The project “Herbivores in the tundra: linking diversity and function (TUNDRAsalad)” was a three-year project (2021-2023) funded by the Icelandic Research Fund, that investigated the role of herbivore diversity in tundra ecosystems. The project was led by Isabel C Barrio at the Agricultural University of Iceland.
Partners included Elina Kaarlejärvi (University of Helsinki), Eeva Soininen (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), James Speed (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), David Hik (Simon Fraser University), Mathilde Defourneaux (Agricultural University of Iceland), Laura Barbero Palacios (Agricultural University of Iceland), Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe (University of Iceland), Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir (University of Iceland), Toke Hoye (Aarhus University), Sasha Sokolov (Russian Academy of Sciences), Johan Olofsson (Umeå University), Emmanuel Pagneux (Agricultural University of Iceland), Bryndís Marteinsdóttir (Soil Conservation Service of Iceland), Kari Anne Bråthen (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Dorothee Ehrich (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Jón Guðmundsson (Agricultural University of Iceland), Bruce Forbes (University of Lapland) and Timo Kumpula (University of Eastern Finland).
As part of the TUNDRAsalad project, Mathilde Defourneaux developed her PhD project focusing on the effects of changing herbivore communities in Iceland. Mathilde’s PhD, titled “The impacts of spatio-temporal shifts in vertebrate herbivore communities on the functioning of the Icelandic tundra” is available here.
You can read more about the TUNDRAsalad project here.
Publications from the TUNDRAsalad project
DEFOURNEAUX, M., BARBERO-PALACIOS, L., SCHOELYNCK, J., BOULANGER-LAPOINTE, N., SPEED, J.D.M., BARRIO, I.C. (2025) Capturing seasonal variations in faecal nutrient content from tundra herbivores using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy. Science of the Total Environment 981:
179548 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179548
BARBERO-PALACIOS, L., BARRIO, I.C., GARCÍA CRIADO, M., KATER, I., PETIT BON, M., KOLARI, T.H.M., BJØRKÅS, R., TREPEL, J., LUNDGREN, E., BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, K., HWANG, B.C., BARTRA-CABRÉ, L., DEFOURNEAUX, M., RAMSAY, J., LAMERIS, T.K., LEFFLER, A.J., LOCK, J.G., KUOPPAMAA, M.S., KRISTENSEN, J.A., BJORKMAN, A.D., MYERS-SMITH, I., LECOMTE, N., AXMACHER, J.C., GILG, O., DEN HERDER, M., PAGNEUX, E.P., SKARIN, A., SOKOLOVA, N., WINDIRSCH, T., WHEELER, H.C., SERRANO, E., VIRTANEN, T., HIK, D.S., KAARLEJÄRVI, E., SPEED, J.D.M., SOININEN, E. (2024) Herbivore diversity effects on Arctic tundra ecosystems – a systematic review. Environmental Evidence 13(1):6 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-024-00330-9
DEFOURNEAUX, M., BARRIO, I.C., BOULANGER-LAPOINTE, N., SPEED, J.D.M. (2024) Long-term changes in herbivore community and vegetation impact of wild and domestic herbivores across Iceland. AMBIO 53(8): 1124–1135 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-01998-6
BOULANGER-LAPOINTE, N., ÁGÚSTSDÓTTIR, K., BARRIO, I.C., DEFOURNEAUX, M., FINNSDÓTTIR, R., JÓNSDÓTTIR, I.S., MARTEINSDÓTTIR, B., MITCHELL, C., MÖLLER, M., NIELSEN, Ó.K., SIGFÚSSON, A.Þ., ÞÓRISSON, S.Þ., HUETTMANN, F. (2022) Herbivore species coexistence in changing rangeland ecosystems: first high resolution national open-source and open-access ensemble models for Iceland. Science of the Total Environment 845:157140 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157140
SOININEN, E.M., BARRIO, I.C., BJØRKÅS, R., BJÖRNSDÓTTIR, K., EHRICH, D., HOPPING, K.A., KAARLEJÄRVI, E., KOLSTAD, A.L., ABDULMANOVA, S., BJÖRK, R.G., BUENO, C.G., EISCHEID, I.,, FINGER-HIGGENS, R., FORBEY, J.S., GIGNAC, C., GILG, O., DEN HERDER, M., HOLM, H.S., HWANG, B.C., JEPSEN, J.U., KAMENOVA, S., KATER, I., KOLTZ, A.M.,, KRISTENSEN, J.A., LITTLE, C.J., MACEK, P., MATHISEN, K.M., METCALFE, D.B., MOSBACHER, J.B., MÖRSDORF, M., PARK, T., PROPSTER, J.R., ROBERTS, A.J., SERRANO, E., SPIEGEL, M.P., TAMAYO, M., TUOMI, M.W., VERMA, M., VUORINEN, K.E.M., VÄISÄNEN, M., VAN DER WAL, R., WILCOTS, M.E., YOCCOZ, N.G., SPEED, J. D. (2021) Location of studies and evidence of effects of herbivory on Arctic vegetation: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence 10:25 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-021-00240-0