Comparison of methods for revegetation of vehicle tracks in High Arctic tundra on Svalbard

Natural regeneration after anthropogenic disturbance is slow in the tundra biome, but assisted can help speed up this process. A tracked off-road vehicle damaged a High Arctic dwarf shrub heath Svalbard May 2009, drastically reducing vegetation cover, soil seed banks, and incoming rain. We following year using six different revegetation treatments monitored their effects one month, eight years application. By 2018, all still had lower cover limited species composition than undamaged reference vegetation. The fertiliser treatment was most effective restoring (71% of which 62% were bryophytes 38% vascular plant species). Compared to plots (98% 32% 66% species), disturbed far from regenerated its original state nine tracks made. regrowth demonstrated study underlines importance avoiding fragile implementing upholding regulations that restrict or ban such disturbances.