Alleviation of nutrient co‐limitation induces regime shifts in post‐fire community composition and productivity in Arctic tundra

Recent unprecedented fires in the Arctic during the past two decades have indicated a pressing need to understand the long‐term ecological impacts of fire in this biome. Anecdotal evidence suggests that tundra fires can induce regime shifts that change tussock tundra to more shrub‐dominated ecosyste...

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Published in:Global change biology Vol. 27; no. 14; pp. 3324 - 3335
Main Authors: Klupar, Ian, Rocha, Adrian V., Rastetter, Edward B.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2021
Subjects:
Anaktuvuk River fire
Arctic region
Arctic tundra
Availability
Biological fertilization
canopy height
carbon
Carbon cycle
Community composition
community ecology
community structure
Composition
disturbance
ecosystems
Fertilization
Fertilizers
Fires
global change
Leaf area
Leaf area index
Mineral nutrients
Nitrogen
Nutrient availability
nutrient limitation
Phosphorus
Plant cover
regime shifts
soil
Structure-function relationships
succession
Taiga & tundra
Tundra
Vegetation
vegetation structure
Arctic region
succession
disturbance
Arctic tundra
community ecology
nutrient limitation
Anaktuvuk River fire
regime shifts
ISSN:1354-1013, 1365-2486, 1365-2486
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Recent unprecedented fires in the Arctic during the past two decades have indicated a pressing need to understand the long‐term ecological impacts of fire in this biome. Anecdotal evidence suggests that tundra fires can induce regime shifts that change tussock tundra to more shrub‐dominated ecosystems. However, the ecological mechanisms regulating these shifts are poorly understood, but are hypothesized to involve changes to nutrient availability in this nutrient limited system. Here we conducted a 4‐year two‐factorial (control: C, nitrogen along: N+, phosphorus alone: P+, nitrogen and phosphorus combined: NP+) fertilization experiment in both unburned and burned tundra to test this hypothesis after a decade of post‐fire recovery. A decade after fire, the burned site exhibited an increase in soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability and a transition toward taller, more productive, and more deciduous vegetation. This shift in vegetation structure, composition, and function was induced at the unburned site through the addition of both NP+ and the alleviation of their co‐limitation. Both burned and unburned tundra responded similarly to fertilizer treatments by increasing leaf area index, greenness, and canopy height in NP+ treatments, and exhibited no significant response in individual N+ or P+ treatments. These results point to a greater need to understand coupled carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles in this system, and suggest that post‐fire regime shifts are regulated by the alleviation of nitrogen and phosphorus co‐limitation in Arctic tundra. Post‐fire regime shifts in tundra vegetation community composition were induced by the addition of nitrogen and phosphorus at an unburned site.
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ISSN:1354-1013
1365-2486
1365-2486
DOI:10.1111/gcb.15646