Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra
The Arctic is undergoing dramatic environmental change with rapidly rising surface temperatures, accelerating sea ice decline and changing snow regimes, all of which influence tundra plant phenology. Despite these changes, no globally consistent direction of trends in spring phenology has been repor...
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ftuniaarhuspubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/e17c88b7-73e8-474f-a356-f5ec83a405f4 2023-05-15T14:26:02+02:00 Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra Assmann, Jakob Johann Myers-Smith, Isla Phillimore, Albert B. Björkman, Anne D. Ennos, Richard E. Prevéy, Janet Henry, Greg H. R. Schmidt, Niels Martin Hollister, Robert D. 2019 https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/local-snowmelt-and-temperature--but-not-regional-seaice--explain-variation-in-spring-phenology-in-coastal-arctic-tundra(e17c88b7-73e8-474f-a356-f5ec83a405f4).html eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Assmann , J J , Myers-Smith , I , Phillimore , A B , Björkman , A D , Ennos , R E , Prevéy , J , Henry , G H R , Schmidt , N M & Hollister , R D 2019 , ' Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra ' , Global Change Biology , vol. 25 , no. 7 , pp. 2258 . Arctic tundra climate change phenology sea ice snow melt spring temperature vegetation article 2019 ftuniaarhuspubl 2021-01-06T23:44:57Z The Arctic is undergoing dramatic environmental change with rapidly rising surface temperatures, accelerating sea ice decline and changing snow regimes, all of which influence tundra plant phenology. Despite these changes, no globally consistent direction of trends in spring phenology has been reported across the Arctic. While spring has advanced at some sites, spring has delayed or not changed at other sites, highlighting substantial unexplained variation. Here, we test the relative importance of local temperatures, local snow melt date and regional spring drop in sea ice extent as controls of variation in spring phenology across different sites and species. Trends in long‐term time series of spring leaf‐out and flowering (average span: 18 years) were highly variable for the 14 tundra species monitored at our four study sites on the Arctic coasts of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, ranging from advances of 10.06 days per decade to delays of 1.67 days per decade. Spring temperatures and the day of spring drop in sea ice extent advanced at all sites (average 1°C per decade and 21 days per decade, respectively), but only those sites with advances in snow melt (average 5 days advance per decade) also had advancing phenology. Variation in spring plant phenology was best explained by snow melt date (mean effect: 0.45 days advance in phenology per day advance snow melt) and, to a lesser extent, by mean spring temperature (mean effect: 2.39 days advance in phenology per °C). In contrast to previous studies examining sea ice and phenology at different spatial scales, regional spring drop in sea ice extent did not predict spring phenology for any species or site in our analysis. Our findings highlight that tundra vegetation responses to global change are more complex than a direct response to warming and emphasize the importance of snow melt as a local driver of tundra spring phenology. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Greenland Sea ice Tundra Alaska Aarhus University: Research Arctic Canada Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Aarhus University: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftuniaarhuspubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic tundra climate change phenology sea ice snow melt spring temperature vegetation |
spellingShingle |
Arctic tundra climate change phenology sea ice snow melt spring temperature vegetation Assmann, Jakob Johann Myers-Smith, Isla Phillimore, Albert B. Björkman, Anne D. Ennos, Richard E. Prevéy, Janet Henry, Greg H. R. Schmidt, Niels Martin Hollister, Robert D. Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
topic_facet |
Arctic tundra climate change phenology sea ice snow melt spring temperature vegetation |
description |
The Arctic is undergoing dramatic environmental change with rapidly rising surface temperatures, accelerating sea ice decline and changing snow regimes, all of which influence tundra plant phenology. Despite these changes, no globally consistent direction of trends in spring phenology has been reported across the Arctic. While spring has advanced at some sites, spring has delayed or not changed at other sites, highlighting substantial unexplained variation. Here, we test the relative importance of local temperatures, local snow melt date and regional spring drop in sea ice extent as controls of variation in spring phenology across different sites and species. Trends in long‐term time series of spring leaf‐out and flowering (average span: 18 years) were highly variable for the 14 tundra species monitored at our four study sites on the Arctic coasts of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, ranging from advances of 10.06 days per decade to delays of 1.67 days per decade. Spring temperatures and the day of spring drop in sea ice extent advanced at all sites (average 1°C per decade and 21 days per decade, respectively), but only those sites with advances in snow melt (average 5 days advance per decade) also had advancing phenology. Variation in spring plant phenology was best explained by snow melt date (mean effect: 0.45 days advance in phenology per day advance snow melt) and, to a lesser extent, by mean spring temperature (mean effect: 2.39 days advance in phenology per °C). In contrast to previous studies examining sea ice and phenology at different spatial scales, regional spring drop in sea ice extent did not predict spring phenology for any species or site in our analysis. Our findings highlight that tundra vegetation responses to global change are more complex than a direct response to warming and emphasize the importance of snow melt as a local driver of tundra spring phenology. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Assmann, Jakob Johann Myers-Smith, Isla Phillimore, Albert B. Björkman, Anne D. Ennos, Richard E. Prevéy, Janet Henry, Greg H. R. Schmidt, Niels Martin Hollister, Robert D. |
author_facet |
Assmann, Jakob Johann Myers-Smith, Isla Phillimore, Albert B. Björkman, Anne D. Ennos, Richard E. Prevéy, Janet Henry, Greg H. R. Schmidt, Niels Martin Hollister, Robert D. |
author_sort |
Assmann, Jakob Johann |
title |
Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
title_short |
Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
title_full |
Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
title_fullStr |
Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
title_full_unstemmed |
Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra |
title_sort |
local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal arctic tundra |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/local-snowmelt-and-temperature--but-not-regional-seaice--explain-variation-in-spring-phenology-in-coastal-arctic-tundra(e17c88b7-73e8-474f-a356-f5ec83a405f4).html |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Greenland Sea ice Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Greenland Sea ice Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Assmann , J J , Myers-Smith , I , Phillimore , A B , Björkman , A D , Ennos , R E , Prevéy , J , Henry , G H R , Schmidt , N M & Hollister , R D 2019 , ' Local snowmelt and temperature – but not regional sea‐ice – explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra ' , Global Change Biology , vol. 25 , no. 7 , pp. 2258 . |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1766298525118758912 |