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Contrasting impacts...
Contrasting impacts of reindeer grazing in two tundra grasslands
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- Vowles, Tage (author)
- Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för biologi och miljövetenskap,Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
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- Lovehav, Cajsa (author)
- Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för geovetenskaper,Department of Earth Sciences
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- Molau, Ulf, 1951 (author)
- Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för biologi och miljövetenskap,Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
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- Björk, Robert G., 1974 (author)
- Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för geovetenskaper,Department of Earth Sciences
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(creator_code:org_t)
- 2017-03-10
- 2017
- English.
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In: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-9318 .- 1748-9326. ; 12:3
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https://doi.org/10.1...
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Abstract
Subject headings
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- Plant communities in Arctic and alpine areas are changing due to higher temperatures and longer vegetation periods and it is uncertain how this will affect plant-herbivore dynamics. For instance, relatively fast-growing, deciduous shrub species that are the most responsive to warming may also be the most targeted by herbivores such as reindeer, giving less palatable evergreen shrubs the chance to expand. Using herbivore exclosures, we have studied how two grasslands with contrasting nutrient and moisture regimes, a dry, nutrient-poor alpine grass heath and a wet, productive low herb meadow, changed between 1995 and 2012, in grazed and ungrazed conditions. At the grass heath, evergreen low shrub abundance had more than doubled, regardless of grazer treatment, whereas at the low herb meadow, evergreen shrubs had increased only outside exclosures while deciduous tall shrubs and forbs were significantly more abundant inside exclosures. Deciduous tall shrubs were also significantly taller in exclosures. These contrasting findings suggest that the impact of herbivores is to a great deal determined by their influence on competitive interactions between plant species, and therefore depends on the underlying composition of the plant community. Consequently, as the balance in these competitive interactions is shifting due to climate warming, we conclude that the potential of herbivory to influence this balance is considerable yet highly site dependent.
Subject headings
- NATURVETENSKAP -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)
- NATURAL SCIENCES -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)
Keyword
- deciduous shrubs
- evergreen shrubs
- grass heath
- herb meadow
- plant community
- reindeer grazing
- tundra
Publication and Content Type
- ref (subject category)
- art (subject category)
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