland. The five communities (mesic meadow, meadow snowbed, dry heath, mesic heath, and heath snowbed) are the dominant types in this region and are differentiated by soil pH. Net N mineralization, net ammonification, and net nitrification were measured using 40-day laboratory incubations based on extractable NH4+ and NO3-. Nitrification enzyme activity (NEA), denitrification enzyme activity (DEA), amino acid concentrations, and microbial respiration were measured for soils from each plant community. The results show that net N mineralization rates were more than three times higher in the meadow ecosystems (mesic meadow 0.7 mu g N g(-1) OM day(-1) and meadow snowbed 0.6 mu g N g(-1) OM day(-1)) than the heath ecosystems (dry heath 0.2 mu g N g(-1) OM day(-1), mesic heath 0.1 mu g N g(-1) OM day(-1) and heath snowbed 0.2 mu g N g(-1) OM day(-1)). The net N mineralization rates were negatively correlated to organic soil C/N ratio (r = -0.652, P < 0.001) and positively correlated to soil pH (r = 0.701, P < 0.001). Net nitrification, inorganic N concentrations, and NEA rates also differed between plant communities; the values for the mesic meadow were at least four times higher than the other plant communities, and the snowbeds formed an intermediate group. Moreover, the results show a different pattern of distribution for individual amino acids across the plant communities, with snowbeds tending to have the highest amino acid N concentrations. The differences between plant communities along this natural gradient also illustrate variations between the dominant mycorrhizal associations in facilitating N capture by the characteristic functional groups of plants.
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31.
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32.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Long-term warming effects on carbon and nitrogen dynamics in tundra soils
  • 2012
  • Ingår i: 20th Anniversary ITEX Workshop, El Paso, USA, 17–21 January 2012.
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • During IPY 2008 we used the ITEX experiment in Latnjajaure (northern Sweden), established during the early years of the program, to investigate long-term warming effects on ecosystem respiration (ER), carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pool (including d13C and d15N), soil organic C (SOC) chemical composition, and N mineralization among plant communities. After 12 to 15 years of open top chamber (OTC) treatment no statistical effect was found on the soil temperature (10 cm soil depth), although the was an overall increase in all OTC by +0.2°C. However, the soil moisture decreased significantly by 3-14%, depending on plant community, in the OTCs compared to ambient conditions. Preliminary, there was a 19-61% non-significant increase in annual growing season ER in the OTC compared to the ambient plots over the growing season. The were distinct differences in the SOM functional composition among plant communities with c 10% more O-alkyls stored in tussock tundra than in dry meadow. The OTCs did not consistently alter the SOM composition among the vegetation types but clearly showed a trend for reduced aliphatic and O-alkyl C in the OTCs suggesting increased decomposition (or reduced inputs) of these compounds. Thus, the non-significantly higher ER may in some communities be of plant origin linked to greater plant biomass in the OTCs, and in other (e.g. tussock tundra) from increased decomposition rates. In conclusion, this study showed that 12-15 years of OTC treatment had a modest effects impact C and N dynamics in tundra soils specific to distinct plant communities.
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33.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Long-term warming effects on root morphology, root mass distribution, and microbial activity in two dry tundra plant communities in northern Sweden
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 176:4, s. 862-873
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • center dot Effects of warming on root morphology, root mass distribution and microbial activity were studied in organic and mineral soil layers in two alpine ecosystems over > 10 yr, using open-top chambers, in Swedish Lapland. center dot Root mass was estimated using soil cores. Washed roots were scanned and sorted into four diameter classes, for which variables including root mass (g dry matter (g DM) m(-2)), root length density (RLD; cm cm(-3) soil), specific root length (SRL; m g DM-1), specific root area (SRA; m(2) kg DM-1), and number of root tips m(-2) were determined. Nitrification (NEA) and denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) in the top 10 cm of soil were measured. center dot Soil warming shifted the rooting zone towards the upper soil organic layer in both plant communities. In the dry heath, warming increased SRL and SRA of the finest roots in both soil layers, whereas the dry meadow was unaffected. Neither NEA nor DEA exhibited differences attributable to warming. center dot Tundra plants may respond to climate change by altering their root morphology and mass while microbial activity may be unaffected. This suggests that carbon may be incorporated in tundra soils partly as a result of increases in the mass of the finer roots if temperatures rise.
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34.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Nitrification and Denitrification Enzyme Activity: a successful tool in Arctic and Alpine soil ecology
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: The 14th ITEX workshop, Falls Creek, Victoria, Australia, 2–6 February 2007..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Nitrogen is consideration to be a limiting factor for plants and microbes in arctic and alpine ecosystems and the rates of mineralization, nitrification, and denitrifi¬cation are known to be generally low. However, Climate Change is expected to alter the nitrogen availability and dynamics and, as a consequence, affect plant community composition and production. The general consensus today is that increased temperature will lead to greater microbial activity and more plant-available nitrogen. Nevertheless, nitrification and denitrification are restricted by a number of environmental factors such as low tem¬perature and low pH. The C/N ratio and the water content of the soils also play an important role in determining the rates of nitrification and denitrification. Since 2002 microbial studies has been undertaken at Latnjajure, and comprise several microbial techniques, e.g. Nitrification Enzyme Activity (NEA), Denitrification Enzyme Activity (DEA), Phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PFLA), and Temperature Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (TGGE). These studies focuses on the interaction between plants and microbes along natural environmental gradients, both within plant communities and within the landscape, but also entails the OTCs used in the ITEX studies at Latnjajaure. Here we present the techniques NEA and DEA and give some brief results from how these have been successfully applied at Latnjajaure. In ecosystems with low nitrification activity, small amounts of NO3-/NO2- will be formed and it is thus difficult to measure low fluxes. However, NO3-/NO2- can be converted to N2O and then analysed by gas chromatography, whereby the detection limit is increased at least 1000 times compared to the spectroscopical technique. These techniques are referred to Nitrification (NEA) and Denitrification Enzyme Activity (DEA) and give a potential measure on the nitrification and denitrification rates, which goes back to the actual populations of nitrifiers and denitrifiers in the soil. For instance, NEA has been proved to better correlate with extractable NH4+ concentration than net nitrification does, and still after twelve weeks show a strong correlation with the initial extractable NH4+ concentration. Therefore, these variables, in particular NEA, have the advantage of being a much more stable variable than, for instance, extractable N concentrations and net nitrification, and NEA and DEA are therefore suitable when working in fringe environments with restricted logistics like the Latnjajaure catchment. NEA is measured using a two-step incubation technique; first by incubate the soil with a nutrient solution for 24 hours in darkness, at room temperature on a rotary shaker. Sub-samples are then withdrawn after a specified time schedule. The second step allows NO3- to be reduced to N2O by adding a modified denitrifying bacterium, Pseudomonas chlororaphis ATCC 43928, together with a carbon source. This strain of bacteria lacks the enzyme to reduce N2O to N2. The samples are then again incubated in darkness, at room temperature for 24 hours, and analysed by gas chromatography. This method was first used by Lensi et al. (1985, 1986), to study nitrification potentials in forest soils. Furthermore, the method has been developed for soils with low pH and small amounts of NO3- and the analysis makes the quantification without interference of organic matter, which makes it suitable for arctic and alpine ecosystems. To analyse DEA an anaerobic incubation technique is used, based on acetylene inhibition of the N2O-reductase resulting in N2O as the only end product. The soil sample is evacuated and flushed with N2. Thereafter acetylene is inserted to a final acetylene concentration of 10%, and the samples are shaken continuously and gas samples are withdrawn after a specified time schedule, which is then analysed by gas chromatography. This provides an estimate of the maximum concentration of functional denitrifying enzymes in the soil. Denitrifiers, in contrast to nitrifiers, are heterotrophs and can switch from using NO3- as an alternative electron acceptor to O2 under aerobic conditions. This makes other factors in the soil important determinants of DEA, e.g. availability of oxygen and C. Hence, the presence of denitrifiers is rarely a limitation for denitrification and they usually make up a reasonably large fraction of the soil bacteria. At Latnjajaure NEA shows a larger differentiation across plant communities than DEA. However, the spatial variability in the landscape, at the meso-scale, was in the same range in both variables and increased with altitude from 1000 to 1365 m a.s.l, particularly in heath plant communities. This result suggests that the decrease in mean annual temperature with altitude (0.6ºC with every one hundred meters) did not reduce nitrification and denitrification rates, as one might have expected. None of the other variable studied could explain the altitudinal increase in all cases, and the factors controlling the nitrification and denitrification rates seem to vary with the vegetation type. Furthermore, neither NEA nor DEA exhibited any changes between the ambient and warmed plots in the warming experiments. However, the warming experiment in the dry heath exhibited a change in root morphology via increased specific root length (SRL; m gDM-1) and specific root area (SRA; m2 kgDM -1). As both heterotrophic microbes and plants out-compete nitrifiers for NH4+, a change in root morphology, as seen in the warming experiment, may also explain the increased activity of nitrifying and denitrifying microbes with altitude.
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35.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Root architecture and nutrient allocation in tundra plants
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: ESA-INTECOL 2005 Joint Meeting – Ecology at multiple scales, Montreal, Canada, 7 – 12 August 2005..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) recently reported that the Arctic is rapidly changing due to Climate Change. Likewise, the mountains of Europe are going to experience large shifts in plant composition and 41-56% of the alpine species might be on the edge of extinction according to the 1st synthesis of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA). Although the tundra ecosystems are subjected to dramatical changes as a result of Climate Change, there is little knowledge of the effect on root dynamics. Roots are crucial for soil development and nutrient cycling in most ecosystems. The further out in the root system a single root is located, the faster the root turns over. The fine roots are also having a lower C:N ratio than more developed and supporting roots. The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic of root architecture and how tundra plants allocate carbon and nitrogen between root and shoot biomass and, moreover, how the plants respond to climatic warming. The dominant plant species (e.g. Cassiope tetragona, Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Diapensia lapponica for the dry heath) within each of four plant communities at Latnjajaure Field Station, in northern Swedish Scandes, were sampled and divided into shoot and root. To study the effects of climatic warming on the root system, soil cores were as well sampled in Open Top Chambers (OTCs) that was established in 1993. The root architecture was analysed by observing the degree of branching, colour, consistency etc. of the roots, which then were cut and sorted by diameter. To determine the C and N allocation within the plants we also quantified the shoot:root ratio. The preliminary results indicate that there is a difference between plant species in root biomass and particularly in the fraction of fine roots. As a result of a greater amount of root exudates from fine roots, these results imply that plant distribution has a great impact on the soil microbial community and activity. The large spatial variability often seen in microbial measurement within plant communities may be due to a sampling procedure, in that samples are taken from different plants’ root systems.
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36.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Snow distribution and biocomplexity in alpine landscapes: a progress report
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: ESF – SEDIFLUX Network, Second Workshop, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 20 – 22 January 2005.
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Snowbed ecosystems make up a pronounced component throughout the tundra biome, particularly in alpine areas due to the ragged topography and wind re-distribution of snow. As there are species and communities restricted to the snowbed habitat, they make a unique com-ponent in the alpine biodiversity at scales from species to landscapes. In connection with the Global Warming forecast, snowbed ecosystems of alpine Europe are regarded as particularly vulnerable in IPCC's 2001 assessment report. Snowbeds also provide important ecosystem services to the landscape such as maintaining the adjacent earlier-thawing ecosystems by steady water and nutrient supply, and by ensuring good winter conditions for lemmings. During years of low density the lemming preferentially grazes in snowbeds. Furthermore, snowbeds is the plant community of utmost importance for reindeers, and the availability of snowbeds in the landscape can influence the well-being of reindeers by having the possibility to offer nutrient rich food late in the growing season when the food supply have started to run short. The winter weather conditions are those that are primarily responsible for the variability in the snowbed morphology, while the local topography sets the general snowbed pattern. However, the summer weather conditions are also implicated in the variation of rate and pattern of snowmelt between years, though the general snowbed outline remains consistent among years. As tundra ecosystems are typically limited by nitrogen availability as well as temperature, Climate Change and a likely exponentially increasing deposition of plant-available nitrogen with the precipitation are inevitably accelerating processes that will alter the structure and extent of this key ecosystem. The project “Snow Distribution and Biocomplexity in Alpine Landscapes” is running at Latnjajaure Field Station, in northern Swedish Lapland, where four snowbed plant communi-ties are studied. The snowbeds are of the “moderate type”, which means that they are melting out before the end of July, and they are situated in both heath and meadow sites. Our current studies include, e.g., monitoring of snow dynamics, plant community structure in fertilized and control plots, lemming population dynamics, nitrogen and debris deposition, and soil processes. We will report on the progress of this ongoing project.
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37.
  •  
38.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • The effect of long-term temperature enhancement on the subarctic-alpine biocomplexity
  • 2004
  • Ingår i: International Conference on Arctic Microbiology.
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Climate change is expected to alter the nitrogen availability and soil carbon dynamics and, as a consequence, affect plant community composition and production and thereby ecosystem gas flux rates. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) was established at Latnjajaure Field Station (LFS), in northern Swedish Lapland, in 1993 and gives a great opportunity to investigate the long-term effect of climatic warming on the soil ecosystem. The Open Top Chambers (OTCs) used within ITEX are located in five different plant communities, which covers both heaths and meadows and the gradient from dry to moist plant communities. The ITEX species Cassiope tetragona, Dryas octopetala, Eriophorum vaginatum, Polygonum viviparum and Ranunculus nivalis, studied at LFS, are all showing positive responses to phenology, growth and reproduction to the warming treatment. The temperature enhancement on the plant community level seems to lead to changes in the dominance of species, especially by shrubs and bryophytes. However, the overall plant community pattern also appears to depend much on changes in the nitrogen availability, where their combined effects are multiplicative rather than additive with a rapidly decrease in species diversity. In this newly started study we are adopting the results from the ITEX study and try to relate them to the soil processes and properties such as potential nitrification and denitrification, soil organic matter, C:N ratio and ecosystem respiration. Thus, we make an effort to amalgamate plant community changes with changes in the subarctic-alpine soil ecosystem.
  •  
39.
  • Björk, Robert G., 1974, et al. (författare)
  • Two aspects on soil nitrogen dynamics in a climate change context
  • 2005
  • Ingår i: Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning – ICARP II, Copenhagen, Denmark, 10 – 12 November 2005..
  • Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
    • Climate change is expected to alter the nitrogen availability and dynamics and, as a consequence, affect plant community composition and production. The general consensus today is that increased temperature will lead to greater microbial activity and more plant-available nitrogen Although, there are hardly any studies on how nitrification and denitrification varies with altitude, and no previous studies in high arctic-alpine tundra landscapes. If temperature is an important factor limiting microbes in tundra areas, and the mean annual temperature falls with increasing altitude, it would be expected that nitrification and denitrification rates also would decrease with increasing altitude and thereby reflect a reverse Climate Change gradient. Here, we compare nitrification enzyme activity (NEA) and denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) rates in dry heaths a along an altitudinal gradient with the effects of climatic warming using Open Top Chambers (OTCs). This study was conducted at Latnjajaure Field Station (LFS) located in the midalpine region in northern Sweden. LFS is also the Swedish field site for the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), established in 1993. This gives an opportunity to investigate long-term effect of climatic warming on as well as an altitudinal gradient (1000m to 1365m) within a very small geographical range. The OTCs used at LFS increases the soil surface temperature by approximately 1.5ºC whereas air temperature falls with 1ºC for every hundred meter of increased altitude. To analyse the NEA and DEA we used an anaerobic incubation technique, based on acetylene inhibition technique, resulting in N2O as the only end product, which is then analysed by gas chromatography. The results contradict each other. The gradient study showed a decreased NEA and DEA rates with falling altitude, whereas the warming experiment show a slight increase due to the temperature enhancement by OTCs, although, there is no significant OTC effect. DEA was correlated with NEA and SOM, explaining part of the altitudinal variation. The results indicate that the altitudinal temperature decline did not reduce NEA and DEA rates, and although some of the variables measured here might explain part of the results in this study, they are not conclusive.
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40.
  • Björkman, Anne, 1981, et al. (författare)
  • Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome
  • 2018
  • Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 562:7725, s. 57-62
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature–trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.
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41.
  • Björkman, Anne, 1981, et al. (författare)
  • Tundra Trait Team: A database of plant traits spanning the tundra biome
  • 2018
  • Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 27:12, s. 1402-1411
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • © 2018 The Authors Global Ecology and Biogeography Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Motivation: The Tundra Trait Team (TTT) database includes field-based measurements of key traits related to plant form and function at multiple sites across the tundra biome. This dataset can be used to address theoretical questions about plant strategy and trade-offs, trait–environment relationships and environmental filtering, and trait variation across spatial scales, to validate satellite data, and to inform Earth system model parameters. Main types of variable contained: The database contains 91,970 measurements of 18 plant traits. The most frequently measured traits (>1,000 observations each) include plant height, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf fresh and dry mass, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus content, leaf C:N and N:P, seed mass, and stem specific density. Spatial location and grain: Measurements were collected in tundra habitats in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, including Arctic sites in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Fennoscandia and Siberia, alpine sites in the European Alps, Colorado Rockies, Caucasus, Ural Mountains, Pyrenees, Australian Alps, and Central Otago Mountains (New Zealand), and sub-Antarctic Marion Island. More than 99% of observations are georeferenced. Time period and grain: All data were collected between 1964 and 2018. A small number of sites have repeated trait measurements at two or more time periods. Major taxa and level of measurement: Trait measurements were made on 978 terrestrial vascular plant species growing in tundra habitats. Most observations are on individuals (86%), while the remainder represent plot or site means or maximums per species. Software format: csv file and GitHub repository with data cleaning scripts in R; contribution to TRY plant trait database (www.try-db.org) to be included in the next version release.
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42.
  • Burli, S., et al. (författare)
  • A common soil temperature threshold for the upper limit of alpine grasslands in European mountains
  • 2021
  • Ingår i: Alpine Botany. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1664-2201 .- 1664-221X. ; 131, s. 41-52
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • While climatic research about treeline has a long history, the climatic conditions corresponding to the upper limit of closed alpine grasslands remain poorly understood. Here, we propose a climatic definition for this limit, the 'grassline', in analogy to the treeline, which is based on the growing season length and the soil temperature. Eighty-seven mountain summits across ten European mountain ranges, covering three biomes (boreal, temperate, Mediterranean), were inventoried as part of the GLORIA project. Vascular plant cover was estimated visually in 326 plots of 1 x 1 m. Soil temperatures were measured in situ for 2-7 years, from which the length of the growing season and mean temperature were derived. The climatic conditions corresponding to 40% plant cover were defined as the thresholds for alpine grassland. Closed vegetation was present in locations with a mean growing season soil temperature warmer than 4.9 degrees C, or a minimal growing season length of 85 days, with the growing season defined as encompassing days with daily mean >= 1 degrees C. Hence, the upper limit of closed grasslands was associated with a mean soil temperature close to that previously observed at the treeline, and in accordance with physiological thresholds to growth in vascular plants. In contrast to trees, whose canopy temperature is coupled with air temperature, small-stature alpine plants benefit from the soil warmed by solar radiation and consequently, they can grow at higher elevations. Since substrate stability is necessary for grasslands to occur at their climatic limit, the grassline rarely appears as a distinct linear feature.
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43.
  • Callaghan, Terry V., et al. (författare)
  • Ecosystem change and stability over multiple decades in the Swedish subarctic : complex processes and multiple drivers
  • 2013
  • Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 368:1624
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • The subarctic environment of northernmost Sweden has changed over the past century, particularly elements of climate and cryosphere. This paper presents a unique geo-referenced record of environmental and ecosystem observations from the area since 1913. Abiotic changes have been substantial. Vegetation changes include not only increases in growth and range extension but also counterintuitive decreases, and stability: all three possible responses. Changes in species composition within the major plant communities have ranged between almost no changes to almost a 50 per cent increase in the number of species. Changes in plant species abundance also vary with particularly large increases in trees and shrubs (up to 600%). There has been an increase in abundance of aspen and large changes in other plant communities responding to wetland area increases resulting from permafrost thaw. Populations of herbivores have responded to varying management practices and climate regimes, particularly changing snow conditions. While it is difficult to generalize and scale-up the site-specific changes in ecosystems, this very site-specificity, combined with projections of change, is of immediate relevance to local stakeholders who need to adapt to new opportunities and to respond to challenges. Furthermore, the relatively small area and its unique datasets are a microcosm of the complexity of Arctic landscapes in transition that remains to be documented.
  •  
44.
  • Collins, C. G., et al. (författare)
  • Experimental warming differentially affects vegetative and reproductive phenology of tundra plants
  • 2021
  • Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 12:1
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Rapid climate warming is altering Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystem structure and function, including shifts in plant phenology. While the advancement of green up and flowering are well-documented, it remains unclear whether all phenophases, particularly those later in the season, will shift in unison or respond divergently to warming. Here, we present the largest synthesis to our knowledge of experimental warming effects on tundra plant phenology from the International Tundra Experiment. We examine the effect of warming on a suite of season-wide plant phenophases. Results challenge the expectation that all phenophases will advance in unison to warming. Instead, we find that experimental warming caused: (1) larger phenological shifts in reproductive versus vegetative phenophases and (2) advanced reproductive phenophases and green up but delayed leaf senescence which translated to a lengthening of the growing season by approximately 3%. Patterns were consistent across sites, plant species and over time. The advancement of reproductive seasons and lengthening of growing seasons may have significant consequences for trophic interactions and ecosystem function across the tundra. It is unclear whether climate driven phenological shifts of tundra plants are consistent across the plant growing season. Here the authors analyse data from a network of field warming experiments in Arctic and alpine tundra, finding that warming differentially affects the timing and duration of reproductive and vegetative phenology.
  •  
45.
  • Cornelissen, Johannes H C, et al. (författare)
  • Global negative vegetation feedback to climate warming responses of leaf litter decomposition rates in cold biomes
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 10:7, s. 619-627
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Whether climate change will turn cold biomes from large long-term carbon sinks into sources is hotly debated because of the great potential for ecosystem-mediated feedbacks to global climate. Critical are the direction, magnitude and generality of climate responses of plant litter decomposition. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of the major climate-change-related drivers of litter decomposition rates in cold northern biomes worldwide.Leaf litters collected from the predominant species in 33 global change manipulation experiments in circum-arctic-alpine ecosystems were incubated simultaneously in two contrasting arctic life zones. We demonstrate that longer-term, large-scale changes to leaf litter decomposition will be driven primarily by both direct warming effects and concomitant shifts in plant growth form composition, with a much smaller role for changes in litter quality within species. Specifically, the ongoing warming-induced expansion of shrubs with recalcitrant leaf litter across cold biomes would constitute a negative feedback to global warming. Depending on the strength of other (previously reported) positive feedbacks of shrub expansion on soil carbon turnover, this may partly counteract direct warming enhancement of litter decomposition.
  •  
46.
  • Cornell, Sarah, et al. (författare)
  • Thresholds in the Arctic
  • 2013
  • Ingår i: Arctic Resilience Interim Report 2013.. - Stockholm : Stockholm Environment Institute and Stockholm Resilience Centre. - 9789186125424 ; , s. 37-69
  • Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
  •  
47.
  • Cronberg, Nils, et al. (författare)
  • Genetic variation in the clonal bryophyte Hylocomium splendens at hierarchical geographic scales in Scandinavia.
  • 1997
  • Ingår i: Heredity. - 1365-2540. ; 78:3, s. 293-301
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • The widespread bryophyte Hylocomium splendens was sampled in a hierarchical fashion from populations representing four Scandinavian vegetation zones. Allozyme electrophoresis revealed variation at 11 out of 13 screened loci, allowing accurate identification of genotypes. From a total sample of 298 shoots 79 genotypes could be detected, giving the proportion of distinguishable genotypes (PD) of 0.265. The total allelic diversity (HT) based on polymorphic loci was 0.274. The relative differentiation among populations was low (GST=0.073), indicating a high level of gene flow. Differences in population structuring occurred between a subarctic-alpine site vs. three lowland sites. The subarctic-alpine population had one widespread clone, which appeared to be propagated by dispersal of vegetative fragments. That population also comprised many rare genotypes, often occurring together within 10´10 cm patches. The lowland populations had genotypes that were locally common and often dominant within the patches. When identical genotypes were observed in multiple patches within these populations, it was usually statistically highly probable that they had arisen by independent sexual recombinations.
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48.
  • Dullinger, S., et al. (författare)
  • Weak and variable relationships between environmental severity and small-scale co-occurrence in alpine plant communities
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: Journal of Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0022-0477 .- 1365-2745. ; 95:6, s. 1284-1295
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • 1. The stress gradient hypothesis suggests a shift from predominant competition to facilitation along gradients of increasing environmental severity. This shift is proposed to cause parallel changes from prevailing spatial segregation to aggregation among the species within a community. 2. We used 904 1-m(2) plots, each subdivided into 100 10 x 10 cm, or 25 20 x 20 cm cells, respectively, from 67 European mountain summits grouped into 18 regional altitudinal transects, to test this hypothesized correlation between fine-scale spatial patterns and environmental severity. 3. The data were analysed by first calculating standardized differences between observed and simulated random co-occurrence patterns for each plot. These standardized effect sizes were correlated to indicators of environmental severity by means of linear mixed models. In a factorial design, separate analyses were made for four different indicators of environmental severity (the mean temperature of the coldest month, the temperature sum of the growing season, the altitude above tree line, and the percentage cover of vascular plants in the whole plot), four different species groups (all species, graminoids, herbs, and all growth forms considered as pseudospecies) and at the 10 x 10 cm and 20 x 20 cm grain sizes. 4. The hypothesized trends were generally weak and could only be detected by using the mean temperature of the coldest month or the percentage cover of vascular plants as the indicator of environmental severity. The spatial arrangement of the full species set proved more responsive to changes in severity than that of herbs or graminoids. The expected trends were more pronounced at a grain size of 10 x 10 cm than at 20 x 20 cm. 5. Synthesis. In European alpine plant communities the relationships between small-scale co-occurrence patterns of vascular plants and environmental severity are weak and variable. This variation indicates that shifts in net interactions with environmental severity may differ among indicators of severity, growth forms and scales. Recognition of such variation may help to resolve some of the current debate surrounding the stress gradient hypothesis.
  •  
49.
  • Eidesen, P. B., et al. (författare)
  • Repeatedly out of Beringia: Cassiope tetragona embraces the arctic
  • 2007
  • Ingår i: Journal of Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 0305-0270 .- 1365-2699. ; 34:9, s. 1559-1574
  • Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Aim Eric Hulten hypothesized that most arctic plants initially radiated from Beringia in the Late Tertiary and persisted in this unglaciated area during the Pleistocene glaciations, while their distribution ranges were repeatedly fragmented and reformed elsewhere. Whereas taxonomic and fossil evidence suggest that Cassiope tetragona originated in Beringia and expanded into the circumarctic area before the onset of the glaciations, lack of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variation may suggest that colonization was more recent. We address these contradictory scenarios using high-resolution nuclear markers. Location Circumpolar Arctic. Methods The main analysis was by amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP), while sequences of chloroplast DNA verified the use of Cassiope mertensiana as an outgroup for C. tetragona. Data were analysed using Bayesian clustering, principal coordinates analyses, parsimony and neighbour-joining, and measures of diversity and differentiation were calculated. Results The circumpolar C. tetragona ssp. tetragona was well separated from the North American C. tetragona ssp. saximontana. The genetic structure in ssp. tetragona showed a strong east-west trend, with the Beringian populations in an intermediate position. The highest level of diversity was in Beringia, while the strongest differentiation in the data set was found between the populations from the Siberian Arctic west of Beringia and the remainder. Main conclusions The results are consistent with a Beringian origin of the species, but the levels and geographical patterns of differentiation and gene diversity suggest that the latest expansion from Beringia into the circumarctic was recent, possibly during the current interglacial. The results are in accordance with a recent leading-edge mode of colonization, particularly towards the east throughout Canada/Greenland and across the North Atlantic into Scandinavia and Svalbard. As fossils demonstrate the presence of the species in North Greenland 2.5-2.0 Ma, as well as in the previous interglacial, we conclude that C. tetragona expanded eastwards from Beringia several times and that the earlier emigrants of this woody species became extinct. The last major westward expansion from Beringia seems older, and the data suggest a separate Siberian refugium during at least one glaciation.
  •  
50.
  • Elmendorf, Sarah C., et al. (författare)
  • Assessments of recent tundra change based on repeated vegetation surveys.
  • 2010
  • Ingår i: Abstract GC53B-05 presented at 2010 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 13-17 Dec..
  • Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
    • Results from experimental warming studies suggest tundra vegetation will respond rapidly and dramatically to climate warming, and indeed, NDVI data from remote sensing and repeat aerial photography suggest such changes may already be occurring. NDVI changes, however, may reflect responses to a variety of processes. Repeat measurements of permanently marked plots offer an invaluable opportunity to monitor detailed changes in vegetation composition and abundance. Here, we report results from a synthesis of repeat measurements of 195 permanent plots in Arctic and alpine tundra plant communities in North America (90 plots), Europe (82 plots), Asia (10 plots), Australia (12 plots), and Antarctica (1 plot) that were revisited at least twice between 1980 and 2010, with an average timespan of 13 years between first and last sampling periods. Annual air-temperature warming over the sampling period varied considerably among sites, ranging from slight cooling to increases of nearly 2°C per decade. In our preliminary analyses, we found significant tundra-wide increases in vegetation height as well as abundance of evergreen shrubs and graminoids, but declines in mosses. We anticipated that changes in vegetation height, abundance of deciduous shrubs, and percent of vegetated ground would be highest in areas where climate warming is occurring most rapidly, but found no support for these predictions in our observational dataset. It is possible that local vegetation dynamics in these areas are affected more by other longer-term non-equilibrium processes such as recovery from glaciation, or an alternative suite of local drivers, such as snow cover, precipitation, disturbance or herbivory.
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