Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape
Prediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 https://doaj.org/article/3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 2023-09-05T13:16:45+02:00 Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 https://doaj.org/article/3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 14, Iss 7, p 074027 (2019) abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 2023-08-13T00:37:22Z Prediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic have driven rapid environmental response, raising questions of how terrestrial and freshwater systems in this region may shift in response to abrupt climate change. We quantified environmental responses to recent abrupt climate change in West Greenland using long-term monitoring and paleoecological reconstructions. Using >40 years of weather data, we found that after 1994, mean June air temperatures shifted 2.2 °C higher and mean winter precipitation doubled from 21 to 40 mm; since 2006, mean July air temperatures shifted 1.1 °C higher. Nonlinear environmental responses occurred with or shortly after these abrupt climate shifts, including increasing ice sheet discharge, increasing dust, advancing plant phenology, and in lakes, earlier ice out and greater diversity of algal functional traits. Our analyses reveal rapid environmental responses to nonlinear climate shifts, underscoring the highly responsive nature of Arctic ecosystems to abrupt transitions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Greenland Ice Sheet Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Greenland Environmental Research Letters 14 7 074027 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
topic_facet |
abrupt climate change Arctic nonlinear ecosystems Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Prediction of high latitude response to climate change is hampered by poor understanding of the role of nonlinear changes in ecosystem forcing and response. While the effects of nonlinear climate change are often delayed or dampened by internal ecosystem dynamics, recent warming events in the Arctic have driven rapid environmental response, raising questions of how terrestrial and freshwater systems in this region may shift in response to abrupt climate change. We quantified environmental responses to recent abrupt climate change in West Greenland using long-term monitoring and paleoecological reconstructions. Using >40 years of weather data, we found that after 1994, mean June air temperatures shifted 2.2 °C higher and mean winter precipitation doubled from 21 to 40 mm; since 2006, mean July air temperatures shifted 1.1 °C higher. Nonlinear environmental responses occurred with or shortly after these abrupt climate shifts, including increasing ice sheet discharge, increasing dust, advancing plant phenology, and in lakes, earlier ice out and greater diversity of algal functional traits. Our analyses reveal rapid environmental responses to nonlinear climate shifts, underscoring the highly responsive nature of Arctic ecosystems to abrupt transitions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post |
author_facet |
Jasmine E Saros Nicholas John Anderson Stephen Juggins Suzanne McGowan Jacob C Yde Jon Telling Joanna E Bullard Marian L Yallop Adam J Heathcote Benjamin T Burpee Rachel A Fowler Christopher D Barry Robert M Northington Christopher L Osburn Sergi Pla-Rabes Sebastian H Mernild Erika J Whiteford M Grace Andrews Jeffrey T Kerby Eric Post |
author_sort |
Jasmine E Saros |
title |
Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
title_short |
Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
title_full |
Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
title_fullStr |
Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the West Greenland landscape |
title_sort |
arctic climate shifts drive rapid ecosystem responses across the west greenland landscape |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 https://doaj.org/article/3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 14, Iss 7, p 074027 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/3016bbfa76dc4c73ad2efc04e7dec489 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2928 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
074027 |
_version_ |
1776198224426565632 |