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Thursday, 09 July 2009 16:59 |
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Authors:
Føreid, M., Husteli, B ., Ordonez, N., Pongracz, J., and Wilson, D.I.
Originally Presented at:
IPY Polar Field School, Longyearben, Svalbard, Norway. 2 July 2009.
Abstract
The transport of nutrients from the maritime to the terrestrial environment plays an important role in the high arctic nutrient cycle. Sea birds transport these nutrients from the ocean to the terrestrial landscape. The marine derived organic matter is essential to the biodiversity and soil invertebrates living on the slopes beneath breeding bird colonies. The availability and concentration of nutrients influences the cover, richness and diversity of the herbs, grasses and mosses growing on the slope and plays an important role in the micro scale distribution patterns of Svalbard invertebrates (Zmudczyńska et al. 2008).
Sea birds transport nutrients from the ocean to the terrestrial landscape resulting in a high concentration of nutrients beneath the breeding bird cliffs and gradually decreasing down the slope.
With increasing distance from the colony we expect to observe:
• A decrease in plant size
• An increase in plant root length
• A decrease in plant diversity
• A decrease in invertebrate concentrations
• A decrease in invertebrate diversity
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