Long-term herbivore removal experiments reveal different impacts of geese and reindeer on vegetation and ecosystem CO₂-fluxes in high-Arctic tundra

Abstract Given the current and anticipated rates of global change, with associated shifts in herbivore population densities, understanding the role of different herbivores in shaping ecosystem structure and processes is critical for predicting ecosystem responses. Here, we examined the controls exerted by migratory geese and resident, non-migratory ungulates, two dominating yet functionally contrasting herbivores, on the rapidly warming Arctic tundra. We collected vegetation and ecosystem carbon flux data at peak plant growing season in the two longest running herbivore removal experiments in high-Arctic Svalbard. Herbivore exclosures had been set up independently in a wet habitat utilised by barnacle geese ( Branta leucopsis ) in summer and in mesic-to-dry habitats utilised by wild reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus ) year-round. Excluding geese produced vegetation state transitions from heavily grazed, moss-dominated (4 g m -2 dry weight of live aboveground vascular plants) to ungrazed, graminoid-dominated (60 g m -2 ; after 4-yr exclusion) and then horsetail-dominated (150 g m -2 ; after 15-yr exclusion) tundra. This caused large increases in vegetation carbon and nitrogen pools, dead biomass and moss-layer depth. Modifications in nitrogen concentrations and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios of vegetation and soil suggested overall slower nutrient cycling rates in the short-term absence of geese. Long-term goose removal quadrupled the net ecosystem carbon sequestration by increasing gross ecosystem photosynthesis more than ecosystem respiration. Excluding reindeer for 21 years also produced detectable, but weaker, increases in live and dead biomass, vegetation carbon and nitrogen pools, moss-layer depth and ecosystem respiration. Yet, reindeer removal did not alter the chemistry of either vegetation or soil, nor net ecosystem carbon sequestration. Our findings suggest that, though both herbivores were key drivers of ecosystem structure and processes, localised effects of geese, highly concentrated in space and time, are larger than those exerted by more widely dispersed reindeer. We illustrate that the impacts of herbivory across the tundra landscape are contingent on the habitat utilised for foraging, its sensitivity, the exerted grazing pressure, and herbivore characteristics. Our results underscore the conspicuous heterogeneity in how Arctic herbivores control ecosystem functioning, with important implications under current and future global change.