Soil microbial and microfaunal communities and organic matter quality in reindeer winter and summer ranges in Finnish subarctic mountain birch forests

Abstract Reindeer husbandry has significant influences on the aboveground plant communities and the structure of the mountain birch forests in the Fennoscandian subarctic. We investigated how the reindeer-mediated aboveground changes affect soil microbial and microfaunal communities and enzymatic activities. We hypothesized that in areas with intensive summer browsing by reindeer, the carbon flow to belowground is reduced, but the carbon substances are more readily degradable. This is likely to influence both the abundance and the trophic structure of microbial and microfaunal communities. However, despite large differences in the vegetation, the reindeer ranges did not differ in the amount…