Sea-ice induced growth decline in Arctic shrubs

• Published in: Biology Letters
• Main Author: Forchhammer, Mads
• Other Authors: Danish Council for Independent Research, Natural Sciences., The University Centre in Svalbard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2017
• Subjects: Betula nana; Greenland; Sea ice; Svalbard; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0122; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0122; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0122

Measures of increased tundra plant productivity have been associated with the accelerating retreat of the Arctic sea-ice. Emerging studies document opposite effects, advocating for a more complex relationship between the shrinking sea-ice and terrestrial plant productivity. I introduce an autoregressive plant growth model integrating effects of biological and climatic conditions for analysing individual ring-width growth time series. Using 128 specimens of Salix arctica , S. glauca and Betula nana sampled across Greenland to Svalbard, an overall negative effect of the retreating June sea-ice extent was found on the annual growth. The negative effect of the retreating June sea-ice was observed for younger individuals with large annual growth allocations and with little or no trade-off between previous and current year's growth.