Some vegetation indication of climate warming as detected on the forest-tundra border in the continental Canadian Arctic (scientific paper)

• Main Author: Tetsuo Sweda
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Biological Resources and Environment, Nagoya University 1996
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research; Tundra
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2275; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002275/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2275&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

A pilot forest survey on the arctic/alpine timberline in northernmost continental Canada showed increasing forest biomass in the past 150 years. This increase in forest biomass growth resulted from an increase in stem density due to successively colonizing younger generations of white spruce (Picea glauca) rather than from growth enhancement in existing individual trees. Two tentative conclusions can be drawn from this result. 1) Considering the expanse of the circumpolar forest/tundra ecotone, increased forest growth in this region, if established globally, may account for a considerable part of the "missing sink of carbon dioxide". 2) Of the two possible effects of increasing carbon dioxide on vegetation, i.e., CO_2 fertilization and climate warming, the latter is showing itself more strongly than the former on the forest/tundra ecotone.