Spatial and temporal patterns of greenness on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia: interactions of ecological and social factors affecting the Arctic normalized difference vegetation index ...

• Main Authors: Moskalenko, N. G., Bhatt, U. S., Jia, G. J., Matyshak, G., Forbes, B. C., Comiso, J. C., Romanovsky, V. E., Khomutov, A. V., Leibman, M. O., Epstein, H. E., Ukraientseva, N. G., Yu, Q., Gubarkov, A. A., Orekhov, P., Raynolds, M. K., Walker, D. A., Kumpula, T., Kuss, Patrick, Kaarlejarvi, E., Kaplan, Jed
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 2009
• Subjects: 580 Plants Botany; Arctic; Yamal Peninsula; Climate change; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.53775; http://boris.unibe.ch/53775/

The causes of a greening trend detected in the Arctic using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are still poorly understood. Changes in NDVI are a result of multiple ecological and social factors that affect tundra net primary productivity. Here we use a 25 year time series of AVHRR-derived NDVI data (AVHRR: advanced very high resolution radiometer), climate analysis, a global geographic information database and ground-based studies to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation greenness on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. We assess the effects of climate change, gas-field development, reindeer grazing and permafrost degradation. In contrast to the case for Arctic North America, there has not been a significant trend in summer temperature or NDVI, and much of the pattern of NDVI in this region is due to disturbances. There has been a 37% change in early-summer coastal sea-ice concentration, a 4% increase in summer land temperatures and a 7% change in the average time-integrated NDVI ...