{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.1007/s10021-012-9580-9", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-04-15T16:14:50Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2012-08-01", "title": "Effects Of Warming On Shrub Abundance And Chemistry Drive Ecosystem-Level Changes In A Forest-Tundra Ecotone", "description": "Tundra vegetation is responding rapidly to on-going climate warming. The changes in plant abundance and chemistry might have cascading effects on tundra food webs, but an integrated understanding of how the responses vary between habitats and across environmental gradients is lacking. We assessed responses in plant abundance and plant chemistry to warmer climate, both at species and community levels, in two different habitats. We used a long-term and multisite warming (OTC) experiment in the Scandinavian forest-tundra ecotone to investigate (i) changes in plant community composition and (ii) responses in foliar nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon-based secondary compound concentrations in two dominant evergreen dwarf-shrubs (Empetrum hermaphroditum and Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and two deciduous shrubs (Vaccinium myrtillus and Betula nana). We found that initial plant community composition, and the functional traits of these plants, will determine the responsiveness of the community composition, and thus community traits, to experimental warming. Although changes in plant chemistry within species were minor, alterations in plant community composition drive changes in community-level nutrient concentrations. In view of projected climate change, our results suggest that plant abundance will increase in the future, but nutrient concentrations in the tundra field layer vegetation will decrease. These effects are large enough to have knock-on consequences for major ecosystem processes like herbivory and nutrient cycling. The reduced food quality could lead to weaker trophic cascades and weaker top down control of plant community biomass and composition in the future. However, the opposite effects in forest indicate that these changes might be obscured by advancing treeline forests. \u00a9 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.", "keywords": ["580", "0106 biological sciences", "570", "P.", "Global warming", "500", "CBSC", "P", "N", "15. Life on land", "global warming", "01 natural sciences", "333", "Treeline", "secondary plant metabolite", "Shrub", "Grazing", "Secondary plant metabolite", "shrub", "13. Climate action", "reindeer", "grazing", "Reindeer"]}, "links": [{"href": "http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/28101/1/Kaarlej%c3%a4rvi2012_Article_EffectsOfWarmingOnShrubAbundan.pdf"}, {"href": "http://dro.dur.ac.uk/13492/1/13492.pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9580-9"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Ecosystems", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1007/s10021-012-9580-9", "name": "item", "description": "10.1007/s10021-012-9580-9", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1007/s10021-012-9580-9"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2012-08-02T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1111/gcb.15722", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-04-15T16:18:45Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2021-05-24", "title": "Reindeer control over subarctic treeline alters soil fungal communities with potential consequences for soil carbon storage", "description": "Abstract

The climate\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90term reindeer grazing regime and assessed how the fungal communities relate to organic soil carbon stocks in an alpine treeline ecotone in Northern Scandinavia. We determined soil carbon stocks and characterized soil fungal communities directly underneath and >3\uffc2\uffa0m away from mountain birches (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) in two adjacent 55\uffe2\uff80\uff90year\uffe2\uff80\uff90old grazing regimes with or without summer grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). We show that the area exposed to year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing dominated by evergreen dwarf shrubs had higher soil C:N ratio, higher fungal abundance and lower fungal diversity compared with the area with only winter grazing and higher abundance of mountain birch. Although soil carbon stocks did not differ between the grazing regimes, stocks were positively associated with root\uffe2\uff80\uff90associated ascomycetes, typical to the year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing regime, and negatively associated with free\uffe2\uff80\uff90living 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven changes in soil carbon, grazer\uffe2\uff80\uff90induced shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities need to be accounted for.The climate\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90term reindeer grazing regime and assessed how the fungal communities relate to organic soil carbon stocks in an alpine treeline ecotone in Northern Scandinavia. We determined soil carbon stocks and characterized soil fungal communities directly underneath and >3\uffc2\uffa0m away from mountain birches (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) in two adjacent 55\uffe2\uff80\uff90year\uffe2\uff80\uff90old grazing regimes with or without summer grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). We show that the area exposed to year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing dominated by evergreen dwarf shrubs had higher soil C:N ratio, higher fungal abundance and lower fungal diversity compared with the area with only winter grazing and higher abundance of mountain birch. Although soil carbon stocks did not differ between the grazing regimes, stocks were positively associated with root\uffe2\uff80\uff90associated ascomycetes, typical to the year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing regime, and negatively associated with free\uffe2\uff80\uff90living 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven changes in soil carbon, grazer\uffe2\uff80\uff90induced shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities need to be accounted for.The climate\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90term reindeer grazing regime and assessed how the fungal communities relate to organic soil carbon stocks in an alpine treeline ecotone in Northern Scandinavia. We determined soil carbon stocks and characterized soil fungal communities directly underneath and >3\uffc2\uffa0m away from mountain birches (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) in two adjacent 55\uffe2\uff80\uff90year\uffe2\uff80\uff90old grazing regimes with or without summer grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). We show that the area exposed to year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing dominated by evergreen dwarf shrubs had higher soil C:N ratio, higher fungal abundance and lower fungal diversity compared with the area with only winter grazing and higher abundance of mountain birch. Although soil carbon stocks did not differ between the grazing regimes, stocks were positively associated with root\uffe2\uff80\uff90associated ascomycetes, typical to the year\uffe2\uff80\uff90round grazing regime, and negatively associated with free\uffe2\uff80\uff90living 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\uffe2\uff80\uff90driven changes in soil carbon, grazer\uffe2\uff80\uff90induced shifts in vegetation and soil fungal communities need to be accounted for.