Soils are a key element of tundra ecosystems, limiting the survival, growth and reproduction of plants. Herbivores can have a large spatial and temporal effect on soils, through trampling, faeces deposition or biomass and litter removal by grazing, which can in turn alter ecosystem development, community composition and plant fitness. Despite their potential importance, the effects of herbivory on tundra soils are still largely unknown.
Therefore, two main activities have been planned for the Soil Working Group within the HN:
1) To review the effect of herbivores and herbivory on soils
2) To develop a soil protocol incorporating soil analyses and measurements that could be implemented as an add-on to the herbivory protocol. The pilot soil protocol can be downloaded here.
This initiative is led by Maria Väisänen, Maria Tuomi, Guillermo Bueno, Henni Ylänne and Francis Brearley. For more information, check out our poster presented at the Oikos Meeting for Ecologists and Evolutionary Biologists in Lund, Sweden in 2017.
Core members of the Soil Working Group
Maria Tuomi, University of Turku 
Francis Brearley, Manchester Metropolitan University 
Henni Ylänne, Lund University 
Maria Väisänen, University of Oulu and University of Lapland 
Guillermo Bueno, University of Tartu
Publications of the SWG
TUOMI, M., VÄISÄNEN, M., YLÄNNE, H., BREARLEY, F.Q., BARRIO, I.C., BRÅTHEN, K.A., EISCHEID, I., FORBES, B.C., JÓNSDÓTTIR, I.S., KOLSTAD, A.L., MACEK, P., PETIT BON, M., SPEED, J.D.M., STARK, S., SVAVARSDÓTTIR, K., THÓRSSON, J., BUENO, C.G. (2020) Stomping in silence: Conceptualizing trampling effects on soils in polar tundra. Functional Ecology 35(2):306-317 link to publisher
Conference and workshop presentations of the SWG
VÄISÄNEN, M. Stomping in silence: the overlooked role of trampling in shaping tundra ecosystems. Arctic Biodiversity Congress 2018, Rovaniemi, Finland. Oral presentation
BUENO, C.G., VÄISÄNEN, M., YLANNE, H., TUOMI, M., BREARLEY, F.Q. Soil Working Group HN, an update. Herbivory Network Meeting , 8 October 2018, Rovaniemi, Finland. Oral presentation
VÄISÄNEN, M. Herbivory Network Soil Working Group: A novel arena for circumpolar soil research. Biology Seminar Series, University of Oulu, 23 March 2017, Oulu, Finland. Oral presentation
VÄISÄNEN, M., TUOMI, M., BUENO, C.G., BREARLEY, F.Q. Herbivory Network Soil Working Group: a Novel Arena for Circumpolar Soil Research. Swedish Oikos Meeting, Lund, Sweden. 2017. Poster.
BUENO, C.G., VÄISÄNEN, M., TUOMI, M., BREARLEY, F.Q. Soil Working Group HN. Herbivory Network Meeting, 15-16 September 2016 Reykjavík, Iceland. Oral presentation