Biomass of vascular plants
Last updated 2 October 2024
The biomass of plants in Svalbard varies from year to year, partly because of summer temperature fluctuations. Humidity, snow cover duration and grazing also impact the biomass.
What is being monitored?
Biomass of vascular plants on Spitsbergen
The figure shows estimated plant biomass from Adventdalen in relatively dry habitats (ridges with mountain avens), in relatively moist and undisturbed habitats at the beginning of monitoring (moss tundra) and in disturbed habitats (primarily caused by grazing geese) at the beginning (disturbed moss tundra). The biomass of all vascular plants is aggregated and specified as the average number of grams per square metre.
(Cite these data: Norwegian Polar Institute (202). Biomass of vascular plants in Adventdalen. Environmental monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). URL: http://mosj.no/en/https://mosj.no/en/indikator/flora/landbased-flora/biomasse-av-karplanter.html)
The figure shows estimated plant biomass from Sassendalen in relatively dry habitats (ridges with mountain avens), in relatively moist and undisturbed habitats at the beginning of monitoring (moss tundra) and in disturbed habitats (primarily caused by grazing geese) at the beginning (disturbed moss tundra). The biomass of all vascular plants is aggregated and specified as the average number of grams per square metre.
(Cite these data: Norwegian Polar Institute (2024). Biomass of vascular plants in Sassendalen. Environmental monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). URL: http://mosj.no/en/https://mosj.no/en/indikator/flora/landbased-flora/biomasse-av-karplanter.html)
The figure shows estimated plant biomass from Brøggerhalvøya in relatively dry habitats (ridges with mountain avens), in relatively moist and undisturbed habitats at the beginning of monitoring (moss tundra) and in disturbed habitats (primarily caused by grazing geese) at the beginning (disturbed moss tundra). The biomass of all vascular plants is aggregated and specified as the average number of grams per square metre.
(Cite these data: Norwegian Polar Institute (2024). Biomass of vascular plants on Brøggerhalvøya. Environmental monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). URL: http://mosj.no/en/https://mosj.no/en/indikator/flora/landbased-flora/biomasse-av-karplanter.html)
Details on these data
| Last updated | 2 October 2024 |
| Update interval | Yearly |
| Next update | October 2025 |
| Commissioning organization | Ministry of Climate and Environment |
| Executive organization | Norwegian Polar Institute |
| Contact persons | Virve Ravolainen |
Methode
Aboveground biomass (g/m2) of vascular plants is estimated from known relationships between plant frequency and weight. Plant frequency is calculated from field measurements with the point frame method. The field work is done yearly in specified monitoring areas in Adventdalen, Sassendalen and Brøggerhalvøya and in several areas that represent different combinations of habitat types and grazing impact. The general methodology and selection of habitats are based on the importance for grazing animals and expected effects from climate change on the vegetation.
Quality
The underlying data have good quality and provide a representative picture of the amount of plant biomass. Field measurements are carried out systematically and regularly, by or led by researcher in vegetation ecology at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Methods for field measurements and subsequent estimations are standard ecological methods which have been scientifically tested and documented.
Other metadata
All data is stored in the internal database of the Norwegian Polar institute and is available upon request. Data for estimating plant frequency is available online from the Climate-ecological observatory for Arctic Tundra (COAT): https://data.coat.no/dataset/s_vegetation_vascular_plant_abundance_v1
Reference level and action level
The limited number of time series with annual measurements of plant biomass from Svalbard makes it challenging to define reference levels. Previously published time series have indicated that plant biomass fluctuates considerably between years (van der Wal & Stien, 2014).
Status and trend
The systematic monitoring of plant biomass started in 2018 and is currently too short to calculate trends.
Causal factors
Plant biomass in Svalbard fluctuate from year to year (see van der Wal & Stien, 2014), mainly due to climatic conditions such as summer temperature, precipitation, snow cover duration, and damage from ground ice during winter and spring. Disturbance and grazing by reindeer and geese also affect plant biomass.
Climate change has strong influence on plant biomass: higher temperatures can under certain conditions increase plant growth, and changes in precipitation can either reduce growth (in case of drought) or increase growth further (in case of increased precipitation). Extreme weather events in winter, such as rain that freezes to ice on the ground, can damage plants and reduce their growth during summer. Grazing animals such as reindeer and geese reduce biomass, but also contribute with fertilizing nutrients that increase plant growth. There is currently limited knowledge about the relationships between different causal factors and their relative importance to changes in plant biomass, and these are important research questions (Ravolainen et al., 2020).
Consequences
Changes in vascular plant biomass can have consequences for the entire terrestrial food web in Svalbard. The amount of plant biomass is particularly important for grazing animals which depend on plants as food (Svalbard ptarmigan, barnacle geese, pink-footed geese, brent geese and Svalbard reindeer), as well as for the nutrient cycle, carbon storage and other important soil properties.
About the monitoring
Monitoring of vascular plant biomass provides fundamental knowledge about the development of vegetation in Svalbard, as well as effects from various disturbances and influencing factors. Plant biomass is affected differently by climate and grazing animals in different habitats, and the biomass is therefore estimated in three habitat types.
On Svalbard, plant biomass is monitored in combination with climate parameters (summer temperature and ground ice) and grazing animals (reindeer and geese) as well as remote sensing data. These are included in the monitoring program for Arctic tundra (COAT, Climate-ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra), which facilitates for analyses and understanding of individual parameters in a larger ecosystem context.
Plant biomass is important for the entire terrestrial food web, and knowledge from the monitoring is, among other things, important as a basis for comparison for future changes. Plant biomass is a prioritised parameter in the Arctic Council’s international Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP).
Places and areas
Relations to other monitoring
Monitoring programme
International environmental agreements
- None
Voluntary international cooperation
Related monitoring
- None
Further reading
Links
Publications
- Bråthen, K. A., & Hagberg, O. (2004). More efficient estimation of plant biomass. Journal of Vegetation Science, 15(5), 653-660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2004.tb02307.x.
- Christensen, T., Payne, J., Doyle, M., Ibarguchi, G., Taylor, J., Schmidt, N. M., … & Wedege, M. (2013). The Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring Plan. CAFF Monitoring Series Report No. 7. CAFF International Secretariat, Akureyri, Iceland.
- Ravolainen, V., Soininen, E. M., Jónsdóttir, I. S., Eischeid, I., Forchhammer, M., van Der Wal, R., & Pedersen, Å. Ø. (2020). High Arctic ecosystem states: Conceptual models of vegetation change to guide long-term monitoring and research. Ambio, 49(3), 666-677. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01310-x.
- Ravolainen, V. (2020). Vegetation monitoring in Svalbard – implementation plan. Norwegian Polar Institute. Brief report 54.
- Van Der Wal, R., & Stien, A. (2014). High‐arctic plants like it hot: A long‐term investigation of between‐year variability in plant biomass. Ecology, 95(12), 3414-3427. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-0533.1.
