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Decades of Reindeer Exclusion Raised Lichen Biomass 4.5-fold and Changed Soil Carbon

Reindeer grazing in low vegetation in Finnish Lapland
Research · Ecology

More than five decades without grazing by semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) transformed vegetation, soil microclimate and organic carbon in dry pine forests in northern Finland, according to a study published on 18 August 2026. Researchers compared long-term reindeer exclosures with neighbouring grazed plots at Kätkäsuvanto, Angeli and Raja-Jooseppi.

Exclusion transformed vegetation and soil microclimate

Lichen biomass inside the exclosures was 4.5 times higher, while dwarf-shrub biomass was almost twice as high as in grazed areas. The denser vegetation was associated with 33% higher soil moisture and summer soil temperatures that were 0.8 °C lower at 10 cm depth.

More carbon was stored, but it was less processed

The organic soil layer contained an average of 28% more carbon inside the exclosures, although uncertainty around this total difference was greater than for several of the measured changes in carbon composition. O-alkyl carbon—a carbohydrate-rich fraction typical of less decomposed organic matter—was 9.5% higher inside the exclosures, while several more processed carbon fractions were lower than in grazed soils.

The authors interpret the carbon composition as a younger and more readily decomposable pool of organic matter in the ungrazed plots. They conclude that long-term reindeer exclusion increased carbon inputs through greater plant biomass and changed the soil microclimate, altering both the amount and chemical composition of carbon stored in the forest floor. Because the study concerns managed, semi-domesticated reindeer, the authors caution that ecosystem effects may differ from those of wild reindeer populations.

Sources and image credit

  1. Pijcke, F., Seitz, J., Stark, S., Alriksson, A., Metcalfe, D. B., Rautio, P., Sparrman, T., Virtanen, R., & Olofsson, J. (2026). Long-Term Reindeer Exclusion Leads to Higher Carbon Storage and Less Recalcitrant Carbon Compounds in Boreal Forest Soils. Ecosystems, 29, 76.Open-access peer-reviewed primary study published 18 August 2026. Three dry Scots pine forests in northern Finland with reindeer excluded for more than 50 years were compared with adjacent grazed plots; exclosures had 4.5 times more lichen biomass, nearly twice the dwarf-shrub biomass, moister and cooler soils, and altered soil organic-carbon quantity and composition.

Image: Reindeer south of Kilpisjärvi in Finnish Lapland, 6 September 2007. Photo: BishkekRocks / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Representative Finnish grazing image; not animals or a site from the exclusion experiment. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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