Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming
Climate warming in northern high latitudes has progressed twice as fast as the global average, leading to prominent but puzzling changes in vegetation structure and functioning of tundra and boreal ecosystems. While some regions are becoming greener, others have lost or shifted vegetation condition...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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IOP Publishing
2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 https://doaj.org/article/33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 2023-09-05T13:17:13+02:00 Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming Jing Li Milena Holmgren Chi Xu 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 https://doaj.org/article/33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 16, Iss 10, p 104004 (2021) Arctic climate change ecological transition permafrost sub-Arctic vegetation dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 2023-08-13T00:37:05Z Climate warming in northern high latitudes has progressed twice as fast as the global average, leading to prominent but puzzling changes in vegetation structure and functioning of tundra and boreal ecosystems. While some regions are becoming greener, others have lost or shifted vegetation condition as indicated by a browning signal. The mechanisms underlying this ‘greening or browning enigma’ remain poorly understood. Here we use multi-sourced time-series of satellite-derived vegetation indices to reveal that spectral greening is associated with reductions in surface water cover (i.e. fraction of surface water bodies), whereas spectral browning is linked to increases in surface water cover. These patterns are consistently observed from both 30 m resolution Landsat data and 250 m resolution MODIS data on the basis of grid cells sized of 1, 2 and 4 km. Our study provides, to our knowledge, the first biome-scale demonstration that interactions between vegetation condition and water cover change can explain the contrasting trajectories of ecosystem dynamics across the northern high latitudes in response to climate warming. These divergent trajectories we identified have major implications for ecosystem functioning, carbon sequestration and feedbacks to the climate system. Further unraveling the interaction between vegetation and surface water will be essential if we are to understand the fate of tundra and boreal biomes in a warming climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change permafrost Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Browning ENVELOPE(164.050,164.050,-74.617,-74.617) Environmental Research Letters 16 10 104004 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic climate change ecological transition permafrost sub-Arctic vegetation dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic climate change ecological transition permafrost sub-Arctic vegetation dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Jing Li Milena Holmgren Chi Xu Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
topic_facet |
Arctic climate change ecological transition permafrost sub-Arctic vegetation dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Climate warming in northern high latitudes has progressed twice as fast as the global average, leading to prominent but puzzling changes in vegetation structure and functioning of tundra and boreal ecosystems. While some regions are becoming greener, others have lost or shifted vegetation condition as indicated by a browning signal. The mechanisms underlying this ‘greening or browning enigma’ remain poorly understood. Here we use multi-sourced time-series of satellite-derived vegetation indices to reveal that spectral greening is associated with reductions in surface water cover (i.e. fraction of surface water bodies), whereas spectral browning is linked to increases in surface water cover. These patterns are consistently observed from both 30 m resolution Landsat data and 250 m resolution MODIS data on the basis of grid cells sized of 1, 2 and 4 km. Our study provides, to our knowledge, the first biome-scale demonstration that interactions between vegetation condition and water cover change can explain the contrasting trajectories of ecosystem dynamics across the northern high latitudes in response to climate warming. These divergent trajectories we identified have major implications for ecosystem functioning, carbon sequestration and feedbacks to the climate system. Further unraveling the interaction between vegetation and surface water will be essential if we are to understand the fate of tundra and boreal biomes in a warming climate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jing Li Milena Holmgren Chi Xu |
author_facet |
Jing Li Milena Holmgren Chi Xu |
author_sort |
Jing Li |
title |
Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
title_short |
Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
title_full |
Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
title_fullStr |
Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
Greening vs browning? Surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
title_sort |
greening vs browning? surface water cover mediates how tundra and boreal ecosystems respond to climate warming |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 https://doaj.org/article/33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(164.050,164.050,-74.617,-74.617) |
geographic |
Arctic Browning |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Browning |
genre |
Arctic Climate change permafrost Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change permafrost Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 16, Iss 10, p 104004 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/33f2d5dec0e845d9b7de6ca4a80a2ae2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2376 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
104004 |
_version_ |
1776198477483606016 |