The Annual Meeting of BES took place this year in Liverpool, bringing together over 1000 ecologists from UK and beyond. Out team was represented by three members: Maarja Öpik gave a talk about AM fungal species pools and dark diversity, Martti Vasar presented poster about AM fungal bioinformatics and Siim-Kaarel Sepp presented posted about AM fungal diversity patterns in different Estonian land use types.

Changes in soil properties and processes are key drivers behind shrub expansion in alpine and arctic tundra. However, apparently shrubs themselves do not change the soil conditions in the favorable direction, suggesting a role of other, yet unidentified, players. We tested whether moss cover interacting with shrubs can be the key player modulating the soil properties and processes. In an alpine area (Southwest Yukon, Canada), we manipulated experimentally the moss cover (removed or intact) under two main expanding shrub species in North America: Salix pulchra and Betula nana-gladulosa . We found effects of moss cover and shrub species alone, or differential effect of moss cover depending on shrub species on key soil properties and processes. We suggest that moss cover needs to be considered when predicting soil and tundra vegetation trends under the current and future environmental changes.

Bueno, C.G.; Williamson, S.N.; Barrio, I.C.; Helgadóttir, Á. & Hik, D.S. 2016. Moss mediates the influence of shrub species on soil properties and processes in alpine tundra. PloS One 11: e0164143.