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Plant and Vegetation Dynamics on Disko Island, West Greenland: Snapshots Separated by Over 40 Years

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Abstract

We report on a revisit in 2009 to sites where vegetation was recorded in 1967 and 1970 on Disko Island, West Greenland. Re-sampling of the same clones of the grass Phleum alpinum after 39 years showed complete stability in biometrics but dramatic earlier onset of various phenological stages that were not related to changes in population density. In a fell-field community, there was a net species loss, but in a herb-slope community, species losses balanced those that were gained. The type of species establishing and increasing in frequency and/or cover abundance at the fell-field site, particularly prostrate dwarf shrubs, indicates a possible start of a shift towards a heath, rather than a fell-field community. At the herb-slope site, those species that established or increased markedly in frequency and/or cover abundance indicate a change to drier conditions. This is confirmed both by the decrease in abundance of Alchemilla glomerulans and Epilobium hornemanii, and the drying of a nearby pond. The causes of these changes are unknown, although mean annual temperature has risen since 1984.

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Acknowledgments

This study formed part of the IPY project ‘Back to the Future’ (http://www.btf.utep.edu/). and the authors are grateful to our colleagues Professor Pat Webber and Dr. Craig Tweedie for collaboration in the establishment of this project. Dr. Thomas Bjoernebo Berg kindly helped with arrangements for the field visit and we would like to thank the Arctic Station for welcoming us and providing facilities. Of course the project would have been impossible without the formative studies of the others who established the IBP Tundra Biome Bi-Polar Botanical Project—Dr. S.W. Greene, Mrs. D.M. Greene and Dr. M.C. Lewis (all now deceased), and Dr. G.C.S. Clarke and B. Philipps. The project was financed by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) 327-2007-833 as part of the International project ‘Retrospective and prospective vegetation change in the polar regions: Back to the Future’ Project (BTF; IPY Project number ID No 512).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, PO Box 50005, 104 05, Stockholm, Sweden

    Terry V. Callaghan

  2. Department of Plant and Animal Sciences, Sheffield Centre for Arctic Ecology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 5BR, UK

    Terry V. Callaghan

  3. Division of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analyses, Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Torben R. Christensen

  4. Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg 8, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Elin J. Jantze

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Correspondence to Terry V. Callaghan.

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Callaghan, T.V., Christensen, T.R. & Jantze, E.J. Plant and Vegetation Dynamics on Disko Island, West Greenland: Snapshots Separated by Over 40 Years. AMBIO 40, 624–637 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0169-x

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