Author: Isabel Barrio

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The NordBorN family keeps growing!

It is a pleasure to welcome two new NordBorN members to the team: Anna Moretti and Elias Koivisto.

Anna Moretti started as a NordBorN-PhD student at the NTNU University Museum in the beginning of September. Anna is a botanist with a MSc from the University of Vienna. Her PhD project will focus on the wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris), an established and naturalized alien species in the Arctic. She will use genomics to study its taxonomy and phylogeography, and test hypotheses for its success in the Arctic, including multiple introductions from different genetic sources, enemy release advantage related to plant defense compounds, and shifts in adaptive traits. Her research will add an important evolutionary component to ongoing interdisciplinary research on Arctic greening and invasion biology.

Elias started his PhD journey at UEF in Joensuu in the beginning of August. He holds a BSc in Biology-Earth sciences and a MSc in Geomatics from Stockholm University. His main research focus is studying the greening and shrubification of the Arctic region utilizing multispectral, UAV-RGB and LiDAR remote sensing data as well as field data with machine learning. A part of his research is also connecting these changes to reindeer herding patterns in Northern Fennoscandia and Yamal peninsula.

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The ecological and socio-economic impact of herbivory in a pan-Arctic context

Arctic tundra ecosystems are changing fast. The cumulative pressures of accelerated warming, land use and demographic and economic tensions impose a circumpolar research effort as well as the integration of a wide range of methodological approaches. Supported by an Arctic Research Studies mobility grant, we aim at establishing a formal collaboration between the University of Oslo, NTNU University Museum and the Agricultural University of Iceland, through the submission of two common research proposals and a postdoctoral fellowship application to investigate plant-herbivore interactions at a pan-Arctic scale. Our collaboration brings highly complementary skillsets as well as a strong international collaboration effort through the Herbivory Network, the Nordic Borealization Network (NordBorN) and the PIECEMEAL network to reinforce Norwegian-Icelandic cooperation in the field of Arctic research.

This project is funded by the Arctic Research and Studies programme awarded to Stefaniya Kamenova, Isabel C Barrio, Mathilde Defourneaux and James Speed.

As part of the project, in early June 2024 project participants met in Oslo and held an open half-day seminar on Arctic herbivory at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the Department of Biosciences of the University of Oslo.

The project lead is Stefaniya Kamenova, researcher at the University of Oslo.

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High-resolution simulations reveal a large loss of Fennoscandian tundra

We used the high-emission RCP8.5 scenario to study vegetation dynamics in Northern Fenoscandia with focus on a few biodiversity hotspots. The projections show substantial borealization of Fennoscandian vegetation by the century’s end. Evergreen trees will increasingly be replaced by broadleaf and mixed forests in southern mountain areas like Fulufjället and forest areas such as Muddus and Björnlandet. Rapid tree growth in southern tundra hotspots will also significantly reduce tundra areas, particularly in Helagsfjällen and Vindelnfjällen. A notable reduction in landscape diversity is expected in Helagsfjällen and Vindelnfjällen, as shown by a decrease in the Shannon diversity index, where tundra will be dominated by needleleaf evergreen shrubs, with minimal sedge tundra remaining. Major tundra areas around 68.5° N and the Finnmarksvidda plateau will see decreases inopen tundra vegetation and increases in shrubs. Abisko is projected to retain large areas of alpine vegetation at higher elevations, despite undergoing shrubification and an upward shift in the broadleaf forest treeline.

We also developed a reindeer grazing component in LPJ-GUESS showing that potential reindeer consumption will rise in summer grazing grounds north of 65.5° N. Winter trends remain weak due to challenges in accurately representing winter forage like lichens. Reindeer herding will face new challenges such as hot and dry summers, frequent freeze-thaw cycles, and denser forests. Effective management requires understanding trophic interactions and the impacts of extreme weather beyond vegetation state alone. Conifer-dominated forestry faces challenges from moose grazing and diseases, favoring broadleaf forest spread. Revising red-list and threatened species categories is necessary due to increased vulnerability of tundra species under warming.

Reference: Lagergren, F., Björk, R. G., Andersson, C., Belušić, D., Björkman, M. P., Kjellström, E., Lind, P., Lindstedt, D., Olenius, T., Pleijel, H., Rosqvist, G., and Miller, P. A. (2024) Kilometre-scale simulations over Fennoscandia reveal a large loss of tundra due to climate warming. Biogeosciences, 21, 1093–1116. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1093-2024

Text and image by: Robert Björk and Fredrik Lagergren.