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Arctic mosses govern below-ground environment and ecosystem processes

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Abstract

Mosses dominate many northern ecosystems and their presence is integral to soil thermal and hydrological regimes which, in turn, dictate important ecological processes. Drivers, such as climate change and increasing herbivore pressure, affect the moss layer thus, assessment of the functional role of mosses in determining soil characteristics is essential. Field manipulations conducted in high arctic Spitsbergen (78° N), creating shallow (3 cm), intermediate (6 cm) and deep (12 cm) moss layers over the soil surface, had an immediate impact on soil temperature in terms of both average temperatures and amplitude of fluctuations. In soil under deep moss, temperature was substantially lower and organic layer thaw occurred 4 weeks later than in other treatment plots; the growing season for vascular plants was thereby reduced by 40%. Soil moisture was also reduced under deep moss, reflecting the influence of local heterogeneity in moss depth, over and above the landscape-scale topographic control of soil moisture. Data from field and laboratory experiments show that moss-mediated effects on the soil environment influenced microbial biomass and activity, resulting in warmer and wetter soil under thinner moss layers containing more plant-available nitrogen. In arctic ecosystems, which are limited by soil temperature, growing season length and nutrient availability, spatial and temporal variation in the depth of the moss layer has significant repercussions for ecosystem function. Evidence from our mesic tundra site shows that any disturbance causing reduction in the depth of the moss layer will alleviate temperature and moisture constraints and therefore profoundly influence a wide range of ecosystem processes, including nutrient cycling and energy transfer.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Hera Sengers and Anne-Mette Pedersen for invaluable help with field and laboratory work and Chris Mullins for providing essential equipment. We also thank Richard Bardgett for allowing laboratory work to be undertaken within the Ecology Research group at Lancaster University. This work was funded by NERC (NER/S/A/2001/05958).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    J. L. Gornall

  2. Agricultural University of Iceland, Keldanholt, IS-112, Reykjavík, Iceland

    I. S. Jónsdóttir

  3. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, Aberdeen, Scotland

    S. J. Woodin

  4. Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES), University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, Aberdeen, Scotland

    R. Van der Wal

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  1. J. L. Gornall
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  2. I. S. Jónsdóttir
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Correspondence to J. L. Gornall.

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Communicated by Allan Green and Sven Jonasson.

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Gornall, J.L., Jónsdóttir, I.S., Woodin, S.J. et al. Arctic mosses govern below-ground environment and ecosystem processes. Oecologia 153, 931–941 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0785-0

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