Maaperän kuoriamebojen ja kasvillisuuden välinen yhteys arktisessa tundraekosysteemissä Hornsundissa, Huippuvuorilla
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Arctic is experiencing rapid warming which causes changes in weather patterns and ecosystems’ functions. Northern peatland ecosystems are significant carbon sinks and stocks but changing hydrological conditions will determine whether they will change from sinks to sources as climate warms, creating a positive feedback effect. Palaeoecological studies can give insights into how peatlands’ moisture conditions and carbon stocks have changed in the past due to past environmental changes and this knowledge can be used to predict how peatlands will react to current climate change. One of the most important bioindicators indicating moisture conditions in peatlands are testate amoebae. To make a testate amoebae analysis modern knowledge of their ecology is needed. The modern training set is therefore collected from contemporary samples, which are used to determine the moisture preferences of different taxa in peat environments. In this study testate amoebae communities from Hornsund, Svalbard are studied. The goal was to collect modern data about the testate amoebae communities in the Arctic where currently not much data exists and to compare how testate amoebae relate to vegetation and pH. Four different vegetation types were determined, based on a vegetation analysis, which were used to infer the sites’ moisture conditions. Testate amoebae data was compared against these vegetation groups. Material consisted of 25 sites where the vegetation data and the soil samples to analyse the testate amoebae were collected. Testate amoebae communities showed only minor variation between different vegetation types and distributed only moderately along the moisture gradient. pH did not explain the variation which contradicts with previous studies reporting pH being an important variable controlling testate amoebae community composition. Shannon diversity did not vary significantly between different vegetation types although previous studies have shown that the diversity of testate amoebae increases in wetter conditions.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Ollila, Jere
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7199538132