Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013

Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen; Magnus Lund; Stine Højlund Pedersen; Niels Martin Schmidt; Stephen Klosterman; Jakob Abermann; Birger Hansen

doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8

Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013

Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen^*, Magnus Lund, Stine Højlund Pedersen, Niels Martin Schmidt, Stephen Klosterman, Jakob Abermann, Birger Hansen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geography

29 Citations (Scopus)

85 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Ambio
Volume	46
Issue number	Suppl. 1
Pages (from-to)	39-52
Number of pages	14
ISSN	0044-7447
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8
Publication status	Published - 2017

Keywords

High-Arctic
Photography
Primary productivity
Time lapse
Vegetation phenology

Access to Document

10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8

Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013Final published version, 1.51 MB

Cite this

@article{5290d54a658a47b6993001103cb8fb36,

title = "Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "High-Arctic, Photography, Primary productivity, Time lapse, Vegetation phenology",

author = "Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen and Magnus Lund and Pedersen, {Stine H{\o}jlund} and Schmidt, {Niels Martin} and Stephen Klosterman and Jakob Abermann and Birger Hansen",

note = "CENPERMOA[2017]",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.1007/s13280-016-0864-8",

language = "English",

volume = "46",

pages = "39--52",

journal = "Ambio",

issn = "0044-7447",

publisher = "Springer",

number = "Suppl. 1",

}

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 -

Transitions in high-Arctic vegetation growth patterns and ecosystem productivity tracked with automated cameras from 2000 to 2013

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this