Research Letters in Ecology
Volume 2009 (2009), Article ID 474627, 4 pages
doi:10.1155/2009/474627
Research Letter

Do Nitrogen Concentration and Forage Quality of the Moss Racomitrium lanuginosum Increase with Latitude?

J. D. M. Speed,1,2 R. van der Wal,3 and S. J. Woodin1

1Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3TZ, UK
2Department of Arctic Biology, The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), P. O. Box 156, 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
3Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen & Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK

Received 13 January 2009; Accepted 20 April 2009

Academic Editor: Madhur Anand

Copyright © 2009 J. D. M. Speed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Mosses are an important component of high latitude ecosystems, contributing the majority of the plant biomass in many communities. In Arctic regions mosses also form a substantial part of the diet of many herbivore species. This may reflect either the availability of moss or its quality as forage. Here we test whether the nitrogen concentration and forage quality of the moss Racomitrium lanuginosum increase with latitude and discuss the findings with reference to herbivore utilisation of moss in the Arctic. In contrast to vascular plants, moss nitrogen concentration significantly decreased with latitude (P<.01), in line with estimates of N deposition at the sampling sites. In addition, no evidence of an increase in nutritional quality of moss with latitude was observed; thus, this study suggests that the utilisation of moss by herbivores in arctic ecosystems maybe a function of their relatively high biomass rather than their quality as forage.