Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway
Europe’s and the World’s northernmost agriculture is very vulnerable to harsh overwintering conditions. It is important from both an economic and societal standpoint to have accurate methods of predicting the severity and impact of the current snow season. Technology has advanced to enable such meas...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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2015
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 https://doaj.org/article/6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 2023-09-05T13:17:11+02:00 Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway Jarle W Bjerke Hans Tømmervik Matthias Zielke Marit Jørgensen 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 https://doaj.org/article/6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 9, p 095007 (2015) climate change crop yield ice NDVI plant mortality snow dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 2023-08-13T00:37:54Z Europe’s and the World’s northernmost agriculture is very vulnerable to harsh overwintering conditions. It is important from both an economic and societal standpoint to have accurate methods of predicting the severity and impact of the current snow season. Technology has advanced to enable such measurements to be regularly recorded but despite this, a detailed assessment, involving remote sensing , of the impacts of various types of snow season on agricultural yields in northernmost Europe has not previously been undertaken. Here we characterize variation in snow types and concomitant soil frost and ground-ice accumulation at a Norwegian sub-Arctic, maritime-buffered site (Tromsø, Troms County, 69 °N) during the period 1989/90 to 2013/14 and analyse how winter conditions affect agricultural productivity (both measured in the field and using remote sensing). These data were then used to build important predictive modelling approaches. In total, five contrasting types of snow season were identified, from snow-rich with no soil frost and no ground-ice to low snow and considerable soil frost and ground-ice. Conditions of low snow and low soil frost and ground-ice that result from numerous warming events were rare within the time period studied but are predicted to become the dominant snow season type. Agricultural productivity was lowest and claim settlements paid to farmers were highest after winters with high accumulation of plant-damaging, hermetic ground-ice. Deep soil frost per se did not affect primary productivity. Overall, our results together with information from other sources, suggest that icy, low snow conditions are the most challenging of all seasonal types for both the environment and livelihoods in sub-Arctic Norway. Winters with extremely deep snow also cause considerable problems. As winters are expected to warm more than summers, it is likely that the winter climate will become an even stronger regulator of northern primary productivity. To better understand the physical and biological effects of ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Tromsø Troms Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Norway Tromsø Environmental Research Letters 10 9 095007 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change crop yield ice NDVI plant mortality snow dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate change crop yield ice NDVI plant mortality snow dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Jarle W Bjerke Hans Tømmervik Matthias Zielke Marit Jørgensen Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
topic_facet |
climate change crop yield ice NDVI plant mortality snow dynamics Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Europe’s and the World’s northernmost agriculture is very vulnerable to harsh overwintering conditions. It is important from both an economic and societal standpoint to have accurate methods of predicting the severity and impact of the current snow season. Technology has advanced to enable such measurements to be regularly recorded but despite this, a detailed assessment, involving remote sensing , of the impacts of various types of snow season on agricultural yields in northernmost Europe has not previously been undertaken. Here we characterize variation in snow types and concomitant soil frost and ground-ice accumulation at a Norwegian sub-Arctic, maritime-buffered site (Tromsø, Troms County, 69 °N) during the period 1989/90 to 2013/14 and analyse how winter conditions affect agricultural productivity (both measured in the field and using remote sensing). These data were then used to build important predictive modelling approaches. In total, five contrasting types of snow season were identified, from snow-rich with no soil frost and no ground-ice to low snow and considerable soil frost and ground-ice. Conditions of low snow and low soil frost and ground-ice that result from numerous warming events were rare within the time period studied but are predicted to become the dominant snow season type. Agricultural productivity was lowest and claim settlements paid to farmers were highest after winters with high accumulation of plant-damaging, hermetic ground-ice. Deep soil frost per se did not affect primary productivity. Overall, our results together with information from other sources, suggest that icy, low snow conditions are the most challenging of all seasonal types for both the environment and livelihoods in sub-Arctic Norway. Winters with extremely deep snow also cause considerable problems. As winters are expected to warm more than summers, it is likely that the winter climate will become an even stronger regulator of northern primary productivity. To better understand the physical and biological effects of ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jarle W Bjerke Hans Tømmervik Matthias Zielke Marit Jørgensen |
author_facet |
Jarle W Bjerke Hans Tømmervik Matthias Zielke Marit Jørgensen |
author_sort |
Jarle W Bjerke |
title |
Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
title_short |
Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
title_full |
Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
title_fullStr |
Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-Arctic Norway |
title_sort |
impacts of snow season on ground-ice accumulation, soil frost and primary productivity in a grassland of sub-arctic norway |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 https://doaj.org/article/6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway Tromsø |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway Tromsø |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tromsø Troms |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tromsø Troms |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 9, p 095007 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/6af0a7a96dc241dfb9e6a6d4fb1961f4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/095007 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
095007 |
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1776198459785740288 |