Abstract
The Arctic terrestrial ecosystem is thought to be extremely susceptible to climate change. However, because of the diverse responses of ecosystem components to change, an overall response of the ecosystem carbon cycle to climate change is still hard to predict. In this review, we focus on several recent studies conducted to clarify the pattern of the carbon cycle on the deglaciated area of Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard in the high Arctic. Vegetation cover and soil carbon pools tended to increase with the progress of succession. However, even in the latter stages of succession, the size of the soil carbon pool was much smaller than those reported for the low Arctic tundra. Cryptogams contributed the major proportion of phytomass in the later stages. However, because of water limitation, their net primary production was smaller than that of the vascular plants. The compartment model that incorporated major carbon pools and flows suggested that the ecosystem of the later stages is likely to be a net sink of carbon at least for the summer season. Based on the eco-physiological characteristics of the major ecosystem components, we suggest several possible scenarios of future changes in the ecosystem carbon cycle.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson JPE, Domsch KH (1978) A physiological method for the quantitative measurement of microbial biomass in soils. Soil Biol Biochem 10:215–221
Bekku Y, Kume A, Nakatsubo T, Masuzawa T, Kanda H, Koizumi H (1999) Microbial biomass in relation to primary succession on Arctic deglaciated moraines. Polar Biosci 12:47–53
Bekku YS, Nakatsubo T, Kume A, Adachi M, Koizumi H (2003) Effect of warming on the temperature dependence of soil respiration rate in Arctic, temperate and tropical soils. Appl Soil Ecol 22:205–210
Bekku YS, Kume A, Masuzawa T, Kanda H, Nakatsubo T, Koizumi H (2004a) Soil respiration in a high Arctic glacier foreland in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Polar Biosci 17:36–46
Bekku YS, Nakatsubo T, Kume A, Koizumi H (2004b) Soil microbial biomass, respiration rate, and temperature dependence on a successional glacier foreland in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Arct Antarct Alp Res 36:395–399
Bret-Harte MS, Shaver GE, Chapin FS III (2002) Primary and secondary stem growth in Arctic shrubs: implications for community response to environmental change. J Ecol 90:251–267
Cooper EJ, Wookey PA (2001) Field measurements of the growth rate of forage lichens, and the implications of grazing by Svalbard reindeer. Symbiosis 31:173–186
Cooper EJ, Smith FM, Wookey PA (2001) Increased rainfall ameliorates the negative effect of trampling on the growth of high Arctic forage lichens. Symbiosis 31:153–171
Cornelissen JHC, Callaghan TV, Alatalo JM, Michelsen A, Graglia E, Hartley AE, Hik DS, Hobbie SE, Press MC, Robinson CH, Henry GHR, Shaver GR, Phoenix GK, Gwynn Jones D, Jonasson S, Chapin FS III, Molau U, Neill C, Lee JA, Melillo JM, Sveinbjörnsson B, Aerts R (2001) Global change and Arctic ecosystems: is lichen decline a function of increases in vascular plant biomass? J Ecol 89:984–994
Crawford RMM (1989) Studies in plant survival. Ecological case histories of plant adaptation to adversity. Blackwell, Oxford
Crocker RL, Major J (1955) Soil development in relation to vegetation and surface age at Glacier Bay, Alaska. J Ecol 43:427–448
Dowdeswell JA (1995) Glaciers in the high Arctic and recent environmental change. Phil Trans R Soc Lond A 352:321–334
Grogan P, Chapin FS III (1999) Arctic soil respiration: effects of climate and vegetation depend on season. Ecosystems 2:451–459
Hobbie SE, Chapin FS III (1998) The response of tundra plant biomass, aboveground production, nitrogen, and CO2 flux to experimental warming. Ecology 79:1526–1544
Hobbie SE, Schimel JP, Trumbore SE, Randerson JR (2000) Controls over carbon storage and turnover in high-latitude soils. Global Change Biol 6:196–210
Hodkinson ID, Coulson SJ, Webb NR (2003) Community assembly along proglacial chronosequences in the high Arctic: vegetation and soil development in north-west Svalbard. J Ecol 91:651–663
Illeris L, Michelsen A, Jonasson S (2003) Soil plus root respiration and microbial biomass following water, nitrogen, and phosphorus application at a high Arctic semi desert. Biogeochemistry 65:15–29
IPCC (2001) Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jonasson S, Michelsen A, Schmidt IK, Nielsen EV (1999) Responses in microbes and plants to changed temperature, nutrient, and light regimes in the Arctic. Ecology 80:1828–1843
Kume A, Nakatubo T, Bekku Y, Masuzawa T (1999) Ecological significance of different growth forms of purple saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia L., in the high Arctic, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Arct Antarct Alp Res 31:27–33
Kume A, Bekku YS, Hanba YT, Kanda H (2003) Carbon isotope discrimination in diverging growth forms of Saxifraga oppositifolia in different successional stages in a high Arctic glacier foreland. Arct Antarct Alp Res 35:377–383
Lal R, Kimble JM (2000) Soil C pool and dynamics in cold ecoregions. In: Lal R, Kimble JM, Stewart BA (eds) Global climate change and cold regions ecosystems. Lewis, Boca Raton, pp 3–28
Lefauconnier B, Hagen JO, Ørbæk JB, Melvold K, Isaksson E (1999) Glacier balance trends in the Kongsfjorden area, western Spitsbergen, Svalbard, in relation to the climate. Polar Res 18:307–313
Liengen T, Olsen RA (1997) Nitrogen fixation by free-living cyanobacteria from different coastal sites in a high Arctic tundra, Spitsbergen. Arct Alp Res 29:470–477
Lloyd CR (2001) The measurement and modelling of the carbon dioxide exchange at a high Arctic site in Svalbard. Global Change Biol 7:405–426
Longton RE (1988) The biology of polar bryophytes and lichens. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Mack MC, Schuur EAG, Bret-Harte MS, Shaver GR, Chapin FS III (2004) Ecosystem carbon storage in Arctic tundra reduced by long-term nutrient fertilization. Nature 431:440–443
Michaelson GJ, Ping CL, Kimble JM (1996) Carbon storage and distribution in tundra soils of Arctic Alaska, USA. Arct Alp Res 28:414–424
Minami Y, Kanda H (1995) Bryophyte community dynamics on moraine at deglaciated Arctic terrain in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen (in Japanese with English summary). Proc Bryol Soc Jpn 6:157–161
Molau U (1996) Phenology and reproductive success in Arctic plants: susceptibility to climate change. In: Oechel WC, Callaghan T, Gilmanov T, Holten JI, Maxwell B, Molau U, Sveinbjörnssn B (eds) Global change and Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, ecological studies 124. Springer, New York, pp 153–170
Molau U (2001) Tundra plant responses to experimental and natural temperature changes. Mem Natl Inst Polar Res Spec Iss 54:445–466
Muraoka H, Uchida M, Mishio M, Nakatsubo T, Kanda H, Koizumi H (2002) Leaf photosynthetic characteristics and net primary production of the polar willow (Salix polaris) in a high Arctic polar semi-desert, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Can J Bot 80:1193–1202
Nakatsubo T (2002) Predicting the impact of climatic warming on the carbon balance of the moss Sanionia uncinata on a maritime Antarctic island. J Plant Res 115:99–106
Nakatsubo T, Bekku Y, Kume A, Koizumi H (1998) Respiration of the belowground parts of vascular plants: its contribution to total soil respiration on a successional glacier foreland in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Polar Res 17:53–59
Oechel WC, Vourlitis GL (1994) The effects of climate change on land–atmosphere feedbacks in Arctic tundra regions. Trends Ecol Evol 9:324–329
Oechel WC, Vourlitis GL, Hastings SJ, Zulueta RC, Hinzman L, Kane D (2000) Acclimation of ecosystem CO2 exchange in the Alaskan Arctic in response to decadal climate warming. Nature 406:978–981
Ohtonen R, Fritze H, Pennanen T, Jumpponen A, Trappe J (1999) Ecosystem properties and microbial community changes in primary succession on a glacier forefront. Oecologia 119:239–246
Press MC, Potter JA, Burke MJW, Callaghan TV, Lee JA (1998) Responses of a subarctic dwarf shrub heath community to simulated environmental change. J Ecol 86:315–327
Robinson CH, Wookey PA, Lee JA, Callaghan TV, Press MC (1998) Plant community responses to simulated environmental change at a high Arctic polar semi-desert. Ecology 79:856–866
Steudler PA, Bowden RD, Melillo JM, Aber JD (1989) Influence of nitrogen fertilization on methane uptake in temperate forest soils. Nature 341:314–316
Swift MJ, Andrén O, Brussaard L, Briones M, Couteaux M-M, Ekschmitt K, Kjoller A, Loiseau P, Smith P (1998) Global change, soil biodiversity, and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems: three case studies. Global Change Biol 4:729–743
Thórhallsdóttir TE (1998) Flowering phenology in the central highland of Iceland and implications for climatic warming in the Arctic. Oecologia 114:43–49
Uchida M, Muraoka H, Nakatsubo T, Bekku Y, Ueno T, Kanda H, Koizumi H (2002) Net photosynthesis, respiration, and production of the moss Sanionia uncinata on a glacier foreland in the high Arctic, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Arct Antarct Alp Res 34:287–292
Väre H, Vestberg M, Eurola S (1992) Mycorrhiza and root-associated fungi in Spitsbergen. Mycorrhiza 1:93–104
Wada N (1998) Sun-tracking flower movement and seed production of mountain avens, Dryas octopetala L. in the high Arctic, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Proc NIPR Symp Polar Biol 11:128–136
Wookey PA, Parsons AN, Welker JM, Potter JA, Callaghan TV, Lee JA, Press MC (1993) Comparative responses of phenology and reproductive development to simulated environmental change in sub-Arctic and high Arctic plants. Oikos 67:490–502
Acknowledgements
This study was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nakatsubo, T., Bekku, Y.S., Uchida, M. et al. Ecosystem development and carbon cycle on a glacier foreland in the high Arctic, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. J Plant Res 118, 173–179 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-005-0211-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-005-0211-9