TY - JOUR
T1 - Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013
AU - Westergaard-Nielsen, Andreas
AU - Lund, Magnus
AU - Pedersen, Stine Højlund
AU - Schmidt, Niels Martin
AU - Klosterman, Stephen
AU - Abermann, Jakob
AU - Hansen, Birger
N1 - CENPERMOA[2017]
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Climate-induced changes in vegetation phenology at northern latitudes are still poorly understood. Continued monitoring and research are therefore needed to improve the understanding of abiotic drivers. Here we used 14 years of time lapse imagery and climate data from high-Arctic Northeast Greenland to assess the seasonal response of a dwarf shrub heath, grassland, and fen, to inter-annual variation in snow-cover, soil moisture, and air and soil temperatures. A late snow melt and start of growing season is counterbalanced by a fast greenup and a tendency to higher peak greenness values. Snow water equivalents and soil moisture explained up to 77 % of growing season duration and senescence phase, highlighting that water availability is a prominent driver in the heath site, rather than temperatures. We found a significant advance in the start of spring by 10 days and in the end of fall by 11 days, resulting in an unchanged growing season length. Vegetation greenness, derived from the imagery, was correlated to primary productivity, showing that the imagery holds valuable information on vegetation productivity.
AB - Climate-induced changes in vegetation phenology at northern latitudes are still poorly understood. Continued monitoring and research are therefore needed to improve the understanding of abiotic drivers. Here we used 14 years of time lapse imagery and climate data from high-Arctic Northeast Greenland to assess the seasonal response of a dwarf shrub heath, grassland, and fen, to inter-annual variation in snow-cover, soil moisture, and air and soil temperatures. A late snow melt and start of growing season is counterbalanced by a fast greenup and a tendency to higher peak greenness values. Snow water equivalents and soil moisture explained up to 77 % of growing season duration and senescence phase, highlighting that water availability is a prominent driver in the heath site, rather than temperatures. We found a significant advance in the start of spring by 10 days and in the end of fall by 11 days, resulting in an unchanged growing season length. Vegetation greenness, derived from the imagery, was correlated to primary productivity, showing that the imagery holds valuable information on vegetation productivity.
KW - High-Arctic
KW - Photography
KW - Primary productivity
KW - Time lapse
KW - Vegetation phenology
U2 - 10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8
DO - 10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 28116683
AN - SCOPUS:85010380084
SN - 0044-7447
VL - 46
SP - 39
EP - 52
JO - Ambio
JF - Ambio
IS - Suppl. 1
ER -