Long-term trends in abundance and phenology using eDNA analyses of airborne bryophyte spores

Project: Research

Project Details

Description

Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) is a diverse plant group with important roles in ecosystem functioning, not the least in cold environments. Because bryophytes are physiologically strongly dependent on climatic conditions, they could serve as indicators of ongoing climate changes. Bryophyte spores are generally dispersed by wind, forming a spore cloud that differs in composition throughout the year because of different spore release periods among species. The spores have few traits that allow identification when air-borne, which means that spore dispersal phenology has thus far relied on observation of sporophyte maturation in situ, which is highly labor-intensive. To detect radioactive downfall, the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) since 1965 continuously filter large quantities of air onto glass fibre filters, replaced weekly at 6 stations across the country. It has proved possible to retrieve and identify airborne particles from these permanently stored filters using eDNA techniques. We have studied multi-decadal shifts in the phenology of bryophyte spore dispersal in 16 bryophyte species or groups of species, using a globally unique 35-year time-series of eDNA (environmental DNA) data collected in Kiruna, northern Sweden. We found consistent shifts in bryophyte phenology, such that most bryophyte taxa advanced their (i) start of season several weeks, and (ii) mid-peak season even more. Concomitantly, seasons during which spores were observed became several weeks longer over the time period for most taxa. Changes at the season end were far less pronounced across the 16 bryophyte taxa. We conclude that the phenological shifts suggest strong ongoing perturbations in bryophyte communities, most likely driven by climate change. Our results also demonstrate that studying airborne particles using eDNA methodology is a valuable complement to other monitoring methods, not the least in bryophytes and other less well-monitored taxa.

This project is financed by the Strategic Research Area BECC.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date2020/11/012022/09/01

Collaborative partners

UKÄ subject classification

  • Botany
  • Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
  • Ecology

Free keywords

  • bryophyte
  • eDNA
  • spore dispersal
  • phenology
  • climate change