Alleviation of nutrient co-limitation induces regime shifts in post-fire community composition and productivity in Arctic tundra

Abstract

Recent unprecedented fires in the Arctic during the past two decades have indicated a pressing need to understand the long-term ecological impacts of fire in this biome. Anecdotal evidence suggests that tundra fires can induce regime shifts that change tussock tundra to more shrub-dominated ecosystems. However, the ecological mechanisms regulating these shifts are poorly understood, but are hypothesized to involve changes to nutrient availability in this nutrient limited system. Here we conducted a 4-year two-factorial (control: C, nitrogen along: N⁺ , phosphorus alone: P⁺ , nitrogen and phosphorus combined: NP⁺ ) fertilization experiment in both unburned and burned tundra to test this hypothesis after a decade of post-fire recovery. A decade after fire, the burned site exhibited an increase in soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability and a transition toward taller, more productive, and more deciduous vegetation. This shift in vegetation structure, composition, and function was induced at the unburned site through the addition of both NP⁺ and the alleviation of their co-limitation. Both burned and unburned tundra responded similarly to fertilizer treatments by increasing leaf area index, greenness, and canopy height in NP⁺ treatments, and exhibited no significant response in individual N⁺ or P⁺ treatments. These results point to a greater need to understand coupled carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles in this system, and suggest that post-fire regime shifts are regulated by the alleviation of nitrogen and phosphorus co-limitation in Arctic tundra.

Keywords: Anaktuvuk River fire; Arctic tundra; community ecology; disturbance; nutrient limitation; regime shifts; succession.