Special Project 1

SP1: Oil and gas, climate change and plant invaders in Arctic Ecosystems
- Invasibility of toxic fungi-infected forage grass species over climatic gradients.

Responsible Researchers: Kari Anne Bråthens (UiTø), Dawn Bazely (York, Canada)

Participants: Andrew Tanentzap (youth consultant), Victoria González (UiTø), Elena Shavrina (PSU – consultant)

All species have the capacity to expand, but problem plant invaders are those whose movements to new continents and regions are mediated by humans (Myers and Bazely 2003). Invasive and erupting species, both indigenous and introduced, can alter how systems function at the community and ecosystem level (Williamson, 1996; Walker and Smith, 1997; Gordon, 1998; Myers and Bazely, 2003), and have substantial social and economic impacts (Soule, 1990; Simberloff, 1996; Mooney and Hobbs, 2000; Pimentel et al., 2000; Perrings et al., 2000; Lounibos, 2002; Perrings et al., 2002; Meyerson and Reaser, 2002).  In a warming climate, some species that spread northwards will, undoubtedly, include a number that will significantly disrupt ecosystem functioning (Mooney and Hobbs 2000), thereby threatening human well-being.

Grasses are a key group of plants that contain most of the world’s major food (cereals) and forage (grasses) species. Many temperate and arctic grasses can be infected by microscopic fungal endophytes which render them toxic to herbivores and also make the grass host more drought and flood resistant, consequently making the grasses able to invade new habitats.  Although grass-fungal endophyte-herbivore interactions have been recognized as extremely important elsewhere (they cause huge productivity losses to the USA livestock industry), they are little studied in northern Europe in spite of their importance to moose, and reindeer. This is probably because they are not visible and have been difficult to detect. Large-scale surveys of fescue grasses in Sweden indicate that endophyte infection is widespread, particularly at warmer, lower elevations. Projected climate change will likely expand the conditions under which endophyte-infected grasses grazed by reindeer thrive.

Reindeer husbandry is an important industry to Sámi people in Northern Norway. Recent claims have been made on the industry becoming unsustainable (Moen and Danell 1999). Whereas such claims are based on effects of high reindeer numbers primarily on the inland part of Finnmark, there are potentially important negative effects from endophyte-infected grasses on reindeer in their summer pastures. For instance, strange reindeer deaths and unexplained loss of pasture land could be due to areas being invaded by endophyte-infected grasses. Climatically Finnmark has steep gradients from coast to inland and from west to east (Hanssen-Bauer 1999), probably affecting invasion of endophyte-infected grasses. Presence of endophyte-infected grasses along these gradients can be used as indicators of future climatic changes on plant invasibility.

The overall goals of this sub-project are:
To document the abundance and distribution of toxic endophytic fungi in important forage grass species, to vertebrate herbivores such as reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, throughout the climatic gradients of Finnmark. Such documentation is now easy to accomplish (Koh et al. 2006) and will enable us to assess the invasibility of endophyte-infected grasses for the projected climate change. Moreover, we want to detect the toxicity level of these endophytes by studying their alkaloid level. Because this sub-project has limited resources it has become a pioneer study. However, it will make the basis for a future proposal with more human-induced aspects on invasion of endophyte-infected grasses, e.g. in the potentially oil and gas threatened region of Hammerfest.

Field work for this study has already been conducted in Finnmark by Victoria Gonzalez, within the interdisciplinary project “Ecosystem Finnmark”. We will continue cooperation with “Ecosystem Finnmark”, a Norwegian Research Council project that is also based at the University of Tromsø.

Victoria Gonzalez has been chosen to conduct this particular project. From her Master Thesis Victoria Gonzalez is familiar with effects of reindeer husbandry management on aspects of pasture quality, making her competent within the research area that is part of the present project. Given that this is only a one-year project we believe Victoria to be an excellent candidate given her competence and insight to the actual study region and field of research. PhD funding for Victoria is currently being sought, through which she will be able to take the initial research obtained here, and address the invasion of endophyte-infected grasses connected to oil and gas, specific to the Hammerfest region.