Disentangling the coupling between sea ice and tundra productivity in Svalbard

Abstract The rapid decline in Arctic sea ice poses urgent questions concerning its ecological effects, such as on tundra terrestrial productivity. However, reported sea ice/terrestrial productivity linkages have seldom been constrained, and the mechanism governing them remains elusive, with a divers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Marc Macias-Fauria, Stein Rune Karlsen, Bruce C. Forbes
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2017
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06218-8
https://doaj.org/article/0081ae6fe1e74828b054e7bd9329d5b3
Description
Summary:Abstract The rapid decline in Arctic sea ice poses urgent questions concerning its ecological effects, such as on tundra terrestrial productivity. However, reported sea ice/terrestrial productivity linkages have seldom been constrained, and the mechanism governing them remains elusive, with a diversity of spatial scales and metrics proposed, at times in contradiction to each other. In this study, we use spatially explicit remotely sensed sea ice concentration and high-resolution terrestrial productivity estimates (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI) across the Svalbard Archipelago to describe local/sub-regional and large-scale components of sea ice/terrestrial productivity coupling. Whereas the local/sub-regional component is attributed to sea breeze (cold air advection from ice-covered ocean onto adjacent land during the growing season), the large-scale component might reflect co-variability of sea ice and tundra productivity due to a common forcing, such as large-scale atmospheric circulation (North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO). Our study clarifies the range of mechanisms in sea ice/terrestrial productivity coupling, allowing the generation of testable hypotheses about its past, present, and future dynamics across the Arctic.