Reindeer grazing reduces climate-driven vegetation changes and shifts trophic interactions in the Fennoscandian tundra
(2024) In Oikos 2024(11).- Abstract
Herbivores drive shifts in plant species composition by interacting with vegetation through defoliation, trampling and nutrient addition: urine and faeces. As herbivore effects on vegetation accumulate over time, they might spillover to other trophic levels, but how and when this happens is poorly understood. Since it is methodologically demanding to measure biodiversity across spatial gradients, an alternative approach is to assess it through biodiversity indices of vascular plants. We employed the Index of biodiversity relevance developed for Swedish flora which provides an estimated number of organisms associated with a plant species, allowing the quantification of trophic community size. Values from this index were coupled with... (More)
Herbivores drive shifts in plant species composition by interacting with vegetation through defoliation, trampling and nutrient addition: urine and faeces. As herbivore effects on vegetation accumulate over time, they might spillover to other trophic levels, but how and when this happens is poorly understood. Since it is methodologically demanding to measure biodiversity across spatial gradients, an alternative approach is to assess it through biodiversity indices of vascular plants. We employed the Index of biodiversity relevance developed for Swedish flora which provides an estimated number of organisms associated with a plant species, allowing the quantification of trophic community size. Values from this index were coupled with vegetation data from a network of 96 fenced and paired grazed plots across Fennoscandia. We analysed the role herbivory has on plant richness and diversity, and on the number of organisms that interact with the vegetation according to the index values. We also explored how herbivores influence the competitive effects of tall shrubs on other plants since the dominance of a vegetation type links directly to biodiversity. Plant diversity had no clear response to grazing. Overall vegetation and the vegetation subgroups herbs and non-fruit shrubs had higher biodiversity index values in fenced plots, indicating a higher number of plant–host interactions. Herb cover was negatively related to shrubs in both treatments but with a faster decline in the absence of herbivores. This study highlights the importance of maintaining herbivore populations in the Arctic to conserve the vegetation structure and biodiversity of the tundra. This method of coupling biodiversity indexes with vegetation data provides complementary information to the plant diversity, especially when methodological or time constraints prevent complete field inventories.
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- author
- Ramirez, J. Ignacio ; Sundqvist, Maja LU ; Lindén, Elin ; Björk, Robert G. ; Forbes, Bruce C. ; Suominen, Otso ; Tyler, Torbjörn LU ; Virtanen, Risto and Olofsson, Johan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Arctic, global change ecology, grazing, herbivory, index of biodiversity relevance, moose, reindeer, shrub, species coexistence
- in
- Oikos
- volume
- 2024
- issue
- 11
- article number
- e10595
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85197885041
- ISSN
- 0030-1299
- DOI
- 10.1111/oik.10595
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Oikos published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos.
- id
- 6a668a04-bd65-4b33-9671-561d88331fec
- date added to LUP
- 2024-11-27 12:35:00
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 15:06:32
@article{6a668a04-bd65-4b33-9671-561d88331fec,
abstract = {{<p>Herbivores drive shifts in plant species composition by interacting with vegetation through defoliation, trampling and nutrient addition: urine and faeces. As herbivore effects on vegetation accumulate over time, they might spillover to other trophic levels, but how and when this happens is poorly understood. Since it is methodologically demanding to measure biodiversity across spatial gradients, an alternative approach is to assess it through biodiversity indices of vascular plants. We employed the Index of biodiversity relevance developed for Swedish flora which provides an estimated number of organisms associated with a plant species, allowing the quantification of trophic community size. Values from this index were coupled with vegetation data from a network of 96 fenced and paired grazed plots across Fennoscandia. We analysed the role herbivory has on plant richness and diversity, and on the number of organisms that interact with the vegetation according to the index values. We also explored how herbivores influence the competitive effects of tall shrubs on other plants since the dominance of a vegetation type links directly to biodiversity. Plant diversity had no clear response to grazing. Overall vegetation and the vegetation subgroups herbs and non-fruit shrubs had higher biodiversity index values in fenced plots, indicating a higher number of plant–host interactions. Herb cover was negatively related to shrubs in both treatments but with a faster decline in the absence of herbivores. This study highlights the importance of maintaining herbivore populations in the Arctic to conserve the vegetation structure and biodiversity of the tundra. This method of coupling biodiversity indexes with vegetation data provides complementary information to the plant diversity, especially when methodological or time constraints prevent complete field inventories.</p>}},
author = {{Ramirez, J. Ignacio and Sundqvist, Maja and Lindén, Elin and Björk, Robert G. and Forbes, Bruce C. and Suominen, Otso and Tyler, Torbjörn and Virtanen, Risto and Olofsson, Johan}},
issn = {{0030-1299}},
keywords = {{Arctic; global change ecology; grazing; herbivory; index of biodiversity relevance; moose; reindeer; shrub; species coexistence}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{11}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Oikos}},
title = {{Reindeer grazing reduces climate-driven vegetation changes and shifts trophic interactions in the Fennoscandian tundra}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/oik.10595}},
doi = {{10.1111/oik.10595}},
volume = {{2024}},
year = {{2024}},
}