Ecological niche overlap in the Arctic vegetation influenced by seabirds.

ABSTRACT: In the High Arctic, nutrients are the most limiting resources, so terrestrial vegetation is of low complexity and grows slowly. However, locally, large seabird colonies increase soil fertility by deposition of faeces, supporting the development of rich and fast-growing plant communities. Here, we assessed how seabird colonies affected ecological niche segregation of plants, across the fertilisation gradient. Study sites were located near five little auk colonies, distributed longitudinally across the Svalbard archipelago. We described vascular plant composition and identified 13 environmental variables, based on which, we calculated and tested the niche overlap (NO) between the 18 most frequent species. Based on the hierarchical classification of the NO matrix, we distinguished typical Hig

SUBMITTER: Zwolicki A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10020437 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature