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Decreased soil moisture due to warming drives phylogenetic diversity and community transitions in the tundra
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2021 (English)In: Environmental Research Letters, E-ISSN 1748-9326, Vol. 16, no 6, article id 064031Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Global warming leads to drastic changes in the diversity and structure of Arctic plant communities. Studies of functional diversity within the Arctic tundra biome have improved our understanding of plant responses to warming. However, these studies still show substantial unexplained variation in diversity responses. Complementary to functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity has been useful in climate change studies, but has so far been understudied in the Arctic. Here, we use a 25 year warming experiment to disentangle community responses in Arctic plant phylogenetic β diversity across a soil moisture gradient. We found that responses varied over the soil moisture gradient, where meadow communities with intermediate to high soil moisture had a higher magnitude of response. Warming had a negative effect on soil moisture levels in all meadow communities, however meadows with intermediate moisture levels were more sensitive. In these communities, soil moisture loss was associated with earlier snowmelt, resulting in community turnover towards a more heath-like community. This process of ‘heathification’ in the intermediate moisture meadows was driven by the expansion of ericoid and Betula shrubs. In contrast, under a more consistent water supply Salix shrub abundance increased in wet meadows. Due to its lower stature, palatability and decomposability, the increase in heath relative to meadow vegetation can have several large scale effects on the local food web as well as climate. Our study highlights the importance of the hydrological cycle as a driver of vegetation turnover in response to Arctic climate change. The observed patterns in phylogenetic β diversity were often driven by contrasting responses of species of the same functional growth form, and could thus provide important complementary information. Thus, phylogenetic diversity is an important tool in disentangling tundra response to environmental change.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IOP Publishing , 2021. Vol. 16, no 6, article id 064031
National Category
Ecology Climate Research
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-8739DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abfe8aOAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-8739DiVA, id: diva2:1581340
Available from: 2021-07-21 Created: 2021-07-21 Last updated: 2024-01-17Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Impact of climate warming on Arctic plant diversity: Phylogenetic diversity unravels opposing shrub responses in a warming tundra
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Impact of climate warming on Arctic plant diversity: Phylogenetic diversity unravels opposing shrub responses in a warming tundra
2022 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The Arctic biome is at significant risk, with recent observations suggesting thatclimate change is warming the Arctic nearly four times faster than the globalaverage. Last decade, evidence from experimental warming studies andobservations of ambient warming over time shows how increasing airtemperature in the Arctic has led to changes to arctic vegetation, andencroachment of trees and shrubs into the tundra. Thus, this amplified Arcticwarming is threatening biodiversity, changing vegetation patterns, and thawingpermafrost with implications for carbon and nutrient dynamics. These are oneof the main concerns of observed plant biodiversity changes (except the lossof biodiversity itself) as they feedback on the global climate through theireffects on carbon cycling, albedo, and ecosystem energy balance. Studies ofArctic biodiversity have reported responses in either taxonomic, functional, orphylogenetic diversity, though phylogenetic has so far been understudied inthe Arctic. These different measures of quantifying biodiversity will vary intheir explanatory value and can have complementary value when looking atthe implications of vegetation changes. The overall aim of this thesis is todeepen the knowledge of the effect of ambient and experimental climatewarming on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic aspects of plant diversitywithin and between communities.In Latnjajaure (northern Sweden) I used a long-term passive warmingexperiment using open-top chambers, which include five distinct plantcommunities. The communities had distinct soil moisture conditions, leadingto community-specific responses of the plant growth forms (deciduous shrubs,evergreen shrubs, forbs, and graminoids) and phylogenetic dissimilarity. Moistcommunities tended to decrease in soil moisture, which drove similarity todryer, more nutrient-poor communities. Warming significantly affectedgrowth forms, but the direction of the response was not consistent across thecommunities. Evidence of shrub expansion was found in nearly allcommunities, with soil moisture determining whether it was driven bydeciduous or evergreen shrubs. These changes are expected to affect climatefeedback as the dry, evergreen-dominated heath community, has slower carboncycling. This slowdown in carbon cycling is at least partially due to theevergreen shrubs whose material is harder to decompose than most other arcticvegetation. As the studied communities are common in the region, it is likelythat future warming will drive community shifts in the tundra landscape.On a Pan-arctic dataset of warming studies, I explored the effect of scalingabundance weighting as well as the importance of deeper against shallownodes in the phylogeny on warming response and its interaction with soil moisture and site temperature in the tundra biome. For all metrics, we lookedat both plot level (α-diversity), and the difference between plots (βdissimilarity). We show that β-dissimilarity is more sensitive to warming thanα-diversity metrics. Furthermore, we show that sensitivity to abundance andphylogenetic weighting depends on local soil moisture conditions.In conclusion, the combined use of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functionaldiversity measures enhances the quality of our assessment of the implicationsof arctic vegetation response to warming.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
University of Gothenburg, 2022. p. 50
Series
Doctoral thesis A series 174, ISSN 1400-3813
Keywords
Arctic, Oroarctic, Tundra, long-term warming, soil moisture, vegetation change, shrubification, biodiversity, phylogenetic diversity, plant community structure
National Category
Climate Research Ecology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-8930 (URN)978-91-8069-017-1 (ISBN)978-91-8069-017-1 (ISBN)
Available from: 2022-12-05 Created: 2022-12-05 Last updated: 2022-12-05Bibliographically approved

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