Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average. However, climate change is proceeding at different pace between seasons and the warming has been most prominent in winter. For most of the year, majority of the arctic organisms are covered by insulating snowpack. Snow protects...
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2020
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/318436 2023-08-20T04:03:26+02:00 Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change Arktinen kasvillisuus, lumi ja muuttuva ilmasto Niittynen, Pekka Phoenix, Gareth University of Helsinki, Faculty of Science, Geotieteiden ja maantieteen osasto Doctoral Programme in Geosciences Helsingin yliopisto, matemaattis-luonnontieteellinen tiedekunta Geotieteiden tohtoriohjelma Helsingfors universitet, matematisk-naturvetenskapliga fakulteten Doktorandprogrammet i geovetenskap Luoto, Miska 2020-08-20T10:58:31Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10138/318436 eng eng Helsingin yliopisto Helsingfors universitet University of Helsinki URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4939-8 Turku: Painosalama, 2020, Department of Geosciences and Geography A. 1798-7911 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/318436 URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4940-4 Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited. Publikationen är skyddad av upphovsrätten. Den får läsas och skrivas ut för personligt bruk. Användning i kommersiellt syfte är förbjuden. maantiede Text Doctoral dissertation (article-based) Artikkeliväitöskirja Artikelavhandling doctoralThesis 2020 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-07-28T06:30:33Z The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average. However, climate change is proceeding at different pace between seasons and the warming has been most prominent in winter. For most of the year, majority of the arctic organisms are covered by insulating snowpack. Snow protects arctic plants, bryophytes and lichens from weather events in the free atmosphere and may provide relatively warm and stable overwintering conditions. The importance of snow has been widely acknowledged, but snow information is rather rarely utilized in climate change impact models that predict the future state of the arctic vegetation. This is largely due to missing wintertime datasets and harsh winter conditions that limit field work efforts in the Arctic. Therefore, there has remained a largely unanswered question: what is the role of snow conditions in spatial redistribution of arctic species and vegetation under rapidly warming climate? In this thesis, I address these gaps in knowledge and methodology. I utilise extensive plot-scale vegetation datasets and link these data to detailed microclimatic measurements covering both summer and winter conditions and to satellite-born snow information at fine spatial scales. I use a suite of statistical modelling methods to explore the snow-vegetation relationships in species pools consisting several hundreds of arctic, alpine and boreal vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species in northern Fennoscandia, Svalbard and western Greenland. These models are further used to predict patterns in species distributions, community and functional trait compositions and biodiversity in space and time, to test the sensitivity of these vegetation properties to concurrent and separate changes in snow conditions and temperatures. I found that snow and winter conditions have a fundamental role in arctic ecosystems by mediating the effects of climate change at local and regional scales. Snow information improves the accuracy of the models of arctic vegetation and reveals possible future ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Greenland Svalbard Helsingfors Universitet: HELDA – Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Arctic Svalbard Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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Helsingfors Universitet: HELDA – Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
maantiede |
spellingShingle |
maantiede Niittynen, Pekka Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
topic_facet |
maantiede |
description |
The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average. However, climate change is proceeding at different pace between seasons and the warming has been most prominent in winter. For most of the year, majority of the arctic organisms are covered by insulating snowpack. Snow protects arctic plants, bryophytes and lichens from weather events in the free atmosphere and may provide relatively warm and stable overwintering conditions. The importance of snow has been widely acknowledged, but snow information is rather rarely utilized in climate change impact models that predict the future state of the arctic vegetation. This is largely due to missing wintertime datasets and harsh winter conditions that limit field work efforts in the Arctic. Therefore, there has remained a largely unanswered question: what is the role of snow conditions in spatial redistribution of arctic species and vegetation under rapidly warming climate? In this thesis, I address these gaps in knowledge and methodology. I utilise extensive plot-scale vegetation datasets and link these data to detailed microclimatic measurements covering both summer and winter conditions and to satellite-born snow information at fine spatial scales. I use a suite of statistical modelling methods to explore the snow-vegetation relationships in species pools consisting several hundreds of arctic, alpine and boreal vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species in northern Fennoscandia, Svalbard and western Greenland. These models are further used to predict patterns in species distributions, community and functional trait compositions and biodiversity in space and time, to test the sensitivity of these vegetation properties to concurrent and separate changes in snow conditions and temperatures. I found that snow and winter conditions have a fundamental role in arctic ecosystems by mediating the effects of climate change at local and regional scales. Snow information improves the accuracy of the models of arctic vegetation and reveals possible future ... |
author2 |
Phoenix, Gareth University of Helsinki, Faculty of Science, Geotieteiden ja maantieteen osasto Doctoral Programme in Geosciences Helsingin yliopisto, matemaattis-luonnontieteellinen tiedekunta Geotieteiden tohtoriohjelma Helsingfors universitet, matematisk-naturvetenskapliga fakulteten Doktorandprogrammet i geovetenskap Luoto, Miska |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Niittynen, Pekka |
author_facet |
Niittynen, Pekka |
author_sort |
Niittynen, Pekka |
title |
Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
title_short |
Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
title_full |
Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
title_fullStr |
Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
title_sort |
arctic vegetation, snow and the global change |
publisher |
Helsingin yliopisto |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/318436 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Greenland Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Fennoscandia Greenland Svalbard |
op_relation |
URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4939-8 Turku: Painosalama, 2020, Department of Geosciences and Geography A. 1798-7911 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/318436 URN:ISBN:978-951-51-4940-4 |
op_rights |
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited. Publikationen är skyddad av upphovsrätten. Den får läsas och skrivas ut för personligt bruk. Användning i kommersiellt syfte är förbjuden. |
_version_ |
1774713791789924352 |