Yesterday I had the pleasure of going on a field outing with researcher Maria Tuomi. We headed to the other side of the Saana mountain to the Saanajärvi area (or Saana Lake) where there was an experiment in progress to determine some of the possible effects of climate change on the area. We also visited an ongoing experiment testing the effects of nutrients in the soil and herbivory on plant community structure.
Maria
Maria and I hiked and talked for a long time about the various physical factors that affect the plant life in the area, for example temperature, water and sunlight. One dramatic feature visible in the landscape (once Maria pointed it out) was the quality of the soil. Some of the bedrock in the area of Saana contains Dolomite, and this quality makes the soil much more fertile (that means better at growing plants for those of you who, like me, aren't familiar with the terminology). Lines of greenery where Dolomite seeps down the side of mountains are visible right next to more barren areas.
Maria pointing out the lines of dolomite on the side of Saana mountain
The presence of competitors, aka neighboring vegetation, is also a major factor in what species survive and what do not, and in the case of the Arctic, a more simple ecosystem, there are not that many species among the plant community.
Maria adds: Every species in a plant community is a competitor against the other plants; they just differ in their strategies, i.e. for what nutrients, light, etc., they are good at competing for and what is the price they are paying for their competitiveness. What's important is that the arctic plants compete mainly for soil nutrients and not light because nutrients run out before light does. Competition for light would be usually the case in more productive environments – for example the Sherwood forest canopy. Those plants that are more successful in reaching light are often cut back by grazing reindeer.
The result of these different processes is a wonderful mosaic carpet throughout the area.
Some of the mosaic
There was a young siberian husky dog with us, and while she waited for Maria and I to finish our work, she demonstrated what I thought was the principle of competition by catching a Norwegian lemming, but Maria corrected my terms: competition is when 2 or more species use shared resources; predation is when someone gets eaten.
Maria and lemming