Webbläsaren som du använder stöds inte av denna webbplats. Alla versioner av Internet Explorer stöds inte längre, av oss eller Microsoft (läs mer här: * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Var god och använd en modern webbläsare för att ta del av denna webbplats, som t.ex. nyaste versioner av Edge, Chrome, Firefox eller Safari osv.

Henni Ylänne. Foto.

Henni Ylänne

Forskare

Henni Ylänne. Foto.

Reindeer control over subarctic treeline alters soil fungal communities with potential consequences for soil carbon storage

Författare

  • Henni Ylänne
  • Rieke L Madsen
  • Carles Castaño
  • Daniel B Metcalfe
  • Karina E Clemmensen

Summary, in English

The climate-driven encroachment of shrubs into the Arctic is accompanied by shifts in soil fungal communities that could contribute to a net release of carbon from tundra soils. At the same time, arctic grazers are known to prevent the establishment of deciduous shrubs and, under certain conditions, promote the dominance of evergreen shrubs. As these different vegetation types associate with contrasting fungal communities, the belowground consequences of climate change could vary among grazing regimes. Yet, at present, the impact of grazing on soil fungal communities and their links to soil carbon have remained speculative. Here we tested how soil fungal community composition, diversity and function depend on tree vicinity and long-term reindeer grazing regime and assessed how the fungal communities and functional guilds relate to soil organic stocks in an alpine treeline ecotone in Northern Scandinavia. We determined soil carbon stocks and characterized soil fungal communities directly underneath and > 3 m away from mountain birches (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) in two adjacent 55-year-old grazing regimes with or without summer grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). We show that the area exposed to year-round grazing dominated by evergreen dwarf shrubs had higher soil C:N ratio, higher fungal abundance and lower fungal diversity compared to the area with only winter grazing and higher abundance of mountain birch. While soil carbon stocks did not differ between the grazing regimes, stocks were positively associated with root-associated ascomycetes, typical to the year-round grazing regime, and negatively associated with free-living saprotrophs, typical to the winter grazing regime. These findings suggest that when grazers promote dominance of evergreen dwarf shrubs, they induce shifts in soil fungal communities that increase soil carbon sequestration in the long-term. Thus, to predict climate-driven changes in soil carbon, grazer-induced shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities need to be accounted for.

Avdelning/ar

  • Centrum för miljö- och klimatvetenskap (CEC)
  • Institutionen för naturgeografi och ekosystemvetenskap
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publiceringsår

2021-05-24

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

4254-4268

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Global Change Biology

Volym

27

Issue

18

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Wiley-Blackwell

Ämne

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Nyckelord

  • reindeer
  • grazing
  • treeline ecotone
  • Arctic shrubification
  • soil fungal community
  • ITS2

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 1354-1013