Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C514866/1
Do herbivores decrease tundra carbon sink strength by reducing the moss layer?
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr SJ Woodin, University of Aberdeen, Biological Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor R van der Wal, University of Aberdeen, Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci
- Grant held at:
- University of Aberdeen, Biological Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Atmospheric
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Pollution and Waste
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Environmental Microbiology
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- Could arctic breeding geese be speeding up global warming by damaging moss? Three key features of arctic ecosystems link together to provide the background to this research project. 1. Important populations of geese breed in the arctic tundra in summer, and migrate south to Europe and North America each winter. These populations have been growing dramatically, due partly to conservation efforts and partly to changes in winter cropping practice that have proved beneficial to them. in Canada the population of snow geese has grown so large that they have devastated part of their breeding area in the Arctic by overgrazing. 2. Arctic tundra is playing a role in counteracting global warming. As man is causing global warming by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through fossil fuel combustion, so ecosystems can partly counteract this by plants taking up carbon dioxide (through photosynthesis), some of which becomes locked away as carbon in the soil. Generally speaking, the colder and wetter the conditions, the more slowly dead plants decompose and the more carbon is held by the soil they form. Thus wet tundra in the Arctic holds a large store of carbon, and whilst carbon is being added to this store it is acting as a 'sink', removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 3. Moss is very abundant in Arctic ecosystems, and important because it accounts for a large part of the total carbon dioxide taken up by the vegetation, and it decomposes very slowly forming a carbon-rich soil. A thick layer of moss over the ground makes the ecosystem a good carbon sink; damage to the moss layer could reduce the effectiveness of the ecosystem as a carbon sink. We are involved in an international experiment on Svalbard (funded by the EU) which is investigating the ways in which geese use and affect the tundra. With colleagues we have already shown that one of the most obvious effects of the geese on the vegetation is damage to the moss. This is accompanied by a reduction in the rate at which carbon dioxide is taken up by the vegetation as a whole. In this NERC funded project we will work within the same experiment, applying carbon dioxide labelled with a heavy form of carbon (1 3C) to trace the fate of carbon dioxide in the ecosystem. Three key questions will be answered: (i) how much of the total amount of carbon dioxide taken up is taken up by the moss? (ii) how much of the carbon that is taken up stays in the ecosystem until the end of the summer? and (iii) does the carbon end up mostly in the moss which will decompose slowly and add to the carbon sink, or in other plants or microbes, from which it may be released back to the atmosphere more rapidly? Finally, and most importantly, by comparing grazed and ungrazed plots on the tundra we will find out how geese alter the answers to on these three questions. Thus we will discover whether or not arctic breeding geese might be speeding up climate change by damaging moss and thus reducing the effectiveness of the arctic tundra carbon sink.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C514866/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Small Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Small Grants
This grant award has a total value of £31,097
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| £5,536 | £16,033 | £2,153 | £7,375 |
If you need further help, please read the user guide.