Post-fire vegetation succession in the Siberian subarctic tundra over 45 years

Heim, Ramona J.; Bucharová, Anna; Brodt, Leya; Kamp, Johannes; Rieker, Daniel; Soromotin, Andrey; Yurtaev, Andrey; Hölzel, Norbert

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143425

Cited by 36 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…and willow Salix spp. are growing taller, leading to gradual transformation of the taiga-tundra transition zone into true taiga and the encroachment of shrubland into tundra (Forbes et al, 2010;Frost and Epstein, 2014;Heim et al, 2021). Remote sensing analyses show hotspots of tundra greening in many areas of the Russian Arctic (Frost and Epstein, 2014).…”

Section: Threats To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Yong¹,

Heim

Chowdhury

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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With nearly 400 migratory landbird species, the East Asian Flyway is the most diverse of the world’s flyways. This diversity is a consequence of the varied ecological niches provided by biomes ranging from broadleaf forests to arctic tundra and accentuated by complex biogeographic processes. The distribution and migration ecology of East Asian landbirds is still inadequately known, but a recent explosion in the number of studies tracking the migration of raptors, cuckoos, kingfishers and passerines has greatly increased our knowledge about the stopover and wintering ecology of many species, and the migratory routes that link northeast Eurasia and the Asian tropics. Yet the East Asian Flyway also supports the highest number of threatened species among flyways. Strong declines have been detected in buntings (Emberizidae) and other long-distance migrants. While the conservation of migratory landbirds in this region has largely focused on unsustainable hunting, there are other threats, such as habitat loss and increased agro-chemical use driven directly by land cover change and climate-related processes. Important knowledge gaps to be addressed include (1) threats affecting species in different parts of their annual cycle, (2) range-wide population trends, (3) ecological requirements and habitat use during the non-breeding season, and (4) the conservation status of critical wintering sites (including understudied farming landscapes, such as rice fields) and migration bottlenecks along the flyway.

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Section: Threats To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Yong¹,

Heim

Chowdhury

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…First, losses are strongly mediated by fire severity through the consumption of organic matter (Schuur et al, 2003). Fire severity was relatively high for the fire investigated in Alaska (Mack et al, 2011) but intermediate in our study (Heim et al, 2021), which may explain the lack of a strong effect in our study (Maslov et al, 2020). Second, the thickness of the soil organic matter plays an important role.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…S1). Soil temperature in 12 cm depth and permafrost thaw depth were higher on burnt sites but regenerated to control levels after > 44 years (Heim et al, 2021). The main cause of fires in the study region is lightning (Kornienko, 2018), but the number of human-induced fires increases because of expanding transport and settlement infrastructure due to oil and gas exploitation (Mollicone et al, 2006;Vilchek and Bykova, 1992;Yu et al, 2015).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The study area was located in Western Siberia within the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Region) between the rivers Pur and Taz, north of the Arctic Circle (centre at 67°1'19.59"N, 79°1'53.53"E, total study area size ca. 70 km 2 ) (Heim et al, 2021). The region has a subarctic climate with a growing season from mid-June to early September, and with a mean annual temperature of -8.1 °C, mean January temperature of -26.2 °C, mean July temperature of 14.4 °C, and annual precipitation of 482 mm (Kazakov, 2019).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We detected the three fire scars visually with the help of satellite images. We used annual Landsat images back to the year 1985 in Google Earth Timelapse (Gorelick et al, 2017) and older Landsat images back to 1973, which we downloaded via the USGS earth explorer (U.S. Geological Survey, 2018) (for details see Heim et al, 2021). The oldest fire scar (3,500 ha) was already visible on the first satellite image from 1973 (Landsat1).…”

Section: Sampling Design and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire in lichen-rich subarctic tundra changes carbon and nitrogen cycling between ecosystem compartments but has minor effects on stocks

Heim¹,

Yurtaev

Bucharová

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Abstract. Fires are predicted to increase in Arctic regions due to ongoing climate change. Tundra fires can alter carbon and nutrient cycling and release a substantial amount of greenhouse gases with global consequences. Yet, the long-term effects of tundra fires on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks and cycling are still unclear. Here we used a space-for-time approach to investigate the long-term fire effects on C and N stocks and cycling in soil and aboveground living biomass. We collected data from three large fire scars (> 44, 28 and 12 years old) and corresponding control areas and used linear mixed-effects models in a Bayesian framework to analyse how the stocks and cycling were influenced by fire. We found that tundra fires did not affect total C and N stocks because a major part of the stocks was located belowground in soils, which were largely unaltered by fire. However, fire had a strong effect on stocks in the aboveground vegetation, mainly due to the reduction of the lichen layer. Fire reduced N concentrations in graminoids and herbs on the younger fire scars, which affected respective C / N ratios and indicated an increased post-fire competition between vascular plants. Aboveground plant biomass was depleted in 13C in all three fire scars. This could be related to a lower 13C abundance in CO2 in the ambient air because of increased post-fire decomposition, providing a source of 13C-depleted CO2. In soil, the relative abundance of 13C changed with time after fire because of the combined effects of microbial decomposition and plant-related fractionation processes. Our results indicate that in lichen-rich subarctic tundra ecosystems, the contribution of fires to the release of additional carbon to the atmosphere might be relatively small as soil stocks appear to be resilient.

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Small herbivores with big impacts: Tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus) alter post‐fire ecosystem dynamics

Steketee

Rocha

Gough

et al. 2022

Ecology

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Fire is an important ecological disturbance that can reset ecosystems and initiate changes in plant community composition, ecosystem biogeochemistry, and primary productivity. As herbivores rely on primary producers for food, changes in vegetation may alter plant–herbivore interactions with important—but often unexplored—feedbacks to ecosystems. Here we examined the impact of post‐fire changes in plant community composition and structure on habitat suitability and rodent herbivore activity in response to a large, severe, and unprecedented fire in northern Alaskan tundra. In moist acidic tundra where the fire occurred, tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus) are the dominant herbivore and rely on the tussock forming sedge Eriophorum vaginatum for both food and nesting material. Tundra voles were 10 times more abundant at the burned site compared with nearby unburned tundra 7‐12 years after the fire. Fire increased the habitat suitability for voles by increasing plant productivity and biomass, food quality, and cover through both taller vegetation and increased microtopography. As a result of elevated vole abundance, Eriophorum mortality caused by vole herbivory was two orders of magnitude higher than natural mortality and approached the magnitude of the mortality rate resulting directly from the fire. These findings suggest that post‐fire increases in herbivore pressure on Eriophorum could, in turn, disrupt graminoid recovery and enhance shrub encroachment. Tundra state transitions from graminoid to shrub dominated are also evident following other disturbances and fertilization experiments, suggesting that as Arctic temperatures rise, greater available nutrients and increased frequencies of large‐scale disturbances may also alter plant–animal interactions with cascading impacts on plant communities and ecosystem function.

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Post-fire vegetation succession in the Siberian subarctic tundra over 45 years

Cited by 36 publications

References 79 publications

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Fire in lichen-rich subarctic tundra changes carbon and nitrogen cycling between ecosystem compartments but has minor effects on stocks

Small herbivores with big impacts: Tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus) alter post‐fire ecosystem dynamics

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