The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic
Rapid climate change is driving increases in tundra vegetation productivity and altering the frequency and severity of natural disturbances across the Arctic. While tundra vegetation change has been widespread, there is still uncertainty about the influence of fine-scale factors on change and the ro...
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ftuvicpubl:oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/12508 2023-05-15T14:22:45+02:00 The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic Chen, Angel Lantz, Trevor Charles 2020 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12508 English en eng http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12508 Chen, A. (2018). Ecological Recovery after Fire in the Tundra Plains Ecoregion. Arctic, 71(4), 473-476. DOI:10.14430/arctic4761 Available to the World Wide Web tundra ecology Arctic remote sensing Thesis 2020 ftuvicpubl https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4761 2022-05-19T06:11:23Z Rapid climate change is driving increases in tundra vegetation productivity and altering the frequency and severity of natural disturbances across the Arctic. While tundra vegetation change has been widespread, there is still uncertainty about the influence of fine-scale factors on change and the role of interactions between warming, disturbance, and vegetation change. In my MSc research I investigated how Arctic tundra vegetation is responding to ongoing climate change and more severe tundra fire in the western Canadian Arctic. In the first part of my thesis I measured post-fire soil and vegetation recovery along a burn severity gradient at six fires, which burned in 2012 in the Northwest Territories. My observations suggest that deciduous shrub communities (dominated by Betula glandulosa) are resilient to high severity fire and that severe fire promotes edaphic conditions that favor the persistence of this vegetation type. In the second part of my thesis, I investigated the spatial patterns of trends in tundra vegetation productivity over the past three decades using Random Forests machine learning to analyze Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data derived from Landsat imagery. My Random Forests models of the relationship between Landsat EVI trends and biophysical variables showed that two-thirds of the western Canadian Arctic productivity has increased during the past three decades and that this change is occurring most rapidly in dwarf and upright shrub-dominated regions. Taken together, my research demonstrates that shrub tundra communities are well adapted to severe fire and show increasing productivity in response to warming Arctic temperature. My research also indicates that these relationships can be highly complex at finer scales, where they are mediated by local variations in microclimate, topography, and moisture. Graduate Thesis Arctic Arctic Climate change Northwest Territories Tundra University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace Arctic Northwest Territories ARCTIC 71 4 473 476 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace |
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ftuvicpubl |
language |
English |
topic |
tundra ecology Arctic remote sensing |
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tundra ecology Arctic remote sensing Chen, Angel The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
topic_facet |
tundra ecology Arctic remote sensing |
description |
Rapid climate change is driving increases in tundra vegetation productivity and altering the frequency and severity of natural disturbances across the Arctic. While tundra vegetation change has been widespread, there is still uncertainty about the influence of fine-scale factors on change and the role of interactions between warming, disturbance, and vegetation change. In my MSc research I investigated how Arctic tundra vegetation is responding to ongoing climate change and more severe tundra fire in the western Canadian Arctic. In the first part of my thesis I measured post-fire soil and vegetation recovery along a burn severity gradient at six fires, which burned in 2012 in the Northwest Territories. My observations suggest that deciduous shrub communities (dominated by Betula glandulosa) are resilient to high severity fire and that severe fire promotes edaphic conditions that favor the persistence of this vegetation type. In the second part of my thesis, I investigated the spatial patterns of trends in tundra vegetation productivity over the past three decades using Random Forests machine learning to analyze Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data derived from Landsat imagery. My Random Forests models of the relationship between Landsat EVI trends and biophysical variables showed that two-thirds of the western Canadian Arctic productivity has increased during the past three decades and that this change is occurring most rapidly in dwarf and upright shrub-dominated regions. Taken together, my research demonstrates that shrub tundra communities are well adapted to severe fire and show increasing productivity in response to warming Arctic temperature. My research also indicates that these relationships can be highly complex at finer scales, where they are mediated by local variations in microclimate, topography, and moisture. Graduate |
author2 |
Lantz, Trevor Charles |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Chen, Angel |
author_facet |
Chen, Angel |
author_sort |
Chen, Angel |
title |
The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
title_short |
The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
title_full |
The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western Canadian Arctic |
title_sort |
effects of climate change and fire on tundra vegetation change in the western canadian arctic |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12508 |
geographic |
Arctic Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Northwest Territories |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Northwest Territories Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Northwest Territories Tundra |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12508 Chen, A. (2018). Ecological Recovery after Fire in the Tundra Plains Ecoregion. Arctic, 71(4), 473-476. DOI:10.14430/arctic4761 |
op_rights |
Available to the World Wide Web |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4761 |
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ARCTIC |
container_volume |
71 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
473 |
op_container_end_page |
476 |
_version_ |
1766295284979073024 |