American researchers studying climate change and vegetation suggest that massive change is coming to the arctic.
The researchera are from the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and also include scientists from AT&T Labs, Woods Hole Research Centre, and the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University,
The study used statistical data of the connection between vegetation and climate, and points out that as vegetation moves north due to a warming climate, it will create further feedbacks.
The report concludes that by 2050 vast changes will occur in the types and distribution of vegetation, included an increase in trees and woody shrubs by as much as 52%.
Purple indicates current range of shrubs. (Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation)
The report just published in the authoritative journal Nature Climate Change, says that this extensive change in the landscape will cause greater warming feedback than previously predicted and have major implications for the climate, along with wildlife, and ecosystem services.
Green shows predicted arrival and extensive future distribution of trees. Note that shrubbery and other grasses and ground cover have also moved much further north by 2050. (Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation)
A earlier March edition of Nature Climate Change featured a report from 21 scientists in seven countries which came to the same findings. They used satellite data from the past 30 years which showed that in that brief time frame , ice cover had diminished and vegetation found much further south, had already moved northward into the Arctic above 60th parallel
Richard Pearson of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation is the lead author of this latest study. He points out that, “widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem”.
(mm with files from Nature Climate Change, Nunatsiaq News)
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