Arctic greening
As Arctic summer temperatures warm, plants are responding. Snow is melting earlier and plants are coming into leaf sooner in spring. Tundra vegetation is spreading into new areas and where plants were already growing, they are now growing taller.
Understanding how data captured from the air compare with observations made on the ground will help to build the clearest picture yet of how the northern regions of Europe, Asia and North America are changing as the temperature rises.
Global team
Now a team of 40 scientists from 36 institutions, led by two National Geographic Explorers, have revealed that the causes of this greening process are more complex – and variable – than was previously thought.
Researchers from Europe and North America are finding that the Arctic greening observed from space is caused by more than just the responses of tundra plants to warming on the ground. Satellites are also capturing other changes including differences in the timing of snowmelt and the wetness of landscapes.
"New technologies including sensors on drones, planes and satellites, are enabling scientists to track emerging patterns of greening found within satellite pixels that cover the size of football fields." Dr Isla Myers-Smith, Lead author, University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences
Vital research
Professor Scott Goetz of the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University, says this research is vital for our understanding of global climate change. Tundra plants act as a barrier between the warming atmosphere and huge stocks of carbon stored in frozen ground.
Changes in vegetation alter the balance between the amount of carbon captured and its release into the atmosphere. Small variations could significantly impact efforts to keep warming below 1.5 degrees centigrade – a key target of the Paris Agreement. The study will help scientists to figure out which factors will speed up or slow down warming.
"Besides collecting new imagery, advances in how we process and analyse these data - even imagery that is decades old - are revolutionising how we understand the past, present, and future of the Arctic." Dr Jeffrey Kerby, Co-lead author, a Neukom Fellow at Dartmouth College
"We look forward to the impact that this work will have on our collective understanding of the Arctic for generations to come." Alex MoenVice President of Explorer Programs, National Geographic Society
The paper, published in Nature Climate Change, was funded in part by the National Geographic Society and government agencies in the UK, North America and Europe, including NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) and the UK's Natural Environment Research Council.
The research was also supported by the Synthesis Centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and was informed by a U.S. National Academy of Sciences workshop, Understanding Northern Latitude Vegetation Greening and Browning.
This is a press release from the University of Edinburgh!
Further Information
Original publication: Complexity revealed in the greening of the Arctic. DOI 10.1038/s41558-019-0688-1
Scientist from Greifswald involved in the project: Prof. Dr. Martin Wilmking
To the media photos
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Martin Wilmking
Working Group Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics (LEED)
Institut für Botanik und Landschaftsökologie
Soldmannstraße 15, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 4095
wilmkinguni-greifswaldde
Twitter: @Leed_Greifswald
www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Wilmking