Browsing by Subject "ilmaston muutos"

As the climate warms tundra ecosystems will face changes that have an impact on their carbon cycle. Arctic tundra is already experiencing changes in plant species composition and distribution, and vegetation height expected to increase. Vegetation shifts such as shrubification can increase carbon uptake from the atmosphere to the tundra ecosystems but changes in soil microclimate and plant-microbe interactions related to vegetation shifts can also create feedbacks that increase carbon losses from the ecosystems to the atmosphere. To better understand changes in tundra carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes related to climate change and vegetation shifts, it’s crucial to understand the factors controlling CO2 fluxes in the tundra in general and in the tundra environments that differ in their vegetation composition. We used environmental gradients created by late-lying snowbanks to collect the data and we used modelling to understand the factors controlling CO2 fluxes in the tundra and within four different vegetation types during the growing season. The vegetation types included in the study were barrens, meadow-like environments, prostrate shrub tundra (heat) and erect shrub tundra (shrub). Gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) were the highest in shrub plots, smaller in the heat and in meadow-like environments and the smallest in barrens. Net CO2 sink increased with vegetation cover and GPP, but also barrens with little vegetation were still mostly net CO2 sinks during the growing season due to low ER. The amount of vegetation measured in vegetation height and cover well explained the variation in GPP and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) in the whole data and within vegetation types. ER was also related to the amount of vegetation but was more affected by microclimate, mainly air temperature and soil moisture, than GPP and NEE. In shrub plots, variation in ER was explained by air temperature more than by vegetation cover or height. Microclimate variables were not important in explaining variation in GPP in the whole data or within vegetation types but air temperature in heath and in the whole data and soil temperature and soil moisture in barrens helped to explain variation in NEE. In the whole data, heat and shrub plots soil temperature was not related to higher ER. Depth of organic layer explained some variation in NEE and ER in the whole data and some variation in NEE in some of the vegetation types. Soil pH was not an important factor explaining CO2 fluxes, but it was related to vegetation type and vegetation distribution especially in the whole data. The main factor controlling CO2 fluxes in the tundra and within different vegetation types seemed to be the amount of vegetation. Air temperature and soil moisture help to explain the variation especially in ER. The ability of vegetation parameters to explain variation in ER may be partly because of a relatively small amount of heterotrophic respiration compared to autotrophic respiration in the system or because of a positive link between the amount of vegetation and the amount of decomposition. Drought during the field campaigns may have limited decomposition and decreased temperature sensitivity of decomposition which may partly explain the insensitivity of ER to soil temperature. In heat and in shrub plots the shading effect of vegetation lowered soil temperature and may have slowed decomposition. As the ability of vegetation, microclimate and soil variables to explain variation in CO2 fluxes differed between vegetation types, CO2 fluxes of different vegetation types may respond to changes in the tundra environment differently. The results imply that the effect of vegetation composition should be considered when estimating how tundra ecosystem CO2 fluxes will respond to climate change. Similarly, the role of factors controlling decomposition, such as drought and shading effect of shrub vegetation, may be important in determining the future carbon balance of the tundra.