Abstract
Tundra ecosystems are widely recognized as precious areas and globally important carbon (C) sinks, yet our understanding of potential threats to these habitats and their large soil C store is limited. Land-use changes and conservation measures in temperate regions have led to a dramatic expansion of arctic-breeding geese, making them important herbivores of high-latitude systems. In field experiments conducted in high-Arctic Spitsbergen, Svalbard, we demonstrate that a brief period of early season below-ground foraging by pink-footed geese is sufficient to strongly reduce C sink strength and soil C stocks of arctic tundra. Mechanisms are suggested whereby vegetation disruption due to repeated use of grubbed areas opens the soil organic layer to erosion and will thus lead to progressive C loss. Our study shows, for the first time, that increases in goose abundance through land-use change and conservation measures in temperate climes can dramatically affect the C balance of arctic tundra.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 539-545 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Global Change Biology |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 6 Dec 2006 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2007 |
Keywords
- belowground herbivory
- C sink
- C source
- ecosystem respiration
- goose grubbing
- high arctic
- land-use change
- net ecosystem exchange
- Spitsbergen
- arctic salt-marsh
- abundance
- components
- herbivory
- exchange
- dynamics
- dioxide
- soil