The aim of this research project is to investigate how exclusion of grazing herbivores affect the vegetation on the tundra. By creating exclosures that exclude for example reindeer, researchers can compare these sites with areas where animals have been able to graze. This makes it possible to determine features of a landscape characterised by grazing, and to evaluate how different management regimes and climate will determine future vegetation patterns and biodiversity.
The specific goal of the project is to conduct a re-inventory of a number of existing exclosures in different high-latitude ecosystems. This season the researchers will work in Semmeldalen on Svalbard and the following season on Greenland and in Alaska.
Principal investigator
Elin Lindén
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University