Currently, Goetz and Logan Berner<\/strong>, an assistant research professor in SICCS, are involved in an effort that brings together remote sensing scientists and field ecologists to provide a better understanding of how vegetation is changing throughout the Arctic. Previous studies have reached different conclusions about recent changes in Arctic vegetation productivity, which at least partially offset greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost thaw and fire disturbance. As a result of this work, Goetz and Berner co-authored an article published this week in Nature<\/em> Climate Change<\/em> entitled \u201cComplexity revealed in the greening of the Arctic<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The publication involves 40 co-authors from diverse scientific institutions around the world, including the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford and the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cVegetation productivity is important because it is one of three components of the Arctic system that determine the balance of terrestrial carbon exchange with the atmosphere,\u201d said Goetz. \u201cThe other two are respiration from microbes in the soil as they break down organic matter, which has increased with the thawing of permafrost soils, and wildfire, which rapidly releases tremendous amounts of carbon through the burning of vegetation and soil organic matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Satellite records indicate widespread greening trends across the circumpolar Arctic, but the new paper lays out a research framework to better characterize how changes vary across space and time and among various satellite data sets, as well as how the changes are interpreted and integrated with field measurements.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a number of challenges to inferring decadal-scale trends in vegetation productivity across the Arctic,\u201d Berner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve relied on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites in recent decades, but now other satellite data are increasingly available that enable us to better resolve changes. We\u2019re confident the Arctic is greening, but we want to do a better job incorporating new satellite and drone remote sensing data with field measurements to understand where, why and how vegetation is changing across the Arctic domain.\u201d<\/p>\n Greening indicates systematic increases in the growth of vegetation, which takes up carbon from the atmosphere. However, the researchers also hope to further their understanding of browning events, which indicate declining productivity and have been linked to extreme temperature changes, drought and fire disturbance.<\/p>\n \u201cWildfires in many regions have increased in extent and severity with warming, and there is a growing recognition that fires also will become more frequent and severe in tundra ecosystems,\u201d Goetz said.<\/p>\n Changing vegetation productivity in the Arctic also is important because it influences how wildlife like caribou and moose will persist in the world\u2019s largest wild areas and how the human communities that depend on them for subsistence will be affected.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aim of this research is ultimately to understand how satellites can provide better information on how much carbon is being removed from the atmosphere by Arctic vegetation relative to how much carbon is being released through permafrost thawing and fire. What is mitigating additional warming and what is exacerbating additional warming?\u201d Goetz said. \u201cWe are charting a path forward to improve and advance the research.\u201d<\/p>\n The paper arose from a tundra vegetation dynamics working group supported by the\u00a0Synthesis Centre of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and also was informed by a U.S. National Academy of Sciences workshop that Goetz chaired, entitled \u201cUnderstanding Northern Latitude Vegetation Greening and Browning<\/a>.\u201d Berner and professor Michelle Mack<\/strong> of NAU\u2019s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society<\/a> were among the presenters.\u00a0Their participation was supported by the\u00a0NASA ABoVE program<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"tundra\"](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/tundra-with-permafrost-thaw-slump-small-1-300x199.jpg\")
<\/a>
![\"Northern](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-300x213.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n