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Bryophyte-cyanobacterial associations as a key factor in N2-fixation across the Canadian Arctic

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Abstract

Nitrogen inputs via biological N2-fixation are important in arctic environments where N often limits plant productivity. An understanding of the direct and indirect theoretical causal relationships between key intercorrelated variables that drive the process of N2-fixation is essential to understanding N input. An exploratory multi-group Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of soil moisture, plant community functional composition, and bryophyte and lichen abundance on rates of nitrogen fixation at a low arctic ecosystem, two high arctic oases and a high arctic polar desert in the Canadian Arctic. Increasing soil moisture was strongly associated with an increasing presence of bryophytes and increasing bryophyte abundance was a major factor determining higher N2-fixation rates at all sites. Shrubs had a negative effect on bryophyte abundance at all sites with the exception of the polar desert site at Alexandra Fjord highland. The importance of competition from vascular plants appears to be greater in more productive sites and may increase at lower latitudes. Moisture availability may have an indirect effect on ecosystem development by affecting N input into the system with bryophyte-cyanobacterial associations playing an important intermediary role in the process.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ian Snape, Greg Henry, Alanna DeBusschere and Rebecca Carmichael for assistance in the field and lab. This study was supported by the International Polar Year 2007–2008 in collaboration with Climate Change Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra (CiCAT) project and an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship to E.G.L.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, V2N 4Z9, Canada

    Katherine J. Stewart & Darwyn S. Coxson

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, S7N 5A8, Canada

    Eric G. Lamb

  3. Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, S7N 5A8, Canada

    Steven D. Siciliano

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  1. Katherine J. Stewart
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  2. Eric G. Lamb
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  3. Darwyn S. Coxson
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Correspondence to Katherine J. Stewart.

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Description of variables included in the structural equation model and full model results including direct and indirect effects and unstandardized path coefficients. (DOC 240 kb)

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Stewart, K.J., Lamb, E.G., Coxson, D.S. et al. Bryophyte-cyanobacterial associations as a key factor in N2-fixation across the Canadian Arctic. Plant Soil 344, 335–346 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0750-x

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